Education technology startup CollegeDekho has witnessed a strong outcome for its academic year ending October 30, 2019, registering a 3X increase in revenue over the previous year. With the commitment to impact the student’s academic journey and change the way they choose their courses, colleges and careers, CollegeDekho’s AI powered Chatbot has been instrumental in revolutionizing student’s college search process, providing them with relevant information in a single click. The Chatbot witnesses 5K – 7K conversions in a day, thereby leading to a surge in student queries on the platform.
The linear availability of information through various resources like News, Articles, Exams, Courses, Careers etc. has seen a surge in traffic by 200-300% across the website across various streams like engineering, management, law, design, medical, hotel management etc.
Besides this, CollegeDekho accredits its success story to its comprehensive 360-degree student counselling process for higher education, further building on a sustained sequential growth since inception in 2015. CollegeDekho has processed over 20,000 admissions worth over INR 1000 crores. With just 10 colleges in its ambit in 2015, CollegeDekho now works with more than 400 colleges and universities.
CollegeDekho ended the academic year on a high note, bolstered by growth in student registrations and college partnerships. With its aim of institutionalizing student counselling in India, the company continues to increase its student base, now counting over 1.3 million students counselled across geographies. The growth in revenue was fueled by deeper penetration and significant growth in the number of students registered on the platform. This in turn was driven by a significant expansion of the company’s pioneering ‘School Connect’ program, through which CollegeDekho offers free career counselling to high school students PAN India. Till date, 30K + students have been counselled from Assam, Manipur, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Delhi NCR, Telangana, Kerala, Tamil Nadu etc.
Furthermore, the recent acquisition of Scholarship Facilitation Services (SFS) to step up the ‘Study Abroad’ business has also contributed to its growth and expansion in the US, UK, European markets increasing CollegeDekho’s value share in the education market.
With the aim to provide customised counselling to its users, CollegeDekho increased its counselling base by bringing on-board, experts and academicians from the education sector. Executive appointments over the last year have expanded the leadership team in support of the company’s next chapter of innovation and growth:
Highlights and performance parameters
Free counselling sessions to school students in Xth, XIth & XIIth classes in government schools across India through their ‘School Connect’ program
Premium Counselling Services with their A.C.C.E.S.S programme.
Partnerships with 400+ educational institutes pan-India, and more than 35,000 colleges on their platform
Current employee strength of 650 personnel, which they plan to grow beyond 1,000 by March 2020
Ruchir Arora, Co-Founder and CEO, CollegeDekho said “Both our domestic & international businesses have continued to grow healthily, reflected in the numbers for the year. We continue to focus on our next phase of business growth, while keeping a sharp eye on profitability.” He further added, “Our strategy will keep value delivered to our key stakeholders and the student community at the centre of everything we do.”
Founded by Ruchir Arora, Saurabh Jain, Rohit Saha, and Rajiv Singh, CollegeDekho provides an open platform that facilitates interactions between students and colleges. It provides information about colleges, courses, careers, entrance exam details, admission notifications, changes in exam pattern, scholarships, and other related topics. It supports students in selecting relevant career study options based on their strengths and guides them through self-discovery and college selection process.
CollegeDekho recently raised US$ 8 Mn in its Series-B funding, led by existing investors GirnarSoft, London-based Man Capital, and others. The funds are being used for expansion, research, product development, and technology. As a part of their growth strategy, in the month of July CollegeDekho acquired Delhi-based students’ guidance for overseas admissions business – Scholarship Facilitation Services Pvt. Ltd. (SFS) – for an undisclosed amount.
