Testbook, an online test preparation platform, has announced raising of a₹60 crore (~$8.3M) in a new funding round that was led by Iron Pillar. Participation was also seen from existing investors Matrix Partners India, Better Capital & AngelList. Reliance Jio president Vikas Choudhury also participated in this Series B round.
With this new finacing, the total equity funding raised by the company stands at $12 million. Testbook had earlier raised a Series A round from Matrix Partners, back in 2017. The newly infused funding will be used by the upstart to offer courses for state-level government services exams within India over the next two years.
The other major investment area will be to setup offline centres in small towns where students will be able to use its online learning service. Ashutosh Kumar, co-founder and CEO of Testbook, said: “The next phase of growth is going to come from state level exams. If someone is preparing to give a banking exam, they’re certainly also simultaneously preparing to take some state-level exams. So, with these new courses, the value proposition for students increases.”
Testbook, as said, is an test-prep platform which helps students from tier II cities and beyond in India, prepare for country’s cut-throat competitive online entrance exams. These vary from engineering entrances like GATE, the IIT-JEE to government jobs entrance exams like Banking etc. Both these (and other such) entrance exams are considered coveted in India and most admissions to higher education institutes require rigorous preparations for passing some of the toughest entrance exams. All these factors combined make it a highly lucrative segment, with millions of young Indians enrolling in coaching centres across the country to study for these competitive exams.
Testprep currently operates on a freemium model with free content to lure in users, a paid mock test product, which then graduates in the form of a paid subscription for full access to tutorials, tests and other content. It offers its content through a slew of apps. The company claims to have over 10 Million students on its platform, with one of its highlight ‘Current Affairs’ app getting over 8 Million installs on app stores.
As per the company’s CEO, the firm’s annual recurring revenue run rate was ₹30 crore and it was EBITA positive prior to raising this announced Series B funding. The company now aims to be a leading player in the online learning for government recruitment sector which sees millions of applicants each year.
