Leverage Edu, an overseas-focused higher education counselling platform run by Leverage EdTech Pvt Ltd, has announced that it has raised $40 million in its Series C round led by Educational Testing Service (ETS), an educational testing and assessment organization. Existing investors, Blume Ventures, DSG Consumer Partners, & Kaizenvest PE have also participated in the round.
With this new fundraising, the Noida-based company plans to strengthen its presence in the US and Australian markets.
According to sources, the funding round includes $25 million in equity and the remaining $15 million as debt. Post this round; the company is likely to be valued at around $150 million, sources added. Including the latest fundraise, Leverage Edu has bagged around $70 million, including debt to date. The firm was valued at around $120 million in its Series B round in March 2022.
Founded in 2017 by Akshay Chaturvedi, Leverage Edu provides full-stack services, including counselling, application-admission support, and financing to students pursuing international education. It assists students from India, Nigeria, Nepal etc. The platform helps students figure out what they should do and where they should be – wherever that be in the world – to realize their full potential. It also helps students navigate & assess their journey thus far, matches them to personalized mentors, counsels them towards their higher education dream with an employability lens, and ensures that everyone punches way above their weight to make dreams come alive and truly be able to level up.
The startup launched the ‘Study Abroad with LeverageEdu’ app last year, with over a million downloads. It has also forayed into loans and foreign remittances. In May, Leverage Edu launched UnivaleyOS, enabling universities to streamline and automate student recruitment processes. In October last year, it introduced a financial services arm, Fly Finance, to disburse education loans and student remittances. It also received an FFMC (full-fledged money changers) license from the Reserve Bank of India.
In September 2021, Leverage Edu raised an undisclosed amount of growth capital from Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Oyo India and Southeast Asia CEO Rohit Kapoor. The firm had also raised $6.5 million in a Series A funding round led by Tomorrow Capital, joined by existing investors Blume Ventures and DSG Consumer Partners, in the same year.
