Edtech Startup Oliveboard Secures INR 23 Cr From IAN Fund, Education Catalyst Fund

Bengaluru-based edtech startup Oliveboard on Monday (July 12) has raised a Pre-Series A round funding worth INR 23 Cr. The investment round was led by IAN Fund along with participation from Education Catalyst Fund (ECF) and Yukti Securities.

The latest capital infusion will be utilised to expand the number of national-level courses and exams that the startup offers along with addition of state-level categories. The startup also plans to invest in technology for interactive data-driven products.

Founded in 2015 by Abhishek Patil and V Satish Kumar, Oliveboard offers online practice and preparation course materials for government competitive and banking exams. The edtech platform provides live classes, practice tests, live practice sessions, remedial material, and other forms of interactive content to its users. To date, the startup supports over 50 government exams and aims to add more than 100 national and state-level exams courses.

The startup at present boasts of over 8 Mn users based in over 2,500 cities and towns across the country.

Commenting on the investment, Abhishek Patil, cofounder of Oliveboard said, “There is no one-size-fits-all approach. We follow a personalised approach to learning that offers convenience and flexibility to aspirants preparing for government exams. Our key focus area is to provide data-driven personalised coaching to each learner based on their preparation levels for an exam. Given our success in the Banking & Insurance exam category, we are well-positioned to expand our offerings seamlessly into other newer and lesser served exam categories. We are thankful for the faith and support of IAN Fund, ECF, and Yukti Securities.”

IAN Fund’s Sudipta Gautam said, “The market size of the government job entrance exam preparation industry in India is estimated to be nearly INR 400 Bn. Before March 2020, a large portion of this market was dominated by offline coaching institutes and the pandemic has been a catalyst in the adoption of online solutions. This market is bound to grow as the demand for test preparation has been stimulated by the increasing internet penetration in tier-2 and tier-3 cities in the country. We are delighted to see how Edtech startups like Oliveboard are combining their educational expertise with technology and helping thousands of aspirants in their preparation for government jobs.”

Edtech startups have been hogging the limelight particularly from the onset of the pandemic. While other sectors struggled to stay afloat, the edtech sector saw significant growth in terms of users participation as schools and other educational institutions remain closed. The Edtech sector overnight became investors’ dearest as more and more investment poured in. Acquisitions, mergers and funding in the sector became frequent in the late half of 2020. India also produced a second edtech Unicorn as Unacademy raised $150 Mn in a round led by Softbank. According to a report by Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IVCA) and PGA Labs Data, Indian edtech startups received funding worth $2.22 Bn in 2020 as compared to $533 Mn. The report further highlighted that a total of 92 edtech startups raised funding of which 61 players received seed funding.

As per Inc42’s Plus report, the online education market in the country is expected to grow from $247 Mn in 2017 to $1.96 Bn in 2021.