[Funding alert] Edtech startup CollegeDekho raises $8 M in Series B funding from GirnarSoft, Man Capital, others

Gurugram-based education technology startup CollegeDekho.com has raised $8 million in its Series B funding led by existing investors GirnarSoft, London based Man Capital, and others. Both the investors had also led a $2 million Series A round in CollegeDekho in 2018.

In 2016, it had secured $2 million in pre-Series A funding from Man Capital, and $1 million in seed funding from GirnarSoft in 2015. With this latest round of Series B funding, CollegeDekho's total funds raised stands at $13 million.

The company plans to use the latest round for expansion, research, product development, and technology enhancement.

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Speaking on the development, Ruchir Arora, Co-Founder & CEO, CollegeDekho.com said,

“The company has grown by 100 percent every year for the last three years and we keep focussing on accelerating this growth. With our reach expanding nationally and internationally, we are excited to put the company on a rapid growth trajectory."

Founded by Ruchir Arora, Saurabh Jain, Rohit Saha, and Rajiv Singh, CollegeDekho provides a platform that facilitates interaction between students and colleges. It provides information about colleges, courses, careers, entrance exam details, admission notifications, changes in exam pattern, scholarships and all related topics.

Launched in 2015, the company supports students in selecting relevant career study options based on their strengths and guides them through the self-discovery and college selection process. It is now guiding students not only to study in India but abroad as well.

CollegeDekho said that it has a hybrid presence, with on-ground cafes in four major cities: Patna, Ranchi, Lucknow & Guwahati. This is now being expanded to 11 cafes across cities of Delhi, Gurugram, Noida, Pune, Mumbai, etc.

Since 2016, CollegeDekho has delivered in excess of 12,000 admissions worth Rs 900 crore plus. From having just 10 colleges when they started in 2015, CollegeDekho now works with more than 400 colleges and universities and 300,000 students.

Today, CollegeDekho has more than 36000+ colleges in its database and has guided more than 1.2 million students across India.

Commenting on the investment, Amit Jain, Founder GirnarSoft said,

“Guided counselling services is scarce in India and only 2-3 percent students have access to this data currently. We are certain that as the education sector continues to grow rapidly, CollegeDekho will play an important part in bridging this gap and shaping the future of students in our country.”

In March this year, Bengaluru-based edtech startup BYJU's secured Rs 214 crore funding from existing investors New York-headquartered equity firm General Atlantic and Chinese conglomerate Tencent, at over $5 billion valuation.

Some other notable players in the edtech segment include Unacademy, UpGrad, Toppr, DoubtNut, Simplilearn, Eupheus Learning and Meritnation, among others. Last month, DoubtNut also attracted an investment of $3.3 million in the round led by Surge, an early-stage startup accelerator program by Sequoia India, with participation from existing investors WaterBridge Ventures & Omidyar Network India and new investor, AET, Japan.

The education market in India was valued at $100 billion in 2018 and is expected to nearly double to $180 billion by 2020.

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