Tomorrow Capital leads Series A funding in Leverage Edu

Leverage EdTech Pvt. Ltd, which operates university admissions-focused startup Leverage Edu, on Thursday said it has raised Rs 47 crore ($6.5 million) as part of its Series A funding round.

The funding was led by Tomorrow Capital which alone brought in Rs 26.5 crore, said Leverage Edu in a statement.

The remaining capital was pooled in by existing investors Blume Ventures and DSG Consumer Partners, it added.

Akshay Chaturvedi, founder and CEO, Leverage Edu, said that the company will use the funds for expansion in newer markets, product innovation and to deepen its student-first approach.

The New Delhi-based startup began operations in 2017 as an education mentorship marketplace before becoming a full-stack university admissions adviser. 

It says it has two main parts of its business now. First, its platform OneView helps students select the right programme and apply to universities and colleges across the world. It also helps them with services like education loan and accomodation. 

Second, its SaaS-enabled Univalley.com helps universities find talent for their programmes.

In January last year, Leverage Edu raised $1.5 million in a funding round from existing investors, co-led by DSG Consumer Partners and Blume Ventures.

In January 2019, the startup raised over $1 million in its pre-Series A round, which was also led by DSG Consumer and Blume Ventures. 

Prior to that, it raised an undisclosed amount of money in seed funding from a clutch of investors, including serial entrepreneur Kashyap Deorah and Flexiloans.com co-founder Deepak Jain.

The broader edtech category has attracted a lot of attention over the last few years, more so last year during the pandemic that forced schools, colleges and universities to shut down.

Last year, Unacademy raised a big funding round led by SoftBank, which catapulted the startup to the famed unicorn club. 

Last year, Byju’s, Vedantu, Toppr and Eruditus also received big cheques from investors.

Funding in edtech startups has continued into the new year as well.

In January, Unacademy announced that its existing investors purchased shares worth $50 million (Rs 366 crore).

BeyondSkool, a live online upskilling academy for kids, raised $2 million in seed funding from Tomorrow Capital.

Also last month, Kyt Technologies Pvt Ltd, which operates a platform focused on extracurricular learning for children, raised $5 million led by Alpha Wave Incubation.