Toppersnotes, an online test prep startup, has raised $1 million in a seed funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures.
LetsVenture, PlanB Capital, Pulkit Agrawal (CEO – Trell), Ashish Sharma, (MD – Innoven Capital), and other notable angels have also participated in the funding round.
According to a press statement, the fresh funds will be used to acquire talent, boost technology and expand its presence by taking on test preparation in several new subjects across the board.
Co-founded by IIT Bombay alumnus Ayush Aggarwal, Arpit Bansal, and Devendra Dhaka in 2015, Toppernotes encourages students to reach the highest level in their academics. Students can achieve their best by using its innovative products for various competitive exams. The platform is currently active in 70+ exams like UPSC, GATE, NEET, IIT, SSC, BANK & state-level government job exams solving a real issue of unavailability of affordable solutions in tier 2 and 3 cities, and below markets with an intention to emerge as a market leader in the test prep market segment.
Speaking about the company, Ayush Agrawal, Co-founder of Toppersnotes, said,
“With personalized learning, guidance & performance analytics features, we will disrupt the test prep space, where students, even today, rely heavily on textbooks, far distant coaching, and local tutors. We intend to leverage technology and content to reduce the service layer present in the education industry thus democratizing education and making it affordable for everyone. IPV got co-aligned with our vision; with their mentorship & support, we would be able to define how tier 2 and below students will learn, despite low family incomes.”
Toppersnotes aims to make self-study more efficient and personalized with the use of technology and provide learning at 1/10th of a coaching institute fees. The company has more than 300k registered aspirants primarily from tier 3 and below townships on its platform.
Mitesh Shah, Co-founder of Inflection Point Ventures, said,
“Prepping for competitive tests is one of the most important journeys in a student life cycle as they decide the direction of one’s career. While metros offer many options to students, it is the smaller cities where we have seen the gap in the quality of mentoring and preparation of exams. Students run pillar to post and use peer group support. Toppernotes is solving this problem for the Bharat audience, which is a far bigger market than the metros and immensely underserved.”
Toppersnotes has adopted a Phygital model, which allows students to get access to personalized content delivery, and enhanced performance tracking and guidance in terms of personalized revision planners and learning schedules.
The phygital solution currently offers physical notes for learning and a tech-based app platform for test prep. The solution is an efficient and exam-centric version of books with structured content in the form of knowledge units.
Toppernotes is the 40th deal for Inflection Point Ventures in 2021. According to the company, it has invested INR 292 Crore across 100 deals to date and is on track to invest INR 155 Crores across 60 startups by the end of the year.
