Edutech start-up Oliveboard raises funds from IEIF

Bengaluru-based education technology start-up Oliveboard has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from India Educational Investment Fund (IEIF) — an early-stage impact investment fund established by Michael and Susan Dell Foundation.

Founded in 2012 by former Inmobi employees, Satish Kumar and Abhishek Patil, Oliveboard is an online test preparation platform for MBA and job-oriented competitive exams such as SBI PO, IBPS PO and SSC CGL. It currently supports 15 competitive exams and has over 260,000 registered users. The platform has customers from 28 states and over 680 cities and towns across India.

"We are excited about working with IEIF and will continue to use technology to deliver education in newer, more effective ways while still keeping it affordable. The funds will be utilised to increase our marketing efforts, build content and further strengthen our mobile technology," Abhishek Patil, co-founder and chief executive officer of Oliveboard, said in a release on Tuesday.

“With most competitive exams being conducted online, young adults preparing for these exams are increasingly looking at online courses as an alternative to books and institutes. We provide these aspirants with a one-stop place for all learning and practice with their study synchronised across mobile and PC," he added.

According to Vishal Bharat, director of Corporate Business Advisors, the investment manager for IEIF, IEIF is keen to see more young entrepreneurs focused on enabling education solutions to the lower income sections of society, and hence they are working on expanding their mandate to growth opportunities besides seed rounds.