Foreign study co Leap raises $75 mn in Series D, total funding tops $150 mn

Round led by Owl Ventures with participation from Steadview Capital and Paramark Ventures, and existing investors Jungle Ventures and Sequoia

Overseas education company Leap has raised $75 million (Rs 585 crore) in Series D funding led by Owl Ventures. The round saw participation from new investors Steadview Capital and Paramark Ventures along with existing investors Jungle Ventures and Sequoia Capital India. The startup has now raised over $150  million in equity since it was founded in 2019.

The funding comes at a time when the falling valuations, slowing funding rounds and faltering investor sentiments, have prompted many start-ups, especially in the edtech sector, to lay off employees in a bid to conserve cash.

Leap, which runs LeapScholar, LeapFinance, and Yocket, is a full-stack international student mobility platform. The company runs the world’s largest online community of study abroad aspirants with over two million students.

“The overall strong rebound in international student outflows post-covid has led to (strong) growth for us,” said Vaibhav Singh, co-founder of Leap. “Over the next couple of years, more than five million students are expected to cross an international border. Our mission  is to  democratize access to quality global education.”

Centred around the community, Leap offers a suite of products to cover an international student’s lifecycle. These include international test prep like IELTS, TOEFL, SAT, etc.,  admissions and visa counselling as well as financial offerings like international student loans,  international bank accounts, credit cards, and money remittance services.

This end-to-end approach has enabled Leap to help over 175,000 students in their study abroad journey in the past 12 months.

“Leap is well-positioned to support the increasing demand to go and study abroad as more countries and companies around the world are becoming further integrated into the global economy,” said Amit Patel, managing director, Owl Ventures.

In recent months, Leap has undertaken several new growth initiatives. In April, the company announced a partnership with Colorado State University, USA. Leap has over 750 global university partners. Earlier this year,  the company expanded its presence into the Middle East, to help students in the region in their study abroad pursuits.

“Having built the underlying infrastructure for global student mobility, we are now able to scale rapidly across multiple dimensions,” said Arnav Kumar, co-founder of Leap.

Ravi Mehta, founder and CIO, Steadview Capital said Leap is well-positioned to take this platform globally and  help students from all over the world to “achieve their dreams.”

Yash Sankrityayan, managing partner, Jungle Ventures said overseas education is a large global market and a long-term trend. “We are  committed to supporting Leap to become the largest global study abroad  platform.”