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Update: Post publishing this news, the company, in a fresh statement said the funding amount is $753K (INR 5 Cr.) not $5 Mn.
Before:
Gurgaon-based, multilingual test preparation app OnlineTyari has secured $5 Mn $753K (INR 5 Cr.) in an angel round of funding from VC investors 500 Startups and Tandem Capital and angel investors, TV Mohandas Pai, Vikram Chachra of Eight Capital and Aloke Bajpai of Ixigo.
The startup plans to use the funds to strengthen its technology and expansion.
Started in 2014 by IIT and IIM alumnus Udai Meena, OnlineTyari is a mobile only platform offering students with test preparation materials for some of India’s toughest entrance exams including Civil Services, Banking Services, UPSC, GATE and State Government jobs.
In his previous roles, Udai has been part of Hindi learning and reference website, HinKhoj.com, as a founding partner. He was also associated with car rental service startup, GetMeCab.com, as its founder and director.
The OnlineTyari platform boasts of more than 75,000 question banks with 20 lakh students using its mobile app, who have taken more than five lakhs test on the platform.
The app is currently available in Hindi and English. The company plans to make the platform available in other languages soon.
How Does It Work?
The test prep platform allows users to buy question banks, online tests, articles and ebooks in Hindi and English. The users can also collate notes to prepare for competitive examinations.
Along with providing its own content the platform aggregates content from a host of test preparation providers like Arihant, Fortune Career, Drishti, MockBank, U Can, Jagran Josh and others.
According to Vipin Agarwal, Co-founder & CEO of OnlineTyari, “The company aims to revolutionise the $20 Bn education services market in India. This is our contribution towards bringing literacy and livelihood to everyone and towards achieving a truly inclusive Digital India Mission.”
The online test prep market is grabbing more eyeballs from investors. Targeting the Indian education market, which is estimated to be pegged at $40 Bn by 2017, investors are betting heavily on it. Just yesterday, test preparation startup MockBank raised $400K seed funding led by Blume Ventures. The market is flooded with other players like Testbook, Toppr, Plancess, Embibe and Oliveboard in the domain.
OnlineTyari differentiates itself from the already prevailing platform by establishing itself as a comprehensive multilingual approach for test prep.
TV Mohandas Pai, Chairman of Manipal Global Education and ex-CFO of Infosys said,
With 300 Mn English-speaking Indians, and double that number with a regional language, the demand for educational content across the language spectrum is tremendous. OnlineTyari is already making a powerful impact with their immediate focus on the over 10 million Indians writing entrance exams for government jobs. With their continued focus on multilingual quality content, they reach every Indian student; and that is a unique and valuable mission.
Providing content in vernacular languages is a must if you are targeting Indian masses. Considering that majority of students hail from tier II and III cities, OnlineTyari focuses on making more content in native languages.
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