Leverage Edu raises $1.5 million from DSG Consumer, Blume Ventures

The consulting and career start-up helps students get admission into foreign universities

College admission consulting and careers platform Leverage Edu has raised $1.5 million from investors DSG Consumer Partners and Blume Ventures, the company said on Monday. Saama Capital founder Ash Lilani and PayU India's former chief executive Amrish Rau also participated in their individual capacities.

DSG Consumer and Blume had earlier invested $1.3 million in the two-year old start-up in January this year.

“In a short period Akshay and his team have demonstrated very strong execution capabilities and have positioned Leverage Edu as a leading emergent higher education and career advisory brand. A large part of their success to date is the unrelenting focus on making the student the core of everything that company does,” said Deepak Shahdadpuri, managing director, DSG Consumer.

Leverage was founded in 2017 by Akshay Chaturvedi, an alumnus of Indian School of Business (ISB), who was earlier a senior executive at recruitments portal Babajobs.

Leverage Edu initially began as a higher education mentorship marketplace in US-based Draper University’s 2015 cohort, and formally launched as a company later in January 2017. It is now a full-stack university admission platform.

The platform helps students with college admissions, from assistance in applications and essays to information on scholarship programs. Leverage Edu also helps students with post-admit services through partners for education loans, accommodation and connects with alumni and mentors.

In September, the company launched a new business vertical Univalley.com, which provides advisory, tech and recruitment solutions to partner universities.

Chaturvedi said his site receives a million unique visits every month. It also uses artificial intelligence tools to help students, basis their profile, match with the right career counselors and workshops.

“The scale of the overseas education opportunity set is even more massive than we initially imagined and the pace at which the team has executed has meant that we are happy to see ourselves co-leading a second round with DSG into an early breakout from fund III,” said Karthik Reddy.