Online test preparation startup Toppr raises Rs 63 crore from investors

BENGALURU| MUMBAI: Online test preparation startup Toppr has raised 63 crore ($10 million) in a new round of funding led by Fidelity Growth Partners India with participation of existing investors SAIF Partners and Helion Ventures. The two-year-old startup was valued at around 250 crore or $40 million, according to two sources.

The company will use the funds to invest in technology and marketing. The Mumbai-based startup, which acquired Jodhpur-based EasyPrep last month, is also in talks for more acquisitions.

Toppr was founded by IIT Bombay graduates Zishaan Hayath and Hemanth Goteti, who had earlier set up mobile commerce firm ChaupatiBazaar that was acquired by Kishore Biyani’s Future Group in 2010.

“There are several teams working in the education technology space which has not scaled but has a great product. We are in talks for one more such acquisition,” said Hayath.

Toppr has seen the number of students using its platform increase over 10-fold in the last 12 months from 15,000 to 1,70,000. In April, students practiced over 2.5 million questions on Toppr.

Students subscribe to Toppr’s platform, which can also be downloaded as an app on mobile and tablets, where they can practice questions based on topics. Being an adaptive technology platform, Toppr can figure out the weak areas or where a student wastes more time when solving questions.

“India has over 300 million school students. Most of these students will eventually have access to a mobile phone or computer. This presents us a huge opportunity to change how we learn using technology,” said Hayath.

Toppr has been focusing students preparing for IIT JEE and medical entrance exams till date, but now plans to go after the entire K-12 segment increasing its target market. Toppr also plans to increase its team size from 120 right now to 300 people, with new hires primarily coming in technology and content team.

The deal also underlines the rising interest of investors in areas like education technology, where startups like Simplilearn (Mayfield Fund) and Purple Squirrel Eduventures (Matrix Partners) have recently raised funding.

“We have been actively looking at opportunities in consumer tech and are excited to partner with Toppr and its exceptional management team,” said Kabir Narang, MD at Fidelity who has joined the board of Toppr.

Fidelity also has more exposure to the education tech space, as it invested $15 million in education content services firm Mind Shaper Technologies in 2011.