Edutech startup Prozo raises seed funding

Prozo.com, an online marketplace for buying and selling study material, has secured seed funding of $205,000 (Rs 1.37 crore) from a group of investors.

Nalin Jain, president and CEO of GE's transportation businesses; Shomil Pant, head, strategy at Wockhardt Pharmaceuticals; Dinesh Kundu; an unnamed McKinsey & Co director and other angel investors put money in this round, as per a press statement.

Prozo, which is owned and operated by Global Edu4Share Pvt Ltd, will use the money raised for acquiring talent and enhancing marketing spend and mobile app development, it said in a statement.

"Students appearing in highly competitive exams such as CAT, GMAT, medical, engineering and so on face a lot of challenges around selection of right resources and finding personal mentors. We are solving these pain points through Prozo," said Ashvini Jakhar, co-founder of Prozo.

Prozo wants to be a search engine where students can buy resources such as books, e-learning content, coaching material and personal notes. It also offers a feature where aspirants can seek guidance through peer-to-peer mentorship programmes from students who have cleared these exams. Inbuilt ratings, reviews mechanism and blogs are also available on the platform.

Prozo was founded by Jakhar and Jerry Jose. A former lieutenant commander in Indian Navy, Jakhar worked with McKinsey & Co as a management consultant before starting this venture. He holds an MBA from Indian School of Business.

Jose is an alumnus of HEC, Paris and worked previously with Goldman Sachs and KPMG before launching Prozo.

The startup claims that over 40 content providers such as Aakash Institute, CrackVerbal, Brilliant Tutorials, Plancess, learnpedia, Meritnation, and Toppr.com are already selling on its platform.

The education technology space has been generating tremendous interest among investors.

US-based Coursera Inc, an education technology company that partners with universities to offer courses online, recently secured $49.5 million in the first closing of Series C funding from New Enterprise Associates (NEA), Times Internet (TIL) and others investors.

In June, Bangalore-based Suphalaam Technologies Pvt Ltd, which owns and operates online education marketplace CAKART.in, had raised an undisclosed amount in angel funding from Sunil Maheshwari and other unnamed investors.

Earlier this year, Info Edge (India) Ltd, which runs a slew of internet properties such as Naukri, 99acres, Jeevansathi and Shiksha among others invested an additional Rs 25 crore ($4 million) in Applect Learning Systems Pvt Ltd, which operates the online education and assessment venture Meritnation.

Last week, Delhi-based education technology firm Wincourse acquired 85 per cent stake in Mappr, a social learning platform where students can share notes and interact with teachers, for an undisclosed amount.