Leap helps students in choosing the right college to study abroad, preparing for entrance tests, securing loans and visas. The startup has recently raised $55 million in a financing round which was led by many high-profile edtech backers. Owl Ventures led the round. The Series C round also had investors like Harvard Management Company, Sequoia Capital India, and Jungle Ventures. The total collected funds now reached $75 million.
Leap co-founder Arnav Kumar claims that his startup is positioned between an edtech and fintech startup. In addition to helping students in choosing the right colleges, they ensure that the students get the visa and capital to complete their studies and live there. This is a huge market. Nowadays a lot of students from India migrate to other countries for studies. Ashish Agrawal of Sequoia Capital India notes that this trend is stronger than ever now. But these students face many obstacles to go abroad and some continue even after they reach there. They won’t be able to avail themselves of a lot of financial services there due to a lack of local credit history. Banks and other such institutions charge more when dealing with foreigners because of the increased risk. In the UK, banks charge double the interest for foreign students.
Leap is tackling the financial aspect by offering loans to students at a reasonable interest rate based on the data they gathered in India — both alternative and derived. However, finance is simply one of its services. The company has actively expanded its products to provide a “broader infrastructure” that allows students to seek foreign higher education.
Leap has built a community of over 1 million students who advise and explore possibilities with one another. Over the previous 18 months, Leap has assisted over 60,000 students with their study abroad journeys, with the fall season being its busiest ever.
Leap has shown strong growth in many aspects according to Kumar. The number of students in the community is growing and the test preparation app is becoming more popular. Leap is also helping students to find internships when they join a college abroad. This is another task foreign students found hard to deal with. With the new funds, Leap will expand its services to more international markets like the Middle East and Southeast Asia. Kumar said that it will now help students to avail higher education in almost 20 countries.
Amit Patel, MD of Owl Ventures told that Leap will soon become a dominant one-stop study abroad platform for students. He added that Owl Ventures is happy to help students to fulfill their dream of studying abroad easily.
