Kuhoo Technology Services, which runs edu fintech platform Kuhoo, on Tuesday said it has racked up seed capital of $20 (around Rs 150 crore) from West Bridge Capital.
The eight-month-old startup, floated by former ICICI, HDFC Credila and InCred executive Prashant A Bhonsle, plans to use the fundraise to build tech and data science capacity and roll out product and distribution innovations.
"In our cumulative experience of over 30 years in lending to Indian students, we have observed that many talented students do not apply to good universities because they worry about burdening their parents with high costs of fees and living expenses. We want to change this. At Kuhoo, we combine our vast experience with advanced technology and data science to create risk and credit models,” Bhonsle said.
“These models help us evaluate students' potential employability and future incomes for various courses students enrol in. With this unique ability, Kuhoo can offer different products best suited to individual profiles of students from varied family backgrounds. The other - usually underrated - benefit to the students will be that this loan will help them build credit history while studying,” he added.
The firm claims to specialise in offering loans for higher education courses such as engineering, business administration, executive education and online courses, among others.
Kuhoo competes with other players like Propelld, which recently secured $35 million (around Rs 262 crore) as a part of its Series B round from WestBridge Capital and Eduvanz, which lends to professionals who are looking to reskill and upskill.
Other players in this space include Credilla, Shiksha, leap among others.
The edu fintech platform is looking to team up with banks and other NBFCs (non-banking financial companies), along with colleges and coaching centres globally.
"During the last few decades, only a tiny percentage of the talented Indian students got a chance to pursue their dreams of higher education in the universities abroad. While that will continue to grow, the emerging world order and India's economic growth offer students many career opportunities,” said Sumir Chadha, Co-Founder and Managing Director of West Bridge Capital Partners.
