Excl: Pune-based online financial training provider Profit Shastra in talks to raise angel funding

Pune-based Profit Shastra, a classroom and real-time online financial training provider, is in talks to raise Rs 1 crore (over $164,000) in angel funding, a senior executive of the company informed Techcircle.in.

"We are in talks with angel networks as well as individual investors, a few of whom have shown interest and are ready to put in some money. We are also in talks with people abroad who will be taking up our franchisee. Two international students have already enrolled for our program," said Shashank Shringi, founder of Profit Shastra.

The funds will be utilised for global expansion via franchisee model, improving the digital classroom infrastructure, development of content and other value added financial training modules, as well as for hiring. The firm has two centers, one each in Pune and Mumbai, and plans to open more centres across the country.

Started in 2012 by Shringi, the firm provides classroom and real-time online training for financial courses like CFA exam and financial modeling. An investment analyst himself, Shringi has worked for seven years in the US financial market. During the period, he was associated with BlackRock, NY, USA, and was also a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts.

The company provides students with practical insight into investment banking and investment management, helping them make more-informed career choices. Talking about their USP, it says that it employs easy-to-understand examples of real world situations. The courses include 10 months coaching, mandatory weekly mock tests, and investment club discussion. It also offers its students a teaching assistant available on call to help out with doubt resolution.

"Students are encouraged to connect the dots between different topics areas so that they can apply unifying financial concepts to different finance fields. The course also explores ways that finance professionals- employed across the finance and investment spectrum- make use of different CFA topics to help them succeed in day-to-day and in unprecedented situations," said Shringi.

The company charges Rs 30,000 per student for live classes, and Rs 25,000 for online ones. The firm claims to have trained over 100 students so far, and is also looking at facilitating job assistance program for its students. Currently, 15 per cent of its 60 students are registered for online training. It is looking to more than double this number by 2015.

The company claims to be having been profitable since inception, and is targeting revenues of Rs 35 lakh by 2015. Currently, the firm consists of a team of nine employees. According to Profit Shastra, lack of established players in the financial training space is one of the most important growth drivers for them. It quotes the financial training market at $300 million, while the financial services industry is growing at CAGR of 15 per cent.

Talking about the company's overseas ambitions, Shringi said that markets like India, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Australia present major opportunities.