QED Investors from Virginia, USA, and Aavishkaar Capital from Mumbai, India, have led the round of investment in Financepeer, a Google-incubated edu-fintech startup
Financepeer had raised a fund of $ 3MN in 2020 during COVID-19 pandemic and created a positive impact in the lives of thousands of students and parents who were affected financially with respect to payment of fees
Financepeer, one of India’s leading edu-fintech startups, has raised USD 31 MN in Series B funding round led by U.S. VC QED Investors and Mumbai-based Aavishkaar Capital. With a vision to make quality education accessible to all, Financepeer plans to utilize the funds to enhance its technology platform and offerings, expand and strengthen its education-institution partnerships, and deepen its reach in rural areas to enable more students, especially the girl students, to get easy access to quality education. This round also saw participation from U.S.-based edu-tech investor Ardent Ventures, DMI Sparkle Fund, DMI, 9Unicorn, LC Nueva AIF and Maxar VC.
Financepeer, one of the fastest-growing edu-fintech startups, has witnessed 10x growth in the last year. The company has partnered with more than 10,000 educational institutions with a Pan-India footprint, to deliver affordable fee financing solutions, Edu-tech content, and fee payment solutions. Founded in 2017 by seasoned alumni from IIT/IIM/Stanford, Rohit Gajbhiye, Sunit Gajbhiye, Naveesh Reddy and Debi Prasad Baral, Financepeer is one of the first players in this space catering to both offline and online education providers including pre-schools, K-12, colleges, universities, offline test prep, ed-tech, and skilling.
Rohit Gajbhiye, CEO, Financepeer, said, “Financepeer has processed more than USD 100 MN of fees on its platform and helped hundreds of thousands of students get quality education. In line with the company's vision for the next phase of growth, it is very important to join hands with sector-specific and the right set of leaders, partners and investors. Our mission is to bring revolution in the education space through neo banking and at the same time create an impact at the bottom of the pyramid, via increasing access to quality education. This mission is further strengthened and eased off with relevant industry stalwarts QED, Aavishkaar and Ardent Ventures joining us."
Sandeep Patil, Partner & Head of Asia, a fintech-focused venture capital firm QED, said, "We are thrilled to back Rohit, Naveesh, Debi, Sunit and the team. FinancePeer's quest to leverage financial technology to deliver on important socio-economic and development objectives is more important today than ever. We were thrilled by the audacity of their vision, the energy, commitment and depth of the team, and the traction they are poised to drive in the marketplace. We can't wait to see what they will achieve next."
Aavishkaar Capital started in 2001 with a vision to invest in socially and environmentally conscious start-upsthat can catalyse development for excluded communities and remote geographies across the globe.
Sushma Kaushik, Partner, Aavishkaar Capital, said, "By investing in Financepeer, we are realizing our dream of building a financial ecosystem that would nurture people’s educational aspirations through technology across the emerging low- and middle-income population. Through our first investment from the new fund, we are excited to partner with Financepeer as they are servicing a large unmet need in the aspiring Indian edtech segment, creating a significant impact in Tier-2 and beyond cities. Also, we have realized that support via finance significantly improves access to education, especially for girl students wanting higher education. This has been validated by the large base of girl students in Financepeer’s network."
Phil Bronner, Managing Partner & Co-Founder, Ardent Venture Partners, said, "It is our experience that the right capital and support in the early stage can result in significant value creation. Financepeer is growing quickly and is poised to be a leader in its market. This is our first investment in India, and we are excited about the partnership."
There are over 362 MN students in India, who spend more than USD 216 BN annually on education. Average Indian household spending on education and skilling has seen a significant increase over the last few years. “However, access to credit from formal financial institutions eludes this segment. Financepeer offers innovative digital-enabled financing solutions through institutional partnerships to students seeking credit support for fee payment,” Rohit added.
Education financing is one of the fastest-growing segments as it is a deeply underserved sector that enables the aspirations of learners across India. Due to the inherently high social collateral, the lending book for this segment has been among the best-performing ones, despite macro shocks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ashika Group, a leading diversified financial services group was one of the advisors in this funding round for Financepeer that has ace batsman and Indian Cricket team captain Rohit Sharma as its brand ambassador