Overseas education company Leap has raised $75 million in its Series D funding round led by Owl Ventures.
The round saw participation from new investors Steadview Capital and Paramark Ventures along with existing investors Jungle Ventures and Sequoia Capital India.
Founded in 2019 by Arnav Kumar and Vaibhav Singh, Leap is a full-stack international student mobility platform that runs an online community of study abroad aspirants with over two million students. The platform offers a suite of products to cover an international student’s lifecycle. These include international test prep like IELTS, TOEFL, SAT, etc., admissions and visa counseling as well as financial offerings like international student loans, international bank accounts, credit cards, and money remittance services.
Commenting on the development, Vaibhav Singh, Co-founder of Leap, said,
“Students love our truly unique one-stop approach to meeting their international education needs. This combined with the overall strong rebound in international student outflows post-covid has led to exponential growth for us. Over the next couple of years, more than five million students are expected to cross an international border to fulfill their global dreams. With the backing of marquee global investors, we continue to march forward on our mission to democratize access to quality global education and make these dreams a reality.”
The company claims to have helped about 60,000 students travel overseas in 2021, and plans to triple the number to 175,000 this year.
Amit Patel, Managing Director, Owl Ventures, said,
“Owl is thrilled to be working with Leap to create a transformative company that will impact generations of students around the world in their pursuit to access and afford high-quality international education opportunities. By simplifying an otherwise overwhelming process and helping students navigate all the steps of counselling, test-prep, and financing, Leap is well-positioned to support the increasing demand to go and study abroad as more countries and companies around the world are becoming further integrated into the global economy.”
Leap raised $55 million in its Series C round in September last year led by Owl Ventures with participation from Harvard Management Company and returning investors Jungle Ventures and Sequoia Capital India. Prior to that, the company had raised $17 million in a Series B round led by Jungle Ventures with participation from Sequoia Capital India and Owl Ventures. With the latest round, the startup has now raised over $150 million in funding since its inception.
Leap has undertaken several new growth initiatives in recent months. In April, the company announced a partnership with Colorado State University, bringing the university’s prestigious MCIS program to Indian students in a unique multi-geography hybrid format, at a much lower cost. Earlier this year, the company expanded its presence into the Middle East, to help students in the region in their study abroad pursuits.
