LeverageEdu, an AI-enabled marketplace designed to help students with their higher education and career growth plans, has raised over $6.5 million funding led by Tomorrow Capital along with existing investors Blume Ventures and DSG Consumer Partners.
The fresh funding round also saw participation from Ash Lilani, Saama Capital founder and Amrish Rau, PayU CEO.
Founder and CEO at Leverage Edu – Akshay Chaturvedi said, “The latest round of funding will be used to accelerate the company’s strategic expansion into newer markets, bring in more product innovation, and deepen our student-first approach with more focus on pedagogy and student-first tools”.
Speaking on the investment, Rohini Prakash, CEO of Tomorrow Capital, stated, “India is one of the largest global suppliers of international students, and yet the biggest brands helping students in their admissions come from destination countries like the USA, Canada and Australia, who don’t understand the unique perspectives and problems that Indian students face. We believe it is inevitable that the next stellar brand in the global cross-border education space will be a home-grown one.”
She further added, “We have a great belief in Akshay as a founder – he has a fantastic roadmap for scaling the business and the passion to build a truly global Indian Edtech brand – and are excited about working with the Leverage Edu team on this journey.”
Akshay also said, “In the fast emerging democratised-opportunities world, one’s destiny is not married to where they were born or where they started, but how big can they dream, and where in the world is their talent going to find most respect. It could be culinary arts in Western Europe, or sports management in Sydney, fashion and luxury in Paris, nutrition in Canada – or anything, wherever there is a perfect fit for what a student growing up is best at!”
“Our immediate goal from here is very clear. We want to focus on a few things and do them really really well. There is also this myth around foreign education being expensive that we’ve now been busting for the last four years. So, 18 months from now, we want to be among the top study abroad companies in India, both by number of students and a roof-hitting NPS – because a happy student is why we are all really motivated everyday to do this,” noted Akshay.
LeverageEdu brings together 2000+ Mentors from around the world today, who hail from global colleges like Stanford, NYU, Oxford, MIT, Yale, Harvard, and wide-varying experience centers like Goldman Sachs, Apple, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Amazon, Facebook, McKinsey & Co., Tesla, and more. The platform offers various courses designed by partner universities.
Arya has been a part of the Content & Research Team at Hrnxt.com. She is a keen observer of economic developments, emerging businesses, people in business and keeps a tab on latest happenings in the business environment.