Teacher accreditation edtech startup Centa raises $1 million

Centa, a teacher accreditation-linked edtech startup, on Thursday said it has raised $1 million from a clutch of 30 angel investors including JP Morgan India chairman Leo Puri, Medanta Group of Hospitals chief Pankaj Sahni, AZB & Partners founding partner Bahram Vakil and ICICI private equity director Nikhil Mohta.

In the past, the company had raised funding from venture capital investors such as Omidyar Network, Discovery Assets, Pi Ventures and 3i Partners.

The profitable venture, founded in 2014, offers certification and upskilling services across a community of 1.5 million teachers globally.


From 2014 to 2019, the company hosted a teacher examination platform in the format of an Olympiad. From 2019 onwards, it began as a full-fledged business of teacher accreditation courses.

The Bengaluru-based startup plans to use fresh capital to build out a ‘teaching-as-a-service’ (TaaS) marketplace model that will provide on-demand teaching services to national and international educational institutions as well as support state and national governments, it said in a statement.

The TaaS platform will connect teachers worldwide who seek both professional growth and supplementary income streams to employers, including edtech companies, schools and governments recruiting, the statement said.

“Right now, testing and training contributes for almost 45% each, while recruiting currently makes up the rest 10%. But in terms of growth, recruiting will become about 40% eventually,” Ramya Venkataraman, founder and chief executive, told ET.

Prior to founding Centa, IIT Delhi and IIM Calcutta alumnus Venkataraman led McKinsey & Company’s education practice. She was with the consulting firm for 15 years.