SUMMARY
Existing investors DSG Consumer Partners and Blume Ventures led the funding round
Saama Capital founder Ash Lilani and PayU CEO Amrish Rau also invested in this round
LeverageEdu helps students with university admissions
New Delhi-based edtech startup LeverageEdu, on Saturday (December 28), announced that it has raised over $1.5 Mn funding led by its existing investors DSG Consumer Partners and Blume Ventures. Saama Capital founder Ash Lilani and PayU CEO Amrish Rau also participated in this funding round.
With the recently raised funds, the startup will expand its presence in the country. Currently, LeverageEdu has a presence in Delhi, Bangalore and Mumbai and with the funds, it will expand to two new cities in the next quarter. Further, LeverageEdu is also looking to expand its presence in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities. Moreover, it will also utilise the funds to improve the student experience on the platform.
Founded by Akshay Chaturvedi in January 2017, LeverageEdu helps students with university admissions through an artificial intelligence-driven tool, which helps in matching universities and programmes for students.
By offering personalised mentor-led workshops, the startup also helps students in career assessments and building portfolios. It also provides access to pre-program internships and online courses along with scholarship options. Moreover, it also helps students in availing post-admit services such as education loans, connecting to student accommodation providers, among others.
Besides LeverageEdu platform, the startup has recently launched Univalley platform, where it works with universities and other edtech companies for upskilling early-stage working professionals and students. The platform offers various courses designed by partner universities.
Additionally, LeverageEdu also runs a free over-the-top content platform focused on higher education and career guidance. The company claims that the platform has over 31K subscribers, 10Mn+ views, and around one million people accessing the platform every month.
According to DataLabs by Inc42, edtech startups operating in India raised around $700 Mn in 2018, registering an 85% hike compared to the $375 Mn funding raised in 2017. Interestingly, BYJU’s had emerged out as the big gun of edtech startups since the company had received the funding of $230 from the total $375 Mn in 2017. Recently, the company has also announced that the company has finally turned profitable.
Besides Byju’s other startups which are dominating the edtech space include Adda247, Unacademy, CueMath, Toppr, Eduisfun, among others. Recently, Eduisfun has raised $28 Mn (INR 200 Cr) from angel investors such as HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, actor Amitabh Bachchan, Ogilvy’s Piyush Pandey and PwC partner – assurance Russel Parera.
