CollegeDekho raises $2 million in pre-Series A round from London-based Man Capital
GirnarSoft’s CollegeDekho.com has raised $2 million in pre-Series A funding from London-based Man Capital. The platform will use the funding for building robust technology, ramping up the team, increasing marketing activities and on-boarding more colleges.
“We launched CollegeDekho with an aim to fundamentally change and improve the journey of college selection process for students. All this has been enabled through our dedicated focus on building a robust service network as well as better unit economics and revenue streams. The latest funding received from Man Capital is a stamp of approval to our approach. It will help us to provide better service offerings,” says Ruchir Arora, Founder and CEO, CollegeDekho.
The online platform lets students compare colleges, select courses, determine cut-offs for their desired courses and access other career-related content. With a database of 22,000 colleges, it connects students to relevant colleges. It claims to provide authentic, comprehensive and unbiased information about colleges before seeking admission.
The startup leverages technology to curate the best results for a candidate. During December last year, it raised $1 million from its parent company GirnarSoft.
Ruchir adds that the company has made considerable progress towards making the technology extremely intuitive and user-focused. One of the popular features in this product is college recommendations that understands the profile of a student and suggests appropriate colleges.
Speaking on the investment, Loutfy Mansour, CEO of Man Capital, says, “India is one of the important startup hubs of the world. We believe that CollegeDekho.com, with its tech-oriented approach and disruptive impact on the country’s higher education landscape, ticked all the right boxes.”
Man Capital is an investment arm of Mansour Group. The CollegeDekho.com funding marks the firm’s first foray in the Indian startup industry.
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.
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During January 2015, 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. During February this year, GirnarSoft-run CarDekho secured a $15-million funding in a round led by Google Capital and existing investors.