[Funding Alert] Edtech startup Pariksha secures funds from angel investors

Edtech startup Pariksha has secured funds in an extension of its pre-Series A round of funding, from a group of angel investors.

The funding round has been led by INSEAD Angels, IIT Kanpur Angels, Nikhil Vora and Swati Mehra from Sixth Sense Ventures, Saahil Bhatia from Temasek Holdings India Pvt Ltd, and Sitanshu Shah from Bain & Company.

The round has also seen participation from Gurinder Ratra, Gautam Khanna from Hinduja Hospitals, Ameya Chandavarkar, from FDC, Finovate Capital’s Akshat Birla, Sheetal Birla from Falkonry, Deepa Bhatia from YouGov and existing investor Venture Catalysts.

Pariksha was founded by Karanvir Singh, Utkarsh Bagri, Vikram Shekhawat and Deepak Choudhary in 2015. It is a vernacular test preparation company. The Pune-based firm operates in 11 states, six languages and has 65,000 subscribers.

The company said that 75 million aspirants in India spend $2.3 billion on preparing for vernacular state government job exams every year.

Karanvir Singh said, “We are solving the problem of accessibility for 90% of these 75 million aspirants who do not have access to good test preparation options. Pariksha helps students from Bharat prepare for state government job exams in the language of their choice through VOD and live-streaming classes. This investment will help us in strengthening our product offerings and expanding our reach across the country.”

Akshat Birla from INSEAD Mumbai Angels stated, “This is the first investment of INSEAD Mumbai Angels. The group's thesis is to invest in exceptional founders and high growth startups, preferably founded or backed by INSEAD alumni, but we are very impressed with the Pariksha founders’ vision, market know-how, execution capabilities and the size of the opportunity.”

Saahil Bhatia, Director, Temasek Holdings Advisors India, said, “Bharat is the next growth story and Pariksha is very well positioned to serve millions of mobile-first vernacular Internet users of Bharat.”

Nikhil Vora, CEO, and Swati Mehra, Partner, Sixth Sense Ventures, added, “We believe the opportunity for online education in Bharat is massive, and businesses which are able to establish trust and engagement in local markets will see an early curve of monetization. As in many sectors, there will be a lag between awareness, adoption, and monetization. However, we believe Pariksha, with its solid team, credible ecosystem tie-ups and focused on-ground execution, has strong potential to lead the vernacular online education space.”