Tiger Global leads $20 mn fund raise in edtech firm Cialfo

New York investment giant Tiger Global has led a fresh $20 million fund raise in a Singapore-headquartered edtech firm, Cialfo in its ongoing Series B funding round. This follows a $40 million Series B fund raise that the company announced in January this year from global investment firm Square Peg and Australian-headquartered SEEK Investments, taking the round size to $60 million. This brings the total funds raised to date to $77 million, including the initial $15 million in Series A funding in February 2021.

Founded by 32-year-old Indian technologist, Rohan Pasari, Cialfo is a higher education-focused virtual education platform that claims to provide technology tools to students and schools – from K12 to universities – so they can more easily meet and manage the career exploration and college application process, and make educated decisions about their future.

This latest funding will help the company to achieve this mission by increasing its investment in strategic markets like India, including special scholarships for students. A $20 million target was initially set for the Series B round, and the team managed to triple this figure as demand for international student mobility and virtual college recruitment soared during the pandemic, as per an official handout.

Cialfo began its India operations in 2019 and has already enrolled over 300 high schools and 60 universities from the country as members. More than 56,000 Indian high school students are utilizing its platform every year to secure undergraduate college admissions.

“We are very excited to receive continued backing from the global investor community and we are grateful to Tiger Global for extending our Series B to $60million. Our full focus remains on evolving in a way that positively impacts our students, schools, and ultimately, society, with speed and at scale. This funding will help us to do just that. It naturally also will allow us to invest in continuous product development so we can deliver even more personalised and practical support to our community of students, counselors and universities,” Cialfo CEO and co-founder Rohan Pasari said.

"Importantly, growing our operations in critical markets, and expanding our 360 offerings to include scholarships, are among the ways we plan to capitalise on this infusion of capital, and give more back in return,” he added.