Cloud-based education solutions startup Foradian raises $2M from Fabindia MD William Bissell

Bangalore-based ERP solutions startup Foradian Technologies Pvt Ltd, which provides a cloud-based education solution Fedena, has secured $2 million (Rs 12 crore) in funding from Fabindia's managing director William Bissell. Foradian will use the capital to add more features to Fedena and also to take the product to new markets across the globe.

"This funding will allow us to expand our team, improve the product further and scale up for future growth. It will also give a fillip to our vision of building an ecosystem around Fedena. William will be an invaluable addition to the board as we target to be a billion dollar company by the year 2020," said Unni Koroth, CEO of Foradian.

Foradian was founded in 2009 by Koroth, Abdullah Hisham, Viswajith A, Arvind GS, Abdul Salam and Arun Raveendran. Its product Fedena is a free and open source web application for schools and colleges that manages systems and processes related to students, teachers, employees and courses. The firm claims that more than 40,000 institutions in more than 100 countries are using the product.

"We already have a huge presence in the developing economies in Africa and Asia, and will further expand in these markets. Additionally, we will look to take the product into developed markets such as the US and UK," Koroth noted.

He added that the company is already profitable and it closed the previous financial year with revenues of more than $2 million.

William Bissell has a personal interest in the education sector. He is a patron of The Fabindia School in Rajasthan which is using Fedena.

"Educational institutions are increasingly becoming complex organisations. Fedena is a useful solution that helps integrate all the administrative functions of a school into a single easy-to-use software," said Bissel.

"Fedena also has a unique business model that facilitates usage among elite institutes on the one hand and non-profit organisations, NGOs and government institutions on the other. I see Fedena bringing about a similar revolution in schools and colleges, as Tally has done to the financial world," he added.

(Edited by Joby Puthuparampil Johnson)