Leap Finance Secures $100 Mn Debt Facility

SUMMARY

The debt facility will enable Leap to help more students in their pursuit of international education and become global citizens

HSBC will act as the company’s lending partner in the structured financial arrangement

Apart from Leap Finance, Leap also operates Leap Scholar, Yocket and Geebee to facilitate overseas education aspirants’ in planning their studies

Overseas education startup Leap’s student lending arm Leap Finance has secured a $100 Mn (INR 870.66 Cr) debt facility from HSBC under its ASEAN Growth Fund.

The debt facility will enable Leap to help more students in their pursuit of international education and become global citizens. Besides, it will also allow the startup to expand services further in the US, new university partnerships and strengthen its presence in India.

For the uninitiated, a debt facility is an arrangement that enables a startup to borrow capital for a set period with an agreed schedule for repayment. In this case, HSBC will act as the company’s lending partner in the structured financial arrangement.

Apart from Leap Finance, Leap also operates three other brands, namely Leap Scholar, Yocket and Geebee to facilitate planning out overseas education aspirants’ studies in international regions.

Leap’s offerings include counselling services, visa services, credit for overseas education, and other bespoke financial products as well as solutions. Leap Finance claims to have funded over $250 Mn in education loans, supporting more than 5,000 students in their pursuit of global education.

This debt facility announcement follows Leap’s recent funding of $65 Mn (INR 562.7 Cr) in a mix of primary and secondary deal led by Apis Partners’ funds.

To note, the edtech startup also claimed to have raised over $400 Mn in equity and debt since inception.

As per the company’s last annual results, net loss widened 18.2X to INR 69.1 Cr in the financial year 2021-22 (FY22) from INR 3.8 Cr in previous financial year. Meanwhile, its operating revenue grew 3.7X to INR 23.5 Cr from INR 6.4 Cr in FY21.

The edtech sector broadly has been seeing a snail-paced growth, in terms of gaining investor confidence. Investments in the sector improved to $568 Mn across 29 deals from $283 Mn through 47 deals, based on Inc42’s Indian Tech Startup Funding Report, which was evidently driven by growth and late-stage deals as well as large ticket sizes became the driving trend in edtech in 2024, spearheaded by Physics Wallah’s $210 Mn raise.