CollegeDekho, a Gurugram-based edtech startup has acquired Scholarship Facilitation Services Pvt. Ltd (SFS), a Delhi-based student’s guidance overseas business, for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition will enable CollegeDekho to broaden its students counseling services to help a larger population of students go abroad.
“With this acquisition, we get the bandwidth for a much larger geographical coverage internationally. CollegeDekho’s technology will help in expanding the product portfolio, thus catering to a wider audience,” Ruchir Arora, co-founder and CEO of CollegeDekho, said.
Started in 2012 by Manik Kubba, Umesh Sharma and Vikaas Wahi, SFS offers need-based, budget and university-based admission counseling services, along with complete admission services to an international university of their choice.
The company said that the acquisition will open up great avenues for students interested in studying abroad, and that SFS and CollegeDekho together has the potential to provide its product offerings in many other countries apart from India.
Whereas, CollegeDekho is a disruptive technology education start-up offering both B2B and B2C solutions. The main offerings in the B2C model includes providing end-to-end admission solutions to students and the B2B model includes offering Digital Marketing Solutions (DMS) to clients.
It is a unique universities discovery platform, which connects education seekers with education providers, at the same time offering information about colleges, courses, entrance exam details, admission notifications, changes in exam pattern, scholarships and all related topics.
CollegeDekho’s study abroad business started operation in 2017, and the company claims to have already assisted students for admission in countries like Canada, Philippines, Germany, Ukraine, and Russia.
It says this acquisition will further strengthen CollegeDekho’s reach to students who are looking to study in USA, Europe, and the South East Asian markets.
While, Manik Kubba, Co-Founder and CEO, Scholarship Facilitation Services, said, “In the last few years, India has witnessed a rise in the cost of education in India, thus blurring the boundaries between domestic and foreign higher education. As these numbers grow, along with the aspirational value of a foreign degree, there is a need for an edtech company that can bridge the divide between domestic and foreign higher education. For a strong and renowned edtech company, these circumstances are just about right to enter and merge with a proven player in the foreign education domain.”
Both CollegeDekho and SFS are aiming to increase their satellite test preparation and counseling centres to more than 25 by 2020.
While, other promising edtech startups in India includes BYJU’s, Unacademy, Careerguide, CueMath, CultureAlley, and many more.