Exclusive: SaaS startup EPaathSala raises pre-Series A funding

EPaathSala, run by Bengaluru-based Kahan Technologies Pvt. Ltd, has raised an undisclosed amount in its pre-Series A round of investment led by Hyderabad Angels, the software-as-a-service provider's founder told Techcircle.

TLabs, the startup incubator run by Times Internet Ltd, also participated in this round, Suman Nandy said.

EPaathSala provides cloud-based solutions for accreditations such as NAAC, NBA, ACBSP, AACSB, AQSA and QAA, and compliance management to higher education institutions.

The startup claims to have helped over 500 colleges till date. With the new capital, the company will be expanding operations to the US, Europe and Southeast Asia. It already offers its services in Australia and the UK.

"The new funding will help us expand our global presence and reach out to a wider number of educational institutions. We are also planning to deliver solutions or over 300 accreditations," said Nandy. Nandy was previously with consulting firm Ernst & Young in the US, and worked in the accreditation industry for some time.

EPaathSala says its revamped software has a user-friendly interface to make the accreditation process hassle free. In its new version, the platform wll also be incorporating admission modules and new university patterns. The firm has a 40-member team at present.

"We provide software solutions from admissions to placements," he added.

P Sreekanth, director at Hyderabad Angels, said the network was looking at investing in this segment for a while now. "We feel that in Suman and his team, we found the right mix of knowledge and passion to scale globally," Sreekanth said.

Last week, Hyderabad Angels invested in data anaytics startup Realbox. The angel network has also invested in food delivery startup Twigly, marketing automation platform Betaout, and IT startup BlackBox.

Anirudh Damani, director at Artha Venture Partners, said that B2B is a tough space for investors in India and that B2B businesses take a long time in raising follow-on rounds, so investors can face liquidity issues. "The education sector has long and seasonal sales cycles so a startup should plan its burn accordingly," Damani said.

In the education sector, Stoodnt, an educational-technology firm which facilitates interactions between students and admission counsellors or educational institutions, last month raised $300,000 (Rs 2 crore) in a seed funding round led by Google India managing director Rajan Anandan.

Another startup is Prozo.com, an online marketplace for buying and selling study material, which raised its pre-Series A round of funding from a London-based venture capital firm and two affluent individuals.

Prior to that, ed-tech platform Unacademy raised Rs 6.7 crore from a clutch of investors including Flipkart co-founders Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, while Oliveboard has raised funding from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.