EduFund, Filo, others raise funding

EduFund, a higher education planning startup, has raised Rs 2.5 crore (around $343,246) in a pre-seed funding round from a group of investors.

The key investor in this exercise is ViewTrade Holdings Corp, a United States-based holding company that operates a full-service brokerage and technology firm, Ahmedabad-based EduFund said in a statement. 

Other participants in this round include a clutch of angel investors from a private syndicate through AngelList.

EduFund was set up last year by Eela Dubey and Arindam Sengupta. 

It also operates a dashboard that connects parents with education counsellors. 

Filo

Filo, an instant tutor platform that focuses on clearing student doubts, has raised $260,000 (around Rs 1.89 crore) in a pre-seed round of funding from early-stage venture firm Better Capital.

Operated by Filo EdTech Inc, the platform was set up in November last year by Imbesat Ahmad and Shadman Anwer, graduates of IIT-Kharagpur and IIT-Delhi, respectively.

The company says students using its platform can access a tutor-on-demand through a video call within one minute. It claims that more than 35,000 students have used its services so far, logging 1.5 million minutes in sessions with tutors.

Filo also provides students with access to tutors who speak in their native languages. 

Other edtech companies that Better Capital has invested in include Skill-Lync, Teachmint, and Virohan.

Decentro

Decentro, a banking-focused application programming interface (API) platform, has raised an undisclosed sum as part of its seed fundraising exercise.

The round in the Bengaluru and Singapore-based startup has been led by FundersClub, with participation from VentureSouq, Locus Ventures, Constellation Capital, and AngelList syndicate Unpopular Ventures.

The company says it raised its first round in May last year, followed by another tranche in October. As part of this seed exercise, it has also raised capital from angel investors in the United States, India, and Southeast Asia. 

The firm has also onboarded Siddharth Dhamija and Shirish Chandrakar to its team of banking and fintech advisers.

Decentro was set up by Rohit Taneja and Pratik Daudkhane. The company says its platform allows customers to launch a product within only a couple of weeks. It has partnered with banks to build banking-as-a-service products.