Study abroad platform Leverage Edu has raised $40 million in its Series C funding round led by the Princeton-based global education testing and assessment organisation Educational Testing Service (ETS), sources familiar with the development told CNBC-TV18. Last year, the conglomerate led the $210 million funding in upskilling unicorn upGrad, valuing the startup at around $2.25 billion.
The round also saw participation from existing investors — Blume Ventures, DSG Consumer Partners, and Kaizenvest PE. Post the fresh fundraise, the startup is likely to be valued at $150 million, a 35-40 percent up-round to its $22 million Series B round last year, sources added.
CNBC-TV18 has also learnt from sources that LeverageEdu is ramping up its headcount by almost 5x and will use the fresh capital for hiring 250 people to its already 1000+ employee roster. The company refused to comment on the development.
Founded in 2017, Leverage Edu is estimated to have clocked over Rs 100 crore of revenue in FY23, the sources said. It launched its financial services business Fly Finance for international remittance in October last year, and has also received a full-fledged money changer (FFMC) licence from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
According to the sources, in September 2022, Fly Finance facilitated loans worth Rs 280 crore, having done Rs 135 crore GTV in their forex business. Those numbers stand at Rs 700 crore for loans and Rs 850 crore GTV run-rate for forex currently, the sources added.
LeverageEdu claims to have 120 million organic visitors annually. It’s Study Abroad app, has clocked half-a-million downloads, and grew by 10x over the last one year, garnering 250,000+ members. It competes with edtech startup Leap Scholar, which bagged $75 million funding round last year and UniScholars, which raises $5 million in its Pre-Series B last year.
The fundraise for the edtech platform comes at a time when the Indian startup ecosystem has been going through a massive funding crunch. Funding for Indian edtech companies dropped 46 percent to $2.86 billion in 2022 from $5.32 billion in the previous year. In 2023, it dropped to $889 million, as per reports.
In a tough macro environment, amid the funding winter and mounting losses- with profitability remaining elusive. Many edtechs are shifting their focus on capital efficiency and cost cutting. 19 edtech startups including five of the seven edtech unicorns have laid off more than 10,000 employees since 2022.
Two out of every five layoffs in the Indian startup ecosystem was from an edtech startup. Byju’s laid off more than 5000 employees, Unacademy over 2000, Vedantu over 1100 and so on. The fallout has also seen startups like Lido Learning, Crejo.Fun. Udayy, SuperLearn, shutting operations for good.
