Furtados School of Music (FSM) raises another round of funding of INR 20crled by IAN Fund

by Suman Gupta

The funding round also saw participation from DSG Consumer Partners

Mumbai: November, 2019: Furtados School of Music (FSM), one of the pioneering music institutions in the country secured INR 20CR Funding from IAN Fund and DSG Consumer Partners. This round of funding will help FSM, to further expand their presence across major cities in the country and also enhance their offering aimed to make quality music education accessible to children and individuals.

Speaking on this strategic move Tanuja Gomes, Co–CEO &Co–Founder, Furtados School of Music said, “We began FSM with the aim to make quality music education accessible to every individual – young and old. Since inception we have meticulously built our proposition to scale, today we are imparting music to over 60,000 students, across14 cities which include tier 1,2 and 3. We are now looking to expand our business and reach a student base of over 500,000. We are also looking at enhancing our offering, with a slew of initiatives in the pipeline, which will drive our next phase of growth, over the next decade.”

Adding to it, Dharini Upadhyaya, Co–CEO and Co–Founder, Furtados School of Music said, “We are one of the pioneers to introduce quality music education in the country and FSM has proudly been the catalyst for enhancing the adoption of music into the schools and households of India. At the center of everything is cutting edge technology which enables superior customer experience and quality with scale. We aspire to inculcate music as an integral part of school learning like any other subject”

Commenting on the announcement, Padmaja Ruparel, Founding Partner, IAN Fund said, “With increasing aspirations of Indian’s, music education is definitely on the rise. FSM does cater to this aspirational and growing customer providing quality music education and we are extremely excited with Tanuja and Dharini’s ambitious plans for FSM”   

Currently, FSM has a reach of about 200 schools with over 15 centers across 14 cities in the country and they now plan to further strengthen their presence across India. In addition, the funding will also fuel scaling up their technology infrastructure including their app services and support the high rate of growth (40-50% year on year), while also assisting the further expansion and penetration into the market, aimed towards making FSM, an integral part of their overall education. Inspite of the aggressive growth, FSM continues to be operationally profitable.

FSM Education Pvt Ltd (2014), has been promoting quality music education since its inception, co founded by two enterprising corporate stalwarts, Ms. Tanuja Gomes and Ms.Dharini Upadhyaya. With their omnichannel distribution model, FSM has a unique proposition which includes, pre-school content curriculum Music is Fun, Music programmes as part of the curriculum in all leading k12 schools, after school learning at centers and enabling home tuitions through their mobile app High. The FSM buddy, home learning software enables all students across their various channels to practice and improve their skills. FSM, draws its legacy from 154-year-old musical instrument retail chain Furtados, the largest retailers of musical instruments in the country.

About Furtados School of Music: Furtados School of Music (FSM), today is becoming a name synonymous with music education in the country. With the vision to take music accessible to every music aspirant in the country Furtados and Furtados School of Music have now embarked on an ambitious retail dream of bringing quality and organized music learning to the doorstep of every music aspirant.

FSM has grown not only in terms of school and non-school centers , but also in terms of faculty, infrastructure and the variety of courses taught. FSM faculty consists of highly motivated and passionate teachers drawn from a diverse mix of experienced and young musicians from India and abroad. Apart from being qualified musicians, they are extensively trained to impart an enjoyable and exhilarating music learning experience to students. The roster of instruments and programmes currently include piano, electronic keyboard, guitar, drums, violin and vocals (Western & Hindustani) and is continuously revamped to include demand for new instruments and programmes. Integral to FSM’s success is a world-class curriculum, content for teaching and technology, all uniquely designed by leading educators from across the world to enable scale and quality. Their course combines modern and effective methods of teaching with traditional elements of music learning.

 About IAN Fund: The IAN Fund, an INR 375 crore fund, is a uniquely differentiated seed/early stage Fund which aims to transform India’s entrepreneurial landscape. The fund invests in innovative companies in sectors including healthcare and medical devices, VR, AI, software as a service, marketplaces, fin-tech, big data, artificial intelligence, agritech and hardware. The Fund leverages and builds upon the strengths and success of IAN, the world’s largest angel investor group, to breed and grow innovative companies.

The fund has Institutional investors like SIDBI’s Fund of Funds for Startups, IIFL, Wadhwani Foundation, Yes Bank, Max Group, Gray Matters Capital, Hyundai along with marquee individuals like Kris Gopalakrishnan, Sunil Munjal, Rajan Anandan, Kanwal Rekhi, Vikram Gandhi, Jerry Rao amongst many others.

This is the first in a series of Funds so that over the next 10 years, the IAN Platform would invest Rs 5000 Cr in ~500 companies, making it the single largest platform for early stage investing, enabling companies to raise from Rs 25 lakhs to Rs. 50 crores from a single platform, along with co investors, providing startups funding through the most challenging stages of their growth. The IAN fund plays a critical role, not just in plugging the gap in funding, but also in using its vast network to provide strategic mentorship and market access