Start-up LeverageEdu gets RBI approval for financial services unit

Company raised $22 million in funding in March earlier this year at a valuation of $120 million

LeverageEdu, the study abroad platform, has got the Reserve Bank of India’s licence for its financial services vertical for student remittances and education loans.

The company said it recorded transactions processed value of Rs 135 crore on foreign exchange, facilitating education loans worth more than Rs 280 crore and it aims to close FY 2023 at $150 million annualised TPV.

“We have been building finance ground-up not as a business but as a student need that can enhance our customer’s experience--first starting with ‘Scholarships’ that became a massive hit, and then formally launching lending and forex this year,” said Akshay Chaturvedi, founder and CEO of LevegareEdu, referring to Fly Finance vertical’s services.

LeverageEdu said it has opened access to a pool of more than $1.6 billion in financial aid to over 100,000 students on its mobile app. It started a Rs 5 crore scholarship from its own corpus last year and extended it to Rs 7 crore this year.

“A solid forex business helps us unlock a lot of what we want to do in the future, as this student graduates, looks for a job, pays rent, and so on. Till last quarter, we were primarily doing B2C forex via third-party license holders, growing at 50 to 70 per cent month on month; now, we have also begun approaching this from the University-end, helping institutions with fee acceptance across borders,” Chaturvedi said.

LeverageEdu aims to unlock more than $1 billion in declared scholarship money across the next couple intakes, the firm said.

The start-up said it is also aiming to launch a debit card focused on students going to the UK, its primary destination market, later this year. Here, it will make money through interchange fees.

The firm raised $22 million in series B funding in March earlier this year at a valuation of $120 million.