April 19 2016, 09.01 AM IST || Pocket News Alert
India Educational Investment Fund (IEIF), early stage impact investment fund invests in Oliveboard
Bangalore, April 19th 2016: Edtech Startup Oliveboard has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from India Educational Investment Fund (IEIF), an early stage impact investment fund established by Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.
Founded by former Inmobi employees, Satish Kumar & Abhishek Patil, Oliveboard is an online test preparation platform for MBA & job oriented competitive exams such as SBI PO, IBPS PO & SSC CGL.
Abhishek Patil, CEO & Co-founder of Oliveboard said, “With most competitive exams being conducted online, young adults preparing for these exams are increasingly looking at online courses as an alternative to books & institutes. We provide these aspirants with a one-stop place for all learning & practice with their study synchronized across mobile & PC. We’re excited about working with IEIF and will continue to use technology to deliver education in newer, more effective ways while still keeping it affordable. The funds will be utilized to increase our marketing efforts, build content and further strengthen our mobile technology.”
Established and funded by Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, IEIF is a US-based fund which is part of a larger effort of the Foundation to support early-stage investing in education startups that support urban, low income families in India.
Vishal Bharat, Director of Corporate Business Advisors (CBA), the investment manager for IEIF investments, said, "We are excited to partner with Oliveboard as it is one of the few companies that is going about the individual subscription model for paying users in a highly competitive online solutions market. The need for an online test preparation service for young adults is immense. Finding the right solution and paying for it, is the key for all stakeholders.
At IEIF we are keen to see more young entrepreneurs focused on enabling education solutions to the lower income sections of society, hence we are working on expanding our mandate to growth opportunities besides seed rounds".
Oliveboard currently supports 15 competitive exams and has over 260,000 registered users with customers from 28 states and 680+ cities & towns across India.
About Oliveboard (https://www.oliveboard.in )
Oliveboard is a learning and test preparation platform for premier entrance examinations. Started in the year 2012 by former Inmobi employees Satish Kumar and Abhishek Patil, Oliveboard is an adaptive platform that provides personalised learning and remedial content for MBA and Job oriented examinations on the basis of each student’s requirements. After having noticed a lack of high quality test coaching centers in Tier II and Tier III cities, the duo decided to create a learning and test preparation platform that has universal access. Oliveboard was started with an aim to use technology and data to personalise education.
Product Features: The Oliveboard platform has three sections – Learn, practice and improve. Through the learn module, a user can access video content/tutorials to understand the subject in detail. The practice section helps users to solve mock question papers and daily tests related to the subject. By analysing the performance and understanding the weak areas of the test taker, Oliveboard provides remedial content to improve the performance of the user.
Oliveboard has a unique ‘Gamified group study platform’ which allows users to collaborate and compete with friends in live group study sessions in a game-like environment. Users who participate in the group study feature are presented with one question at a time that has to be solved within a stipulated time frame. While solving the question, a user can use the chat window to solve questions or clear doubts from other participants. The users can also opt for lifelines like audience poll or 50:50 if they need help to solve the questions. More than 250 students participate in a session of Gamified group study platform.