Skillmatics in talks to raise around $75 million from Premji Invest, ChrysCapital and A91 Partners

Skillmatics in talks to raise around $75 million from Premji Invest, ChrysCapital and A91 Partners

Skillmatics, a startup that makes educational games and toys for children, is in advanced stages of raising around Rs 600-700 crore ($60-75 million) in a fresh round of funding, five people aware of the developments told Moneycontrol.

Premji Invest, ChrysCapital and A91 Partners are among the investors in talks to participate in the round, the people added.

Skillmatics is being valued at around Rs 3,800-4,000 crore ($400-420 million) as part of the ongoing negotiations, according to sources.

Of the total fundraise, around Rs 175-200 crore ($18-20 million) will come in as primary capital, which will go directly into the company, while the remaining Rs 400-500 crore ($42-52 million) will be through secondary share sales, allowing some early investors to partially exit, one of the people cited above said.

The company plans to use the fresh capital to enter new segments and launch new products, including pretend play and plastic toys, the person added. The secondary component, meanwhile, will provide partial exits to some of the company’s early backers.

Peak XV to sell around Rs 400 crore

A bulk of the secondary sale is likely to come from Peak XV Partners, which holds a stake currently valued at around Rs 1,000 crore, or roughly for 25 percent of the company, against Skillmatics’ overall valuation of around Rs 4,000 crore, a second source aware of the developments said.

“While Peak will alone sell around Rs 400 crore worth of shares in Skillmatics, early investors, largely angels, will sell the remaining to stitch the round together,” the second source said.

Peak XV is expected to retain the rest of its stake, likely to be valued at around Rs 600 crore.

This will be the latest monetisation by Peak XV Partners, which has taken hundreds of millions of dollars off the table through secondary share sales in new-age Indian companies as it returns capital to its fund sponsors and continues to generate strong returns on its investments.

Negotiations are still underway and the contours of the deal could change slightly as discussions progress.

Skillmatics, Premji Invest, ChrysCapital, A91 Partners and Peak XV Partners did not reply to Moneycontrol’s queries.

Among the larger consumer fundraises

If completed, the transaction will be among the latest investments in the consumer and direct-to-consumer (D2C) space to attract institutional investor interest. Venture capital firms across the board are in talks to invest in at least 18 consumer startups, Moneycontrol has exclusively reported over the past few months.

The Skillmatics round would also rank among the larger fundraises in the consumer space and among the sizeable recent transactions alongside Sarvam, Emergent, River, Navi and Pixxel, among others, as exclusively reported by Moneycontrol.

The Rs 600-700 crore fundraise will be Skillmatics’ largest since the company was founded a decade ago.

It will also be the company’s first fundraise in more than four years. Skillmatics last raised $16 million in 2022 at a valuation of $128 million, when its consolidated revenue was around Rs 90-100 crore.

Since then, the company has grown its top line eight-fold. The Mumbai-based firm ended FY26 with sales of around Rs 660 crore and is on track to end FY27 with sales of around Rs 880 crore, according to regulatory filings and sources.

Skillmatics has remained profitable, with margins of around 5-7 percent. The US is its biggest market, accounting for around 60 percent of revenue, followed by the UK and India.

Together, the three markets account for nearly 90-95 percent of Skillmatics’ consolidated revenue.

The Skillmatics deal is part of a broader revival in funding conversations around India’s consumer startup ecosystem. Moneycontrol has been reporting on a growing pipeline of consumer companies in talks to raise fresh capital, as investors return to the segment but with a greater focus on scale, profitability and valuation discipline. Increasingly, these transactions are also being structured with a mix of primary capital and secondary sales, allowing companies to fund their next phase of growth while giving early investors an opportunity to partially cash out.

Consumer deals in the works currently as reported by Moneycontrol

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