Education is the most powerful tool when it comes to make the individuals best version of themselves which in turn will help to solve the problems in the world. Access to quality education has become the most fundamental need of everyone. Quality education is also the most important goal in the list of sustainable development goals. Facilitating the students to have access to quality education is the most generous work. Eduvanz is on a “mission to make education and skilling universally accessible by providing easy, transparent, and speedy financial assistance to learners using an innovative technology solution.
The Mumbai-based fintech, Eduvanz, founded in 2016 by Varun Chopra (IIT Madras) and Raheel Shah (IIM Ahmedabad), has helped thousands of learners with its Study Now and Pay Later loans across Universities, Edtechs, Skilling Academies, Certifications, Schools and Test Prep centres. Varun Chopra does the CEO role while Raheel Shah as the Chief Business Officer looks at the alliances and partnerships. Both the cofounders bring in more than of 15 years of experience each across functions and across roles including Investment banking, consulting and outsourcing industries.
In an interview with Insights Success, Varun and Raheel shares the journey of Eduvanz in facilitating the access to education to all learners by providing innovative education loans.
Below are the highlights of the interview between Founders of Eduvanz and Insights Success:
Enlighten us with the journey of your company so far.
Eduvanz financially empowers Learners with innovative education loans. As a new-age fintech NBFC dedicated exclusively towards the Education industry, Eduvanz has introduced student-friendly loans starting from 0% interest rates, flexible tenures, fast turnaround time and full transparency on loan decisions. Prior to starting up Eduvanz, Varun and Raheel founded CurrEQlum in 2015-2016. CurrEQlum was founded to impart life skills in classrooms across India using games, CEO props & analytics. Their first start-up helped them understand the market better and paved the way for Eduvanz.
As on date we have given >25,000 Loans, >300 Crs Disbursal. During the Pandemic, the number of unique customers has grown 4x, with monthly disbursals growing by ~3x. Investments/Grants in the company/organisation with names of investors/donors. Raised $5 million in a series A round led by venture capital firm Sequoia Capital India. Secured $2 million from social-impact investment firm Unitus Ventures and Michael & Susan Dell Foundation in a pre-series A round.
Give a detailed summary of the key personality(s) life before and after their entry into the micro finance space.
Right from the start, we were motivated by the opportunity to generate measurable social impact, create meaningful financial returns and build sustainable ecosystems. While working on our previous venture – CurrEQlum, we interacted with hundreds of parents across India on a regular basis. During this time, we discovered a problem commonly faced by a majority of Parents – unavailability of easy, fast and affordable financial assistance for paying the school fees or tuition fees.
The problem was more acute for families looking to enrol their children for new programs such as job-oriented vocational training courses as well as coaching classes or test prep classes. Banks are too focused on larger ticket loans associated with Higher Education to create meaningful solutions for this segment. In addition to this, their lending criteria tends to marginalize first time borrowers and cash earning families and does not recognize the thousands of training institutes and new-age online institutes across India. The problem is further magnified across Tier 1/2/3 cities. In such scenarios, Banks either decline the business, or charge very high interest rates – resulting in discontinued education, underutilized infrastructure and lost opportunities.
Thus, we realized there exists a big opportunity for Eduvanz that nobody else was working upon. We spent months on research including interviews with parents, institutes, recruiters and students. We realized that a new lending entity needed to be built – one that gets all the stakeholders (parents, students, institutes etc) on the same platform and ensures that each stakeholder is held accountable for its role. By doing so, Eduvanz was able to build loan solutions which addressed the concerns of each stakeholder – thus, Learners could leverage fast, cheap and flexible financial loans from Eduvanz for learning careerbuilding skills.
Kindly talk about the exclusive products and services offered by your company.
Eduvanz was formed with a vision to facilitate quality education for all across all learning requirements from K-12 to higher education. It was set up to fill up the gap considering the huge demand for loans that enable Learners to Study/Learn Now and Pay Later. Eduvanz enables students to study now, pay later in easy pocket friendly monthly instalments at 0% interest rates. The aim is to unlock the potential of individuals and become the preferred option for all education financing requirements. The mission is to empower students to pursue education of their choice and enable them to make informed decisions by providing free financial resources and unbiased advice.
• Skill based loan- Our Focus has been on Skill Based Programs. Thus, we have developed a strong competency in this segment to deliver high returns for Institutes.
• Possible Interest Free EMIs- Customized Loan Products with possibility of Interest Free/Low Cost EMIs.
• Faster Decision- Decision within hours of receiving the documents.
• Tech Driven Product with detailed dashboards to drive sales for institutes
Eduvanz has integrated its technology with the educational institutes or platforms to have a smooth process of loan sanctions just via a few clicks, without the need of submitting physical documents. This integration of educational institutions and financial lenders benefits the end consumer, with low/no cost financing help on the go in real time basis which differentiates it from other lenders. Eduvanz is looking to replace the middle counsellor and from merely acting as a financial lender, be capable to guide the student to the best institute along with placement capabilities.The interest directly comes from the institutes and not the borrowers, the technological integration ensures the performance of the students is being tracked and the instalments are being paid on time.
What is in the pipeline-
• We are in the process of launching a credit card product.
• We are building India’s first virtual counsellor where students will be suggested the course and institutes basis their skill set and the aspiration
How the technological advancements and innovation in the micro finance space has impacted/enhanced the business of your company?
Technology platforms being used by Eduvanz: We use proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) based algorithms and predictive analytics to provide loans based on the future employability of learners. Using the mobile app, end-to-end processing from Loan Application to Credit Assessment to Disbursal happens completely online in a matter of a few hours.
What does the future look like for your company in terms of growth and expansion?
The end goal is to enable the learners to access quality education and motivate them to pursue the institute of their choice. From being an alternative financing lender, Eduvanz aims to becoming the go to financing solution for learners across all the sectors starting from K-12 to upskilling/skilling, UG/PG and Test preparation.
How is the micro finance business faring in this ongoing pandemic? As one of the prominent micro finance enablers, what steps have you taken towards tackling this challenge all the while safeguarding your employees and taking care of your clientele’s needs?
The digital finance has witnessed expansion in the sector despite the devastating impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the country’s economy. While the pandemic has accelerated the acceptance and adoption of digital financing as compared pre pandemic but the fine line between fintech and banks is slowly blurring. With the technological advancements and with the digitization there has been a significant demand towards upskilling and skilling courses which is where we too have witnessed the rise in demand.
