Ed-tech startup CollegeDekho, owned by Girnarsoft Education Services Pvt. Ltd, has raised $8 million (around Rs 56 crore at current exchange rate) in its Series B round of funding.
The round was led by previous investors Girnarsoft and Man Capital LLP, which is the London-based global investment arm of Mansour Group, an Egyptian conglomerate.
The funds will be used mainly for geographical expansion, product development and upgrading technology.
"The current round of funding demonstrates the confidence investors have in us and in our ability to transform higher education and career decisions by using technology," said Ruchir Arora, co-founder and chief executive, CollegeDekho.
CollegeDekho owns a portal that lets students compare colleges and score cut-offs for admission and more. The website also provides information on admission process, entrance exam, scholarships, and helps students pick careers based on their strengths.
With 36,000 colleges in its database, CollegeDekho also guides students through the admission process and helps them pick career options based on their strengths.
CollegeDekho was co-founded in July 2015 by Arora, an Indian School of Business alumnus who had earlier established HT Campus, which is HT Media's flagship education portal. Other co-founders are Saurabh Jain, Rohit Saha and Rajiv Singh.
"Guided counselling services are scarce in India and only 2-3% of students have access to this data currently. CollegeDekho will play an important part in bridging this gap and shaping the future of students in our country," said Amit Jain, co-founder of Girnarsoft.
Jaipur-headquartered Girnarsoft Education Services Pvt. Ltd, founded in 2007 by siblings Amit and Anurag Jain, is the parent company of several portals including CarBay.com, CarDekho.com, Gaadi.com, Zigwheels.com, BikeDekho.com and PriceDekho.com. The company has also introduced specialised portals like TyreDekho.com and TrucksDekho.com.
With this round, CollegeDekho’s total funds raised stand at $12 million.
In February 2018, CollegeDekho had raised $2 million from players including previous investors Man Capital and Girnarsoft.
Other ed-tech deals
The broader ed-tech sector has received considerable investor interest in recent months.
In March this year, Byju’s raised $31.3 million in a fresh round of funding led by previous investors General Atlantic and Tencent Holdings.
Last December, South African technology conglomerate Naspers led a $540 million (Rs 3,855 crore then) investment round in Byju’s.
In December 2018, Toppr, another well-funded ed-tech startup, raised $35 million (Rs 245 crore then) in a Series C funding round from new and previous investors.