Ed-tech platform CollPoll raises Rs 2 Cr from Sprout Angels, others

Education technology startup CollPoll has raised a sum of Rs 2 crore ($306,000) in funding led by seed-stage investor Sprout Angels LLP and others.

Chenraj Jain, Moloy Kumar Bannerjee and Pallab Bandyopadhyay were other investors involved in the funding round, according to a report by VCCircle.

CollPoll is controlled and managed by Butterfly Innovations Pvt. Ltd, which raised about $295,000 last year in a seed round from over a dozen individual investors.

Founded in 2013 by Vellore Institute of Technology alumunus Hemant Sahal, who previsouly worked with Adianta School for Leadership and Innovation, Manipal Global Education Services, and the World Bank.

CollPoll runs a web and mobile-based platform that aims to bring all stakeholders in the education sector at one common place. It serves as an educational institution’s personalized platform for communication between students, faculty and administrators. Manipal University, Hubballi-based KLE Technological University and Sonipat-based OP Jindal Global University are its major clients.

It now joins a long list of ed-tech startups that have raised funding this year. Last month, Vadodara-based ed-tech venture Cerebroz Edutree LLP raised Rs 4.7 crore (about $734,000) in seed funding from Dubai-based high-net-worth individuals.

Leverage EdTech, a startup that helps students apply to colleges, raised a seed round led by Kashyap Deorah and Anand Sankeshwar, managing director at transportation firm VRL Logistics.

In April, Mumbai-based Haygot Education Pvt. Ltd, which runs ed-tech startup Toppr, raised Rs 2.16 crore (around $336,000) in a bridge round. Another startup Cuemath, raised Rs 102 crore in Series B funding from CapitalG and existing investor Sequoia India.

Chennai-based Sprout Angels had invested an undisclosed amount in digital education startup EdSix Brain Lab Pvt. Ltd in June 2015.

In July 2017, India’s leading edtech startup Byju’s had bagged a new round of funding from Chinese internet major Tencent Holdings Limited.

According to a joint report by Google and consultancy firm KPMG, India’s online education industry is expected to grow almost eight times to hit $1.96 billion by 2021, with the number of paid users rising six-fold from 1.6 million now to 9.6 million.