Ed-tech startup OnlineTyari raises $3 mn

Multi-lingual test preparation startup OnlineTyari has raised $3 million (Rs 20 crore) in its Series A round of funding from Michael and Susan Dell Foundation (MSDF) and other investors.

MSDF led the round with Rs 15 crore, according to a press statement. Others who participated in this round include TV Mohandas Pai-backed 3One4 Capital, Contrarian Capital, Tracxn Labs and existing investors Vikram Chachra of Eight Capital, Globevestor, Advantedge, and Ixigo co-founders Aloke Bajpai and Rajnish Kumar.

"Having proven product-market fit for this highly-engaged adoption segment, the company can now go deeper to become an intelligent platform for the best quality multi-lingual educational content in the country," said Mohandas Pai, on the investment.

The funds will be used for expanding operations across all languages by 2017-end and strategic acquisitions across technology and education domains. The company expects to break even in 15 months' time.

OnlineTyari, run by Next Door Learning Solutions Pvt. Ltd, offers a suite of solutions including entrance tests for public-sector units, government jobs and higher education institutes. The company claims to have nearly 3.5 million downloads with 400,000 daily active users.

OnlineTyari was founded in 2014 by IIT Kanpur alumni Vipin Agarwal and Bhola Ram Meena. Prior to starting OnlineTyari, Agarwal founded enMarkit.com, a customer intelligence platform to assist e-commerce companies. He was associated with Kotak Private Equity and Nexus Venture Partners before becoming an entrepreneur. Earlier, Meena launched GetMeCab, one of the first three taxi hailing apps in India.

"The market for government and public sector entrance exams is huge with more than 20 million aspirants every year. These exams are very different from top-end engineering college entrance exams, and we have customized our solution for this large, yet unique target segment," said Meena.

In the same segment, Bengaluru-based online test preparation startup TopRankers has raised Rs 4.5 crore ($670,000) in angel funding from CareerNet Consulting Pvt. Ltd and Ideation Initiative Pvt. Ltd. in September.

In March, Testbook.com, an online test preparation platform for competitive exams, raised an undisclosed amount in funding from education content provider S Chand & Co Pvt. Ltd.