E-learning and video tutorial portal CAKART secures funding from Sunil Maheshwari, others

Bangalore-based Suphalaam Technologies Pvt Ltd, which owns and operates online education marketplace CAKART.in, has raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Sunil Maheshwari and other unnamed investors.

The firm will use the money for geographical expansion and to scale up its education products, as per a press statement.

"We had been bootstrapping so far. With the funding received we want to invest in scaling up the team and spending more on brand creation. This will also help us sustain our growth momentum until we raise more funds from an institutional investor," said Puru Mishra, co-founder of CAKART.

The startup was founded by IIT Mumbai alumnus Puru Mishra and NIT gold medalists Sunil Javaji and Arun Kumar.

Established in 2009, CAKART is an online education marketplace that deals with commerce stream courses. It assists students preparing for various finance exams such as chartered accountancy, company secretary, cost and management accountancy and others.

The company works with over 50 faculty members and over 1000 listed products, the statement said. Over 180000 students are currently signed up with the company. It claims that its sales has grown 20 times in the last 18 months. While majority of the company revenues come 150 cities in India, CAKART also has sales from countries such as Nepal, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.

"We see a very healthy business model. The target market is very large, considering that what they are doing for commerce stream can be replicated across multiple other education segments in the future," said Maheshwari.

Maheshwari was the co-founder and CEO of Mango Technologies, whose flagship product for low-to mid-end mobile phones were acquired by US-based Qualcomm Inc in a multi-million-dollar deal five years ago. As per his LinkedIn page, Maheshwari is also the co-founder of Triumb Tech, a mobile games firm.

CAKART competes with the likes of  SuperProfs, Meritnation and others for a slice of the expanding Indian e-learning market, which Ken Research estimates will grow at a compounded annual rate of 18 per cent to touch $1.29 billion (Rs 7,869 crore) by fiscal 2018.

Recently, Info Edge (India) Ltd, which runs a slew of internet properties such as Naukri, 99acres, Jeevansathi and Shiksha among others invested an additional Rs 25 crore ($4 million) in Applect Learning Systems Pvt Ltd, which operates the online education and assessment venture Meritnation.