With 40 colleges on the platform, AlmaMapper raises $400K in seed funding

Pune-based education technology platform AlmaMapper announced on Monday that they had picked up $400K from Oswal Techno Ventures LLP. The funding will be used for strengthening their technology and product offerings as well as scaling operations to new cities.

The website is a student utility platform aiming to solve the everyday problems of students. Currently, the platform holds three verticals – 'Campus' which aims at solving queries while connecting students to alumni and pool of other students across colleges; 'Events' which allows individuals to network within their campus while allowing them to promote their events in other colleges, and 'Library' which seeks to make sharing notes, articles, and videos much easier.

Currently holding an active network of 60,000 users and 40 colleges on the platform, the firm is looking at launching their mobile application by this November. They are also looking at developing ancillary products around the existing platform to create a complete ecosystem.

Seeking to initiate monetization on the platform, Pankaj Kaul, CEO, AlmaMapper says, “From a revenue perspective, we have started tying up with strategic vendors that offer products and services focused at the student community. The objective is to offer select value deals to students to make their life easier and efficient. We look to launch these by November this year.”

The firm is running two prototypes at present while planning to launch a pilot by February next year. Operating with offices in Mumbai, Pune, and Ahmedabad, the startup is planning to set feet in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, New Delhi, as well as Chandigarh. Functioning with a team of 10 individuals, the firm is looking to bump up their sales team from three to eight individuals.

Moving forward, AlmaMapper is projecting a traction of 250,000 odd users on the platform, followed by team strength of 20 employees by the end of this year.

YourStory take

The edutech startup ecosystem has witnessed a couple of investments in the past few months. Toppr raised Rs 65 crore for expansion in May; Bengaluru-based Vedantu raising $5 million from Accel Partners and Tiger Global Management; and Simplilearn raised its third round of $ 15 million funding in April this year.

However, there is still scope or other startups in the space.

In an earlier interaction with YourStory, Harish Iyer, Co-founder and CEO of Flinnt.com, said that since each student or user has a different need in the education field, the homogeneity of permutations and combinations has created a demand for more products. He adds that with a steep growth in the segment now, the edutech startups have been able to meet the demand with investments still at a nascent stage.

Thus, with possibilities being immense, it would be interesting to see new directions this industry will move into.

Website: www.almamapper.com