Bengaluru: Salman S.H.CollegeDekho.com, run by Girnarsoft Education Services Pvt. Ltd, has received funding of $8 million, the ed-tech startup said on Tuesday. The investors include Girnarsoft and London-based Man Capital LLP.
In April 2016, both the investors had led a $2 million pre-Series A round in CollegeDekho.
The ed-tech startup helps students connect with prospective colleges and courses across India. It also provides information on competitive and entrance exams, besides allowing students to apply for such tests through its website.
Ruchir Arora, chief executive officer, CollegeDekho, said over phone that the company will use the fresh capital to invest in its technology infrastructure, besides expanding to new regions, and for research and development.
“Even today, there are some 1.4 million students that take IIT-JEE entrance exams. And throughout my experience in education, I’m sure that at least 20-30% of them may have wished to be a designer or enter the creative field. Our goal is to intervene here and help guide those 20-30% students," said Arora.
CollegeDekho provides information about courses from over 36,000 educational institutions, he said. It has also tied up with 400 institutions to offer a common application form (CAF) feature, which can be used by students to apply to multiple colleges using a single form.
Arora said cheap mobile data has helped increase traffic on the company’s site by 300-400% annually, in the last two years. Girnarsoft’s capital infusion into CollegeDekho comes at a time when education startups in India have seen an uptick in investor attention, mostly from foreign investors.
Mint had reported on Monday that Eupheus Learning is in advanced talks to raise $10-$15 million for its Series A round. Bengaluru-based Byju’s had raised $540 million in a round led by South African internet giant Naspers. Its valuation currently exceeds over $5 billion.
