Edvizo, an online marketplace to search, compare and enroll in the best institutes for competitive exam preparation, has raised $150,000 in its angel round from ah! Ventures Angel Platform.
According to the official statement, the proceeds will be deployed for enhancing the technology stack, acquiring more users, strengthening the tech and sales team, and expanding to more cities. The startup is looking to hire more than 650 new employees in the next 6 months.
Founded in 2018 by Ravi Nishant, an IIT alumnus, Edvizo enables institutes to onboard more students through its platform by making them put less effort, time, and money into marketing and branding. Edvizo claims to be working with 3,100 institutes, over 73,500 enrolments, and more than 140,000 registered users on its platform.
Commenting on the new funding, Ravi Nishant, Founder of Edvizo, said,
“Despite all the challenges we faced during the early stages of the pandemic, we’ve defied the odds — relying on great teamwork and staying true to our core value [of] positivity. With this fundraise we are excited about the opportunity to work with the vast network of investors at ah! Ventures. This will further accelerate our overall efforts to achieve our vision.”
Before this, Edvizo was a part of Facebook’s startup programme in 2019 and was the winner of IIT Guwahati’s National Level Startup Competition in 2020. It also received due recognition from the Deputy CM of Karnataka and has received support from the Union Education Minister of India to carry on its initiatives.
Edvizo conducts the biggest national level common entrance exam “NLCEE” to provide scholarships and to generate enrollments for their partnered institutes and that is the only admission test in India whose results are acceptable by thousands of institutes to take admissions. More than 2 lakhs students have already participated in that exam in the last 2 years.
Gaurav Karnik, Venture Partner at ah! Ventures, said,
“The ongoing pandemic has put a big spotlight on the EdTech sector boosting the growth in the same. Edvizo has seen a constant upward trend in the number of student enrolments as well as institute partnerships. The search and compare tools allow the students to make an informed decision, while on the other hand, it additionally helps institutes reduce expenses on marketing and branding making for great partnership. The double targeted approach of Edvizo allows for more revenue streams and scope for growth making this an interesting investment proposition.”
This is ah! Ventures’ 91st investment (in 72 startups), taking its total investment portfolio to INR 235 CR ($31 million) with 11 exits and 18 follow on rounds to date. With 28 investments in 2021 till date, ah! Ventures plans to do 40+ investments this year totaling INR 150+ CR ($20 million).