byteXL Raises $9 Million Led by Elevar Equity, Existing Investors Join

Hyderabad: byteXL has raised USD 9 million in its latest funding round, led by Elevar Equity, with participation from Kalaari Capital andTheMichael & Susan Dell Foundation. The investment builds on the existing investors’ earlier funding of the company in July 2024, supporting byteXL’s continued work to strengthen pathways from engineering education to employment and reaffirming their conviction in its vision and demonstrated ability to scale industry-aligned tech and AI skilling across India.

Founded by brothers Karun and Sricharan Tadepalli, byteXL works with engineering colleges to bring industry-relevant technology and AI learning into the college experience, giving more students opportunities to build practical skills alongside their degrees and translate their education into strong careers.

The new round of investment marks a significant milestone for the company as it scales its unique hybrid model that helps students build industry-relevant skills alongside their engineering education, priming them to be job-ready from day one. Its B2B learning model works directly with engineering colleges, particularly across Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, to integrate IT and AI-driven skilling along with regular academic curriculum. Rather than treating skilling as an add-on, byteXL embeds industry-aligned curriculum, hands-on learning, technology platforms and trained educators into the student’s learning journey. This approach is creating stronger pathways from education to employment: last year alone, 7,600 byteXL graduates were placed in IT and engineering roles.

Mr. Sandeep Farias, Founder & Managing Partner, Elevar Equity, said, “At Elevar, our investment approach is centered on backing scalable models that accelerate the economic momentum of Entrepreneurial Households (EHs). Quality education and employability are among the highest-priority investments for EHs, particularly across Tier-2 and Tier-3 communities. What stands out to us is byteXL’s institutional integration and clear potential to build a highly scalable, differentiated platform that empowers the next generation of tech talent across non-metro India.”

Mr Gaurav Jain, Head of University Success, India, The Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, said, “For many young people from underserved communities, an engineering degree represents more than a qualification; it represents the possibility of a better economic future through a well-paying job and strong career. That is why byteXL’s work with engineering colleges across India's tier 2 & 3 cities matters to us. These institutions are home to many first-generation college students who see higher education as a pathway to greater opportunity for themselves and their families. byteXL complements that by bringing industry-aligned, hands-on technology and AI learning directly into the college experience, helping students get hired and keep moving forward in their careers. Our continued investment will expand access to more students and help them turn their education into meaningful employment, career progression and greater economic mobility.”

Speaking on the new round of investment in byteXL, Sampath P, Partner, Kalaari Capital, said,“Our second round of investment in byteXL, reflects the conviction we have developed in both the team and the opportunity they are tapping. byteXL’s differentiation lies in its unique model and proprietary technology platform, enabling it to work within the existing college system and make industry-relevant technology education a part of the student’s four-year journey, rather than an additional layer of training. byteXL is able to address a large and underserved requirement by working within the existing engineering education ecosystem and not re-invent the wheel. Our confidence in byteXL also comes from rapid growth in business over the last few years and its ability to achieve profitability.”

Speaking on the development, Karun Tadepalli, Co-Founder & CEO, byteXL, “This fundraise is a strong validation of the growth we have built at byteXL and the confidence our investors have placed in our business and the long-term opportunity. Over the last few years, we have grown from establishing our model with engineering institutions to building a scalable business in the skilling space. The continued backing from our existing investors reflects their confidence in our execution and the strength of the opportunity ahead. As we enter our next phase of growth, our focus will be on expanding our institutional footprint, deepening our technology and AI capabilities, and building byteXL into a larger and more impactful player in India’s technology education ecosystem.”

The company will use the new capital to expand its institutional footprint across India, strengthen its AI and technology-led learning platform, expand its academic and delivery capabilities, and develop new industry-aligned skilling programmes. byteXL plans to grow its presence from 40 institutions to 120 institutions over the next 2 years, while expanding its reach from 2 lakh students to 5 lakh students across 15 states of India.

A significant focus of the investment will be on market expansion, product and technology development, including AI-enabled learning and assessment, student analytics, personalised learning tools and other digital capabilities designed to improve learning outcomes at scale. byteXL will also deepen its academic and institutional partnership teams, enabling it to work with a larger network of colleges and reach more students while maintaining the quality of implementation and learner experience.

byteXL’s latest fundraise, for which LoEstro Advisors acted as the financial advisors, follows its $5.9 million Series A round in July 2024, also led by Kalaari Capital, with participation from the Dell Foundation. The capital was used to expand the team, accelerate product development, introduce new digital tools and technologies, and expand its outreach to colleges and universities across India. The latest round represents a larger bet on the scalability of byteXL’s institutional model and its ability to build a sustainable technology-skilling business that helps more students across India translate their engineering education into meaningful employment.