Akshay Chaturvedi says Leverage Edu is a student admissions platform spanning education, migration, travel and fintech, not edtech.
Leverage Edu cut burn to about one sixth during COVID, avoided layoffs, and stopped management salaries for three to four months.
After the UK graduate route opened, Leverage Edu scaled from 100 students a month at end-2020 to 1,500-1,600.
How Akshay Chaturvedi built Leverage Edu around student migration
Leverage Edu is a bet on long-form migration. It helps Indian students work out what fits them, pick a country and apply, then sells them visas, education loans, forex and accommodation over a lifetime, so Chaturvedi refuses the edtech label that test prep already owns. The business was built over years of hustle in Delhi's startup scene and survived COVID by reading the UK's direction early and building a virtual fair platform when campuses closed.
Takeaways
Study abroad is a long-form migration business. Leverage Edu helps students work out what fits them, pick a country, and apply, then sells visas, education loans, forex and accommodation over a lifetime. Chaturvedi rejects the edtech label because test prep was already solved by Byju's and Unacademy.
Pandemic pivot rebuilt the university pipeline. Reading the UK's direction on four trips in late 2019, Chaturvedi built the Uniconnect virtual fair in about twelve days. University partners went from 15-20 to 100-120 within four months, and the graduate route took students from 100 a month to 1,500-1,600.
No layoffs and paused salaries held the team. Leverage Edu cut burn to about one sixth, promised no job cuts and stopped management salaries for three to four months. The team fell to 65-70 people and later grew to 450-460.
Lending is the next layer for Leverage Edu. Loans run through bank partnerships that use credit algorithms, and Chaturvedi plans a Leverage Finance arm with an FFMC licence. Students come from more than 700 cities and towns a month, though the top 40% of business is from the top 50 to 60 cities.
Building in public is his biggest win. Chaturvedi disagrees with the common advice against building in public. He has done it since before it had a name and calls it the biggest win of his life.
He predicts a borderless world for talent. Cities and countries will compete for talent as borders matter less, he says. Leverage Edu will help students move from Earth to Mars once Elon Musk colonises it.
The first round, step by step
Chaturvedi raised from 88 angel investors, of whom about 22 invested. His first cheque came from a friend who was CFO at babajob.
An investor who owns the VRL group, a 20,000 crore rupee logistics and media business, decided in about two minutes to write a 60 lakh rupee cheque.
He describes walking in the heat in June 2017 until his nose bled while raising the round.
The pursuit of Karthik Reddy of Blume Ventures took ten months.
DSG Consumer Partners came in first, then a 9:30 PM call from Blume ended with confirmation at 12:50 AM.
Tap a name to go there · tap a line to see why they are linked
On this episode 2
Show 1
He learned that a venture firm that really wants a deal can close it in hours rather than months.