Mindler, a comprehensive career guidance platform for students and educators, has raised INR 10.75 crore (about $1.4 million) in a pre-series A funding round led by Ecosystem Ventures.
Investment firms Inflection Point Ventures (IPV), nVentures Singapore, and Chennai Angels have also joined in the fundraise.
According to a press statement, the company will utilize the fund to augment its team, geographical expansion, and institutional partnerships and alliances. It also plans to further strengthen its platform with the objective of shaping the entire career guidance ecosystem.
Mindler equips students, counselors, and schools to have a career planning platform that is future-ready and empowers all the concerned stakeholders with state-of-the-art technology, driven by machine learning algorithms and in-depth analytics. The company uses its AI & machine learning-based platform along with expert advice to provide career counseling to students. It also provides assessments and resources to help students understand various career profiles, the kind of opportunities they can pursue, and more.
Founded in 2015 by Prateek Bhargava, the Delhi-based startup aims to empower all stakeholders in the student career decision-making journey. Apart from a comprehensive career guidance platform for students, Mindler also offers a SaaS platform for educators and EdTech partners to create their own career guidance ecosystem.
Commenting on the funding, Founder and CEO of Mindler, Prateek Bhargava said in a statement,
"We are excited to have closed our pre-series A round and extend gratitude to our investors for their support and belief in our vision and work. Despite many challenges, the last 15 months have been phenomenal for us. It has been a landmark year for Mindler especially in terms of collaborations and we are geared towards increasing the same in the next few quarters."
Mindler further plans to accelerate the growth of its alumni pool of over 20,000 certified career coaches across the globe, the statement said.
The startup now has investors from the US, Singapore, the Middle East, and India hence strengthening the company's effort to expand globally.
Abhishek Sanghvi, Co-founder of Ecosystem Ventures, said,
"With 1.2 crore students completing 12th every year, this is a massive problem with no organized player. Mindler is using AI algorithms, psychometric testing and an army of certified counsellors to provide timely guidance to students. With a great team, we believe that Mindler is set to become India's largest venture providing a complete ecosystem to students."
During the pandemic, Mindler also launched a new initiative called the Mindler Scholarship Hunt to create an opportunity for Class XII students from over 1,000 schools from India and the Middle East and it intends to offer scholarships worth Rs 25 crore across leading Indian Universities.
Mindler claims to have seen a 90 percent client retention for its in-school career guidance programme in 2020, alongside witnessing a 400 percent increase for its international certification programme.
In January this year, Mindler raised $1 million in a pre-Series-A round led by Inflection Point Ventures. Taxmann Group and CIIE IIM Ahmedabad have also invested in the startup earlier.
