SAIF Partners-backed edtech startup Toppr raises debt fund from Alteria Capital

Edtech startup Toppr has raised Rs 15.5 crore in debt financing round led by venture debt firm Alteria Capital.

Earlier, the Mumbai-based personalised learning app startup had secured Rs 45 crore in its second round of Series-B funding, led by its existing investors SAIF Partners, Helion Ventures and FIL Capital Management. In April 2016, Toppr had raised $10 million in the first part of Series B funding from Fidelity Growth Partners India, SAIF, and Helion.

Founded in 2013 by Zishaan Hayath and Hemanth Goteti, Toppr is a test preparation platform for engineering, medical and secondary schools students. The startup covers exams such as IIT JEE and BITSAT in engineering; NEET, AIIMS, AIPMT, AFMC, MT-CET and EAMCET in medical; and NTSE, NSO, NSTSE, and KVPY, among others.

Hayath is also an angel investor and has invested in Ola, Housing.com, among other startups, and runs an angel investment group called Powai Lake Ventures.

Available on Android and iOS platform, Toppr currently caters to over 3 million registered students in classes 5-12 bracket. Users are charged a fee that ranges from Rs 250 per month to Rs 6,900 for three years.

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Last year, the company acquired EasyPrep, an online entrance exam preparation platform, for an undisclosed amount.

Toppr competes with the likes of Byju’s Learning, Unacademy, Onlinetyari, Meritnation including several others.

Set up by Ajay Hattangadi and Vinod Murli, former executives of Temasek-backed Innoven Capital, Alteria Capital received approval from SEBI to float a Rs 1,000 crore venture debt fund last October. In March, this year, it raised Rs 356 crore in the first round of its maiden Alteria Capital India Fund I.

Last month, Alteria closed second round in Fund I and raised Rs 100 crore from Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI).

The development was first reported by Mint.