Times Internet invests $7 Mn in test preparation platform Gradeup

This year has been remarkable for edtech platforms in India with Byju's getting valuation of over $5 billion, Unacademy raking in $50 million in its Series D round, and Vedantu getting backing from Tiger Global in its $42 million round.

Besides, a dozen edtech startups have also raised funds in the past ten months. Gradeup, a freemium platform for test preparation, will be the next to raise an external round of $7 million from Times Internet.

With this round, Gradeup's total funding will be $10 million. The Noida-based firm is planning to utilise the funds to enhance its tech & product capabilities, scale the academic team to 100 faculties and 200 subject matter experts, and to expand further in tier II, III and IV towns.

Launched by Shobhit Bhatnagar, Vibhu Bhushan and Sanjeev Kumar in 2015, Gradeup helps aspirants prepare for competitive examinations like JEE, NEET, IBPS, SSC, TET, GATE, UPSC, among others.

Gradeup’s flagship product Gradeup Classroom provides live courses which engage students through live classes, interactive quizzes, mock tests, and round the clock mentorship.

For the current fiscal year, Gradeup expects the number of enrolments to touch 60,000 students, and 1,50,000 by the next fiscal year.

With more than 4 million monthly active users (MAU), Gradeup claims to clock 330 million minutes of videos every month by users. As of now, 75% of Gradeup users are using its test series while the rest go for its flagship product - Gradeup classroom.

In terms of unique paid subscribers, the startup has over 2.5 lakh users. The company will be looking to raise more funds to expand its operations and improve technology to rope in more students on the platform.

Times Internet, India’s largest digital products company which owns and operates over 40 properties, has invested in more than 50 startups such as Shuttl, Delhivery, MX Player, Gaana, Haptik, Dineout, MPL and House of God.