India-Bengaluru based digital non banking start-up, Eduvanz announced on 13th August, 2020, that it has secured USD 5M in series A funding round. The investment was led by Sequoia Capital and existing investor Unitus Ventures.
As claimed by the 4-year old company, the investment will be deployed to develop Artificial Intelligence (AI) based risk management and easier collections to help borrowers in their lending journey. They also claim to expand their reach to tier 2 and tier 3 cities of India and expand their credit product range.
Principal at Sequoia Capital India LLP, Ashish Agrawal said, “There is a large unmet credit need for education in India. Eduvanz is catering to this by building a differentiated lending business with exceptional credit quality. Their future employability-based underwriting approach will make education and upskilling more accessible to accelerate a diverse range of careers.”
About the company
Eduvanz provides loans to students for upskilling as well as paying school fee and leverages parameters like social media scores, education scores. They take parents or guardians of students as guarantors to follow underwriting process.
Their product range also includes credit for self employed or salaried individuals who are looking to upskill themselves. The K-12 segment compromises of parents who look for flexible and easy fee payment solutions for coaching, schools and test preparation. These credits are provided in collaboration with educational institutions through a complete digitized end to end platform.
Founder and CEO of Eduvanz, Varun Chopra explained, “Over the next decade, our country will need skilled workforces trained in new technologies and new skills. By 2022, we need 700 million skilled workers. However, only 10% of the total workforce receives any formal skill training. By combining innovative student-centric loan solutions, Eduvanz is enabling higher enrollment for learners across colleges, universities, certification partners, institutes, and schools.”
