Yuvraj's Youwecan Ventures invests in EduKart

Yuvraj Singh means business, whether on or off the field. Online education services marketplace EduKart.com has raised $1 million (about Rs 6.4 crore) in a fresh round of funding led by cricketer Yuvraj Singh's newly-launched venture capital fund YouWeCan Ventures and United Finsec, the family office of the Holostik Group.

The Delhi-based startup will use the proceeds from the latest round of fundraising, which also saw Dave McClure-led seed stage accelerator and fund 500 Startups invest in the venture, to ramp up its team, marketing and technology while bringing more courses and course providers on to the platform.

"India's education industry continues to be an extremely fragmented market. We are hoping to provide students with far greater depth through EduKart," said Ishan Gupta, co-founder and chief executive of the company.

The company's existing group of angel investors also participated in the latest round of equity financing. The group includes Vijay Shekhar Sharma, chairman and managing director of mobile commerce and recharge venture Paytm, Patni scions Amit and Arihant Patni, and Manish Kheterpal, the former director of private equity fund Providence Equity Partners.

Till date, EduKart has raised angel funding of about $2 million (Rs 12.8 crore).

Yuvraj Singh said, "Focus on education is also a must in today's cut-throat competitive environment. EduKart can really become your trusted partner in making the right choices."
According to industry data, India's education sector is pegged at about $60 billion (Rs 3.8 lakh crore). But the total amount of foreign direct investments inflow into the sector stood at just $1.07 billion (Rs 6,848 crore) between April 2000 and January 2015, according to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion.

Edukart, which was founded in 2011 by the unrelated duo of Stanford Graduate School of Business alumni Ishan Gupta and IIM Kozhikode graduate Mayank Gupta, is now targeting listing of 10,000 courses and 500 course providers on the marketplace. Mayank Gupta, however, is no longer with the company.

The startup currently has 2,000 courses listed on its platform and it works with over 90 education organisations including coaching centres, universities and institutions such as Indian School of Business and Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies.
"Education spending is on the rise among the tech-savvy Indian middle class. I believe that the online distribution of education products and services will have significant growth in the coming years," said Pankaj Jain, partner at 500 Startups.

EduKart is targeting revenue of $8-10 million (up to Rs 64 crore) and looking to announce its first profit by the end of this fiscal.