Toprankers Acquires Career Guidance Platform ProBano

SUMMARY

Toprankers is developing a career discovery and experience platform that will enable high school students to explore their passions and make informed career choices

It aims to offer career guidance support to 90% of the Indian K-12 students who don’t opt for engineering or medical science entrance exams

Last year, Toprankers raised $4 Mn as part of its Series A funding round led by Sixth Sense Ventures

Edtech platform Toprankers has acquired career guidance platform ProBano. With this acquisition, Toprankers aims to leverage ProBano’s expertise in offering career guidance services to high school students aged between 13 and 18.

ProBano was founded in 2016 by Aditya Bose. It helps students make well-informed career choices and build up the necessary skills for the same. It claims to have counselled more than 30,000 students across 24 states so far.

With ProBano under its umbrella, Toprankers is developing a career discovery and experience platform that will enable high school students to explore their passions and offer skill-building opportunities across diverse career domains.

Commenting on the acquisition, Gaurav Goel, CEO, and cofounder, Toprankers, said, ”Toprankers is committed to supporting the 90% segment of the Indian K-12 market which doesn’t opt for engineering or medical science entrance exams.” Adding to it, he said, “We will help the next 10 lahks to 1 crore high school students explore different career options, discover their passion, and pursue it.”

Toprankers will integrate ProBano’s CEO Aditya Bose and team into its existing employee base. Also, Toprankers will be harnessing ProBano’s expertise in implementing Career Discovery & Experience Programs (CDEP) with high school students associated with NGOs, CSR Initiatives, and affordable private schools.

Founded in 2014 by Mehbub Hussain along with Goel, Toprankers has been eyeing expansion for some time now. Last year, it raised $4 Mn as part of its Series A funding round led by Sixth Sense Ventures. The investments were meant to be used for strengthening its product line and launching new offerings, in addition to optimising marketing and strengthening its technology platform.

Last month, edtech unicorn LEAD completed the acquisition of education group Pearson’s K-12 learning business in India, which has helped the startup expand its reach to 5 Mn students across the country.

Additionally, another Indian edtech platform PhysicsWallah reportedly acquired UAE-based, K-12 online learning platform Knowledge Planet for an undisclosed sum intending to expand across the Gulf region.