[Funding] Edtech Leap raises $17 million in round led by Jungle Ventures

Overseas Education Platform Leap has raised $17 million in a Series B round of equity financing. Singapore-based Jungle Ventures led the round. It also saw the participation from Sequoia Capital India and Owl Ventures. This fund comes after Leap recently raised $5.5 million led by Sequoia Capital India. This round takes its total fundraising to $22.5 million.

The company aims to use the fund to expand its product portfolio. It also plans to strengthen its team across technology and business functions. Further, Leap aims to expand geographically and grow its student communities aggressively. The company will also establish global offices for institutional partnerships and other business functions. Talking about the investment, Vaibhav Singh, co-founder, Leap stated, “Our mission is to make global education and careers more accessible to meritorious Indian students. We are unlocking access to financial products and career services which international students are traditionally locked out of. You can think of us as a neobank offering tailored products to the international student community.”

Leap’s community of study abroad aspirants has grown to 500,000+ profiled members with 200,000 monthly active users who exchanged 9 million chat messages last month. The one-year-old startup offers zero collateral, full cost of study, dollar loans to Indian students pursuing international education in the US. Now, it has since expanded the product suite and also expanded to Canada, UK and Australia.

From the investors

Commenting on the announcement, Amit Anand, Founding Partner, Jungle Ventures said, “Leap marks our first investment in the edu-tech space. India is the second-largest market globally for overseas enrolment, and in just a decade overseas higher education annual enrolments from India are up more than 300%. In addition, South East Asian markets such as Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia are also large contributors to overseas education. This presents a huge opportunity in an otherwise fragmented landscape. Leap is addressing this huge opportunity through its end-to-end tech platform and a community-first approach. We are proud to partner with Vaibhav and Arnav in their growth journey as they become the default destination for outbound students pursuing international education.”

“2020 was a tough year for international education with travel restrictions. We are impressed by the resilience of the Leap team during the last year. They have not only served hundreds of students with their financing solutions but have also expanded with Leap Scholar providing counselling to thousands of Indian students looking to study abroad. This vertically integrated strategy has materially strengthened the moats for Leap. We partnered with Leap pre-launch and thrilled to deepen the commitment,” said Ashish Agrawal, Principal, Sequoia Capital India.

Amit Patel, Managing Director of Owl Ventures, said, “There is a clear need for a one-stop, global student mobility platform - right now the value chain is in fragments and a student has to interact with several entities in their study abroad journey. Leap’s solution ties it all together. We are excited to partner with them as they unlock value in this fast-growing segment.”