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Gurugram-based CollegeDekho, a platform for college admissions and education services, has raised $26.5 million (Rs 200 Crore) in an ‘ongoing and oversubscribed’ Series B funding round led by Winter Capital Partners, ETS Strategic Capital-the private equity investments arm of ETS (creator of the TOEFL and GRE tests), Calega, and existing investor Man Capital and Rajeev Chaba.

The startup plans to use the funding to further improve its offerings for students and colleges, increase its investment in product and technology, expand internationally, and grow new verticals like Ed-Fin-Tech and student accommodation.

CollegeDekho said that it has already launched zero percent EMI-based education financing and insurance products to enable more and more students to get access to an education of their choice.

Ruchir Arora, Founder and CEO, CollegeDekho, said:

“CollegeDekho is at an exciting phase of growth in its mission to connect students and colleges across geographies. We welcome Winter Capital, ETS, and Calega to the CollegeDekho family, and thank Man Capital and Rajeev Chaba for their continued trust in us. Their global experience and precious insights in edtech shall be invaluable in our growth journey. The tremendous response we are seeing from students, parents, and colleges continues to energise us to build world-class products and services for them. All of this would not have been possible without the passion and commitment of the CollegeDekho family.”

“With this fund raise, we plan to invest in making our products and services even more lovable for our students and colleges, as well as expand into new geographies and business verticals,” he added.

The startup had earlier raised $8 million in May 2019 led by existing investors GirnarSoft, London-based Man Capital, and others. Both the investors had also led a $2 million Series A round in CollegeDekho in 2018.

Anton Farlenkov, Managing Director at Winter Capital Advisors, said,

“We are excited to be making a debut in India with an investment in CollegeDekho – one of the fastest-growing education service providers in India. India has about 52,000 colleges, of which around 66 percent are private educational institutions. We believe that India’s edtech industry is poised to reach $10 billion in size in the next 5-10 years, compared to the current market size of about $2.5 billion. We see this investment as promising and well aligned with our strategy to expand our investment portfolio via dynamic, high-quality assets.”

This Series B funding round has been advised by IBIS Capital, a specialist investment and corporate finance advisory group focused on global media & education and by Cilix Capital, an international investment banking firm that helps companies as well as institutional investors with fundraises and M&A.