SuperProfs.com raises $3M Series A from Kalaari Capital and IDG Ventures

The platform brings classrooms of India's Best Professors for competitive exams online, for anytime, anywhere access by students. End Quote

(1888PressRelease) January 01, 2015 - Bengaluru - Bengaluru-based SuperProfs.com, a product of Aurus Network, has raised $3 Million from venture capital firms Kalaari Capital and IDG Ventures India. This round of funding will be used for scaling up its product offerings to other competitive exams and speed expansion into newer markets across India. Currently SuperProfs.com offers online courses for competitive exams like CA, CS, CMA and GATE.

Aurus Network was founded by IIT Kanpur graduates Piyush Agrawal and Sujeet Kumar in 2010. The company had earlier raised an angel round of funding from Indian Angel Network which includes Ajai Chowdhry, co-founder of HCL Infosystems and Sharad Sharma, Former CEO, Yahoo India R & D.

Superprofs.com, which was launched in January 2014, seamlessly connects high quality professors and students by providing their live and recorded lectures through online video streaming making classrooms more accessible. This facility is enabling better access and learning possibilities for students and a wider reach for professors. The platform is powered by state-of-the-art technology allowing live transmission of HD quality videos at low bandwidth. It is an online live or recorded video delivery solution that brings classrooms of popular professors for competitive exams, so that students can attend their classes anywhere, anytime, without having to relocate to another city. More than 25,000 students have already registered on the platform and the company has partnered with the most popular professors from Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Mumbai for various competitive exams.

Speaking on the occasion, Piyush Agrawal, CEO and Co-founder of Superprofs.com, said, "Over the last few years online channels are gaining rapid adoption, from booking travel tickets to finding the right life partner! A large number of users have started using the Internet for education in general and specifically for preparing for exams. Besides tier 1 cities, we are increasingly witnessing a significant number of students from tier 2 and 3 towns who earlier could not prepare well for such exams due to a lack of good teachers in their city, adopting online exam preparation at SuperProfs.com. We are happy to have Kalaari Capital and IDG Ventures as our partners in our mission to make quality education accessible to the masses! The funds raised will be used to expand our offerings into more exams like IIT-JEE, IAS, CAT, Bank PO etc."

According to Karan Mohla, Vice President of IDG Ventures "We believe Superprofs.com provides a unique combination of effective classroom training and proprietary world-class technology. Our belief is that this platform will scale rapidly through the online delivery model with the mobile as the next frontier to conquer". He further added, "The education market in India is ripe for disruptive models and we are extremely pleased and excited to be partnering with Piyush and the team at Aurus, who have achieved significant traction in a relatively short period."

Sumit Jain, Principal at Kalaari Capital noted, "Online Test prep market in India is projected to become a multi billion dollar industry with over 15 million students preparing and appearing for various competitive exams annually. The team at Aurus Network is passionate about bringing quality education online making it accessible to students across the country and is leveraging technology innovation to solve this complex problem. We're confident that they will make a difference to millions of students in India and are excited to join them in this journey"

Khetal Advisors, a Bengaluru based investment banking advisory firm, was the exclusive advisor to Aurus Network for the entire transaction.

About Superprofs.com / Aurus Network
Aurus Network was founded in 2010 by Piyush Agrawal and Sujeet Kumar, with a vision to make quality education accessible to masses using technology. Piyush Agrawal is a computer science graduate from IIT Kanpur and Stanford University and Sujeet Kumar holds a B.Tech in computer science from IIT Kanpur. The company has developed a core technology, which allows live streaming of HD quality classroom sessions at extremely low bandwidths, thereby making it possible for students from remote areas or on the move to become part of any classroom. Apart from powering SuperProfs.com, this technology is also being used at some of the largest education & training companies in India.

About Kalaari Capital
Kalaari is a Bangalore based venture capital fund focused on investing in early stage, technology oriented ventures in India. It has invested in companies like Snapdeal, Myntra, Attero, Via, Simplilearn, Urbanladder, Magzter and Power2sme among others. More information about Kalaari Capital is available at www.kalaari.com.

About IDG Ventures India
IDG Ventures India is a leading technology venture capital and is part a global network of technology venture funds with over $6 billion under management with over 220 investee companies and 10 offices across Asia and North America. In India, IDG Ventures has invested in companies such as Flipkart, Yatra, Newgen, Brainbees (FirstCry.com), Vserv, Manthan Software, Valyoo (Lenskart.com), Ozone Media and Actoserba (Zivame.com). More information about IDG Ventures is available at www.idgvcindia.com.

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