ASL Bags $5 Mn To Help Students With Their Overseas Education Journey

Overseas education aggregator startup Adventum Student Living (ASL) has raised $5 Mn in a Pre-Series B funding round led by Ideal Cures founder Suresh Pareek. 

The other investors who participated in the funding round included Vipul Jain, who invested through Baaya International;  Vikas Phadnis, who invested through Auctus Capital Pvt Ltd; and Shreeji Brothers.

The fresh capital will be used for building the brand, expanding its footprint across the globe, hiring talent for technology and data science teams, Adventum said. The startup will further deploy funds to expand its three business entities – UniAcco, UniCreds, and UniScholarz.  

Founded by Amit Singh and Sayantan Biswas, Adventum helps students pursue education abroad. It offers student accommodation, education loans and scholarship programmes to students through UniAcco, UniCreds, and UniScholarz, respectively.  

Adventum claims to be profitable since the first year of its operation while growing at 400% year-on-year (YoY). 

Earlier, Adventum had raised $1 Mn in a seed funding round from Adventum Offshore, an investment and wealth management firm, in 2020. 

Adventum competes with the likes of Leapscholar, Eduvanz, UpGuide and Financepeer in the Indian education sector. 

India’s Education Loan Market 

India is one of the biggest sources of international students along with China. As per a report by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Indian students paid $2.8 Bn as tuition and hostel fees in 2017-18, while education loans taken for studying abroad declined by 25% between 2015 and 2019.

The startups providing education loans have witnessed a slew of fundraising activities in the recent years. In April this year, Mumbai-based edtech startup Financepeer raised about $35 Mn in a Series B funding round led by QED Investors, in participation with Atlanta US and Avishkar Capital. 

Prior to this, Financepeer raised $3 Mn in its Pre-Series A funding round in 2020. The round saw participation from Jaipur-based NBFC MS Fincap, UAE-based conglomerate Danube, Aar Em Ventures, Angelbay Holdings, JITO Angel Network, and HEM Angels.

In 2021, education loan provider Eduvanz raised INR 100 Cr in a Series B round led by JuvoVentures, Sequoia Capital and Unitus Ventures, among others. 

Prior to this, Eduvanz raised $5 Mn in a Series A funding round led by Sequoia’s SCI Investment VI fund. 

Other investors including Trust, Vistra ITCL on behalf of Unitus Seed Fund India II and QED Innovation Labs also participated in the round.