Noida-based Gradeup, an online exam preparation platform for various competitive exams in India, has raised $7 million in Series A financing from Times Internet to expand its business in the country.
The company said it will use the funds to enhance its technology and product capabilities, diversify offerings, and scale its academic team.
Started in 2015 by Shobhit Bhatnagar, Sanjeev Kumar and Vibhu Bhushan, Gradeup helps exam aspirants prepare for various competitive exams, including undergraduate and postgraduate courses and government jobs, which are conducted every year across the country. Its flagship offering Gradeup Classroom provides live courses by faculties from premier institutes across India. Gradeup also provides interactive quizzes and mock tests designed by expert faculty, and mentorship round the clock among others.
Gradeup also offers exam-specific communities that enable users to interact with fellow aspirants and mentors, ask questions, share updates and access free study material. The startup claims to help more than 15 million aspirants prepare for competitive examinations like JEE, NEET, GATE, IBPS, SSC, TET, and UPSC among others, with a daily engagement of 32 minutes per user.
Commenting on the funding and a bit about the company, Shobhit Bhatnagar, co-founder and CEO, Gradeup, said,
“We are investing fresh funds to further build our live online coaching platform, scale our academic team to 100 faculties and 200 subject matter experts and to expand further in Tier II, III, and IV towns. This round of investment from one of the largest influential internet enterprises across India is a glowing endorsement of our will to build the most effective edtech solution in the country. We are the only Indian online exam preparation platform that enables live online coaching complemented with community-based learning, with ‘student success’ at the center of our operational strategy.”
The company plans to enrol 60,000 students to its live courses by the end of this financial year, and more than 1.5 lakh by March 2021.
Excited Gautam Sinha, CEO, Times Internet, also commented saying,
“Gradeup has been able to build the largest online student communities in India, and we are excited to be partners in their mission to improve education in India.
Meanwhile, this is said to be the second raise for Gradeup. With it, the startup has taken its total funds raised to $10 million to date. It is said that Times Internet is the only external investor in the startup, who has also invested $3 million in seed financing round earlier.
