Leverage Edu lets in $22m

India-based higher education counselling service Leverage Edu secured $22m on Monday in a in a series B round featuring personal care brand Vicco, media group Bennet Coleman and Co and pharmaceutical firm Mankind.

Chona Group, NB Ventures, 9Unicorns, Blume Ventures, DSG Consumer Partners, Kaizenvest Private Equity, DSP Mutual Fund Group, Trifecta Ventures, Artha Ventures and Tomorrow Capital also participated in the round, which valued the company at $120m.

The round was filled out by private investors Hemant Gupta, Kunal Shah, Ashish Hemrajani, Haresh Chawla, Peyush Bansal and Farid Ahsan.

Leverage Edu provides a range of services for students looking to pursue higher education and careers abroad, including information, test preparation and financing. It is also planning to launch a financial remittances business, for which it is awaiting a licence.

Tomorrow Capital led the company’s $6.5m series A round, which closed in February 2021 with backing from Blume Ventures and DSG Consumer Partners, the last two having already provided $1.3m in pre-series A funding in 2019. It added an undisclosed amount from various individuals in September 2021.

Akshay Chaturvedi, Leverage Edu’s chief executive, said its revenue grew 12-fold between February 2021 and 2022 to pass $20m in annualised revenue, while it cut its customer acquisition cost by two-thirds due to 20% of its business coming from referrals.

Chaturvedi added: “This market is massive, but needs to be dealt with a lot more caution on all sides. Students have their careers at stake, and at the same time universities are very particular about the quality of students they bring in. It is hence important to balance this out and play full stack on both sides.”