Girnar Soft pumps $1 million into CollegeDekho to further higher education
Software, an IT company working on offshore products and outsourced software development, has invested $1 million in CollegeDekho. The online platform connects colleges and their course listings with interested students, and is in the business of clearing bottlenecks in the college admissions process. CollegeDekho will be using the funds for developing its platform, building its team and marketing.
“Higher education in India is a market segment that requires a fresh approach to overcome incumbent inertia. We liked the idea of a disruptive development that could assist students in making more informed choices,” says Amit Jain, CEO and co-founder, Girnar Software.
He adds that incepted as a medium to connect students to colleges, CollegeDekho will leverage its proprietary and unique technology platform to match student preferences to prospective colleges. Girnar Software’s investment would serve as the seed funding for the venture, with more funds expected to be raised in due course of time.
On funding, Ruchir Arora, CEO and founder, CollegeDekho says, “In India at any point of time there are 30 million students enrolled in 36,000 colleges. Despite being the third-largest higher education market in the world, it is hugely underpenetrated and offers significant growth potential. We have been established to provide a transparent, open platform that facilitates interaction between students and colleges. Through this venture, we aim to provide students with authentic, comprehensive and unbiased information. This will help them evaluate and select a career option best suited to their interests and proficiency.”
Girnar Software is the parent company of many portals such as CarBay.com, CarDekho.com, Gaadi.com, Zigwheels.com, BikeDekho.com, PriceDekho.com and now CollegeDekho.com. The company has also introduced specialised portals like TyreDekho.com and TrucksDekho.com.
In January this year, the group company picked up $50 million from Hillhouse, Tybourne and Sequoia Capital. It also attracted investment from Ratan Tata and a strategic investment from HDFC Bank.