Eduvanz, Mumbai-based NBFC has reportedly raised $5 million in a Series A funding round led by Sequoia India, with participation from its existing investor, Unitus. The company aims to offer convenient and affordable education loans. Eduvanz has planned to deploy the fresh funds towards creating a seamless borrower experience with secure and agile technologies. The company is also aiming to expand to Tier-II and Tier-III cities in India.
Commenting over the utilisation of funds, Eduvanz in a statement said,
“The funds will be utilised towards creating a seamless borrower experience with secure, scalable, innovative, and agile technologies to support the lending cycle. This includes new credit products, AI-based risk management, and easier collections to support borrowers through their lending journey.”
Founded by Varun Chopra and Raheel Shah in 2016 with a core-cognition to support students across the country to choose their dream careers at desired colleges and institutes.
Commenting on the funding round for Eduvanz, Ashish Agrawal, Principal, Sequoia Capital said,
“There is a large unmet credit need for education in India. Eduvanz is catering to this by building a differentiated lending business with exceptional credit quality. Their future employability-based underwriting approach will make education and skilling more accessible to accelerate a diverse range of careers. This will be even more critical in the post-COVID-19 economy which has triggered an urgent need for skilling and reskilling as businesses undergo massive digital transformations needing the workforce to evolve and keep up.”
Eduvanz gives access to loans starting from zero interest in collaboration with educational institutes through a fully-digitized end-to-end platform – from lead on-boarding to loan repayment. Its customers include salaried and self-employed individuals looking to upskill themselves, students looking for skill certifications, and the K-12 segment comprising parents looking for flexible fee payment solutions for schools, coaching, and test preparation.
The company aims to disburse INR 400-500 crore in loans over the next two years. Eduvanz since its inception claims to have enabled over 10,000 borrowers – deploying over INR 150 crore in loans with close to zero percent credit losses. Until now, the company has helped skill-seekers across 240+ cities with 300+ institute partnerships covering 25+ skills industries – the company said in a statement.
Speaking of the development, Varun and Raheel quoted,
“By combining innovative student-centric loan solutions, robust risk-assessment with cutting edge digital lending technology, Eduvanz is enabling higher enrolment for learners across colleges, universities, certification partners, institutes, and schools,”
