Career guidance edtech startup Mindler has announced $1.5 million in a Pre-Series A funding round, which it will use to expand its team, reach in new regions and form new institutional partnerships and alliances.
The New Delhi-based SaaS platform offers students, counsellors and educators career planning via “state-of-the-art technology, driven by machine learning algorithms and in-depth analytics”.
It hopes the funding will help grow the company 10-fold in the next calendar year, as well as create strategic collaborations.
“Despite many challenges, the last 15 months have been phenomenal for us,” Mindler founder & CEO, Prateek Bhargava, said.
“It has been a landmark year for Mindler especially in terms of collaborations and we are geared towards increasing the same in the next few quarters,” he said.
In 2020, the guidance platform experienced more than 90% client retention.
“We are driving a movement to enable students to take a scientific approach towards career decision making”
“We are focusing on both the demand and supply side of the career guidance landscape and thus creating a sustainable model for long-term client engagement and retention. We are driving a movement to enable students to take a scientific approach towards career decision making,” Bhargava added.
Along with its SaaS platform, Mindler also launched new initiatives like the Mindler ‘Scholarship Hunt’ and Mindler ‘Internship Program’.
The funding round was led by Ecosystem Ventures, Inflection Point Ventures, nVentures Singapore and Chennai Angels.
With investors hailing from the USA, Singapore, Middle East as well as India, Mindler hopes to increase its international expansion.
“Selecting a right college and course continues to be the most complex decision of the life for any student,” explained Ecosystem Ventures co-founder Abhishek Sanghvi.
“Parents often pay huge costs to get the right career guidance and help in admissions.”
With its “AI algorithms, psychometric testing and an army of certified counsellors to provide timely guidance to students”, Mindler is well placed to become the organised player, Sanghvi suggested.
“We believe that Mindler is set to become India’s largest venture providing a complete ecosystem to students for career guidance,” he stated.
Mindler is currently developing a multi-level credentialing program in collaboration with National Career Development Association and Career Development Alliance, both based in the US.
Its International Certification and Credentialing Program for educators saw more than 475% growth in the last year.
Founding partner and CEO at nVentures Ashok Verma said that Minder is “a game changer for students”.
Also included in nVentures’s portfolio – micro-scholarship education platform Auroscholar – will accelerate Mindler’s journey “by giving them unparalleled access of students, powered by micro scholarships on a single platform”, Verma added.
“This year marks the rise of many exciting startups in one of the fastest growing segments in the start-up ecosystem – edtech,” Mitesh Shah, co-founder of IPV, noted.
“IPV with its vast investor base of CXOs from diverse industries including edtech, will help Mindler access a large unexplored market base and expand its network exponentially while enhancing the tech capabilities as well.”
Other notable investors in the ed-tech start-up include Taxmann Group and CIIE IIM Ahmedabad.
