byteXL Raises $9M to Expand AI and Tech Skills Across Indian Colleges

byteXL has raised $9 million in a new funding round led by Elevar Equity, with existing investors Kalaari Capital and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation also participating.

The latest investment comes two years after the edtech startup raised $5.9 million in Series A funding from Kalaari Capital and the Dell Foundation in July 2024.

Founded by brothers Karun Tadepalli and Sricharan Tadepalli, byteXL works with engineering colleges across India, with a particular focus on institutions in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

The company aims to help students build technology and AI skills alongside their regular academic education.

Building industry-focused skills inside colleges

Rather than operating only as an online learning platform, byteXL works directly with colleges and integrates its programmes into existing academic environments.

Its model combines industry-aligned curriculum, practical learning, technology platforms and trained educators.

The approach is designed to give engineering students exposure to skills that employers are looking for while they continue their regular college education.

The company currently works with around 40 institutions and reaches approximately 2 lakh students.

According to byteXL, 7,600 of its graduates were placed in IT and engineering roles during the previous year.

AI becomes a bigger part of the platform

The new funding will be used to expand byteXL's institutional network and strengthen its technology platform.

A major focus will be AI-enabled learning and assessment.

The company also plans to develop student analytics and personalised learning tools, alongside new skilling programmes.

These investments could allow byteXL to move beyond simply delivering courses and provide colleges with more technology-driven tools to understand student progress and personalise learning.

Expansion across India

byteXL has ambitious expansion plans following the latest funding.

The company currently reaches around 2 lakh students across 40 institutions.

Over the next two years, it plans to expand to 120 institutions and reach 5 lakh students across 15 states.

The focus on tier 2 and tier 3 engineering colleges gives the company a large potential market as demand for AI and technology skills continues to spread beyond India's biggest education and technology hubs.

For colleges, partnerships with companies such as byteXL can provide access to specialised curriculum, technology platforms and trained educators without requiring institutions to build those capabilities entirely in-house.

Investors back the next stage

Elevar Equity led the latest $9 million round, while Kalaari Capital and the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation continued their backing of the company.

Kalaari and the Dell Foundation had previously invested $5.9 million in byteXL's Series A round in 2024.

The fresh capital gives the company additional resources to expand its college network, invest in AI-driven learning products and develop new programmes for engineering students.

The bigger test now is execution.

byteXL wants to more than double its institutional network from 40 to 120 colleges and increase its student reach from roughly 2 lakh to 5 lakh within two years.

If it can achieve that while maintaining its placement outcomes, the company could become a larger technology-skilling partner for India's engineering colleges.