Pune, 20th April 2020: – Pariksha, a Pune based EdTech startup, has raised an undisclosed amount of Investment in an extension of its pre-Series A round of funding from a clutch of angel investors. The round was led by INSEAD Angels, IIT Kanpur Angels, Nikhil Vora – CEO and Swati Mehra – Partner at Sixth Sense Ventures, Saahil Bhatia – Director Temasek Holdings India Pvt. Ltd, Sitanshu Shah – Principal Bain & Company, Gurinder Ratra, Gautam Khanna – CEO Hinduja Hospitals, Ameya Chandavarkar – Director FDC, Akshat Birla – CEO Finovate Capital, Sheetal Birla – Director Falkonry, Deepa Bhatia – General Manager YouGov and existing investor Venture Catalysts.
Pariksha is India’s largest vernacular test preparation Company, with operations across 11 states, in 6 languages and serves over 2 million users with over 65,000 paid subscribers. Pariksha was founded in 2015 by Karanvir Singh, Utkarsh Bagri, Vikram Shekhawat and Deepak Choudhary.
State Government jobs with the selection rate of less than 1% are the most sought-after jobs in Bharat (beyond the metro cities) and annually 75 million aspirants spend $2.3 billion on preparing for these vernacular state government job exams.
Karanvir Singh, Founder, Pariksha said, “We are solving the problem of accessibility for 90% of these 75M aspirants who do not have access to good test preparation options, Pariksha is a great equalizer, it helps students from Bharat prepare for state government job exams in the language of their choice through VOD, Live Streaming Classes, in the most affordable, convenient and enriched manner.
Pariksha has defied the notion that users from Bharat are any less in adopting education technology. “It feels great to be backed by INSEAD Angels and other marquee investors. This investment will help us in strengthening our product offerings and expanding our reach across the country.” Singh stated.
Akshat Birla from INSEAD Mumbai Angels said, “This is the 1st 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. We are excited to back this great team.”
Saahil Bhatia, Director, Temasek Holdings Advisors India Pvt. Ltd said, “Bharat is the next growth story and Pariksha is very well positioned to serve millions of mobile 1st vernacular Internet users of Bharat.”
Nikhil Vora, CEO and Swati Mehra, Partner at Sixth Sense Ventures remarked, “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 lag between awareness, adoption and monetization. However, we believe Pariksha – with their solid team, credible ecosystem tie-ups and focused on-ground execution – has strong potential to lead the vernacular online education space.”
Sitanshu Shah, Principal at Bain & Company said, “Pariksha is solving a strong and relevant use case, with a product having high stickiness and large social impact potential”
Dr. Apoorv Ranjan Sharma, Co-Founder & President, Venture Catalysts said, “We are very happy with the progress Pariksha has made since our last investment. We back great teams and Pariksha founders have built a very capital efficient, revenue focused and scalable business.”
