Bangalore-headquartered Butterfly Innovations Pvt Ltd, the operator of ed-tech startup CollPoll which runs a communication and collaboration platform for educational institutes, has raised an undisclosed amount of funding in a pre-Series A round.
CollPoll founder and chief executive Hemant Sahal told VCCircle that the round was led by Manipal Global Education Services (MaGE) and a few other individual investors, whose identities were not disclosed.
Sahal said the funds will be used to invest in technology and to expand the startup's offerings of campus-related products and services. CollPoll also plans to expand globally, especially in markets such as South Asia and Africa, Sahal added.
This development comes three months after VCCircle had reported that CollPoll had raised around Rs 2 crore ($306,000 at the time) in funding led by seed-stage investor Sprout Angels LLP.
CollPoll had raised about $295,000 in 2016 in a seed round in which more than a dozen individuals investors participated, according to VCCEdge, the data and research arm of VCCircle.
The startup runs a web- and mobile-based platform that aims to connect all stakeholders in the education sector.
It serves as an educational institution’s personalised platform for communication between students, faculty and administrators. CollPoll's clients include Manipal University, KLE Technological University in Karnataka's Hubballi and OP Jindal Global University in Haryana's Sonepat, among others.
Sahal founded CollPoll in 2013. An alumnus of Vellore Institute of Technology, Sahal earlier worked with Adianta School for Leadership and Innovation, Manipal Global Education Services, and World Bank.
Ed-tech sector
India’s online education industry is expected to grow almost eight times to $1.96 billion by 2021, with the number of paid users rising six-fold to 9.6 million, according to a joint report by search giant Google and consultancy firm KPMG.
Ed-tech startups have been involved in a string of fundraising efforts in recent months.
Last August, Vadodara-headquartered Cerebroz Edutree LLP, which makes a device with customised educational content, had raised Rs 4.7 crore (then $734,000) in seed funding from high networth individuals in Dubai.
The previous month, Bengaluru-based PlayAblo, which makes gamified learning solutions, had raised $600,000 from ABI Showatech (India) Ltd.
In June, Hyderabad-headquartered Edgefx Technologies Pvt. Ltd, which provides do-it-yourself project kits for engineering students, had raised an undisclosed amount in a bridge round from a clutch of investors.