Test prep startup Toppersnote raises $1 mn in seed fund led by IPV

Active in 70-plus exams such as UPSC, GATE, NEET, IIT, SSC and state govt job exams, the firm has over 300,000 aspirants primarily from tier 3 and below towns on its platform

Test prep startup Toppersnotes has raised $1 million in seed funding led by Inflection Point Ventures. The round also saw participation from LetsVenture, PlanB Capital, Pulkit Agrawal (CEO-Trell), Ashish Sharma, (MD-Innoven Capital) and other notable angels.          

Toppersnotes is an education initiative by IIT Bombay alumnus. The team saw a huge gap in the quality of solutions in the market across the price spectrum. Being toppers themselves and with the constant engagement with teaching faculties, the team has released a “Phygital” solution that brings coaching-like-quality at a low price.

Toppersnotes is currently active in 70-plus exams such as UPSC, GATE, NEET, IIT, SSC, BANK and state government job exams solving a real issue of unavailability of affordable solutions in tier-2 and 3 cities, and below markets with an intention to emerge as a market leader in the test prep market segment. The company has more than 300,000 registered aspirants primarily from tier-3 and below towns on its platform. Toppersnotes aims to make self-study more efficient & personalized with the use of technology and provide learning at 1/10th of a coaching institute fees.

Mitesh Shah, Co-Founder, Inflection Point Ventures says, “Prepping for competitive tests is one of the most important journeys in a student life cycle as they decide the direction of one’s career. While metros offer many options to students, it is the smaller cities where we have seen the gap in the quality of mentoring and preparation of exams. Students run pillar to post and use peer group support. Toppernotes is solving this problem for the Bharat audience, which is a far bigger market than the metros and immensely underserved.”

With the Phygital solution (to be scaled in the next six months), students will have access to personalized content delivery, performance tracking & guidance in terms of personalised revision planner and learning schedules. To bring personalisation features and guidance to the study table, the team will be leveraging AI/ML and NLP algorithms on top of their deeply structured learning data of the students.

Their phygital solution currently offers physical notes for learning and tech-based app platform for test prep. Solution is an efficient and exam centric version of books with structured content in the form of knowledge units.

Ayush Agrawal, Founder, Toppersnotes says, “With personalized learning, guidance & performance analytics features, we will disrupt the test prep space, where students, even today, rely heavily on textbooks, far distant coaching and local tutors. We intend to leverage technology and content to reduce the service layer present in the education industry thus democratizing education and making it affordable for everyone.”

EdTech has become one of the fastest-growing industries in recent times with test prep as the fastest growing category in online education. More than 8 crore students prepare for more than 600 exams every year with more than 60% of these students residing in small towns & face affordability issues during their preparation. Market is huge and fragmented which Toppersnotes is trying to disrupt by creating a comprehensive and affordable solution.