Edtech startup Career360 acquires Mumbai-based NoPaperForms

The Indian edtech sector is beginning to see consolidation. In the latest development in the sector, Career360 has acquired Mumbai Angels-funded education startup NoPaperForms.com.

Launched four years ago, NoPaperForms has developed a user-driven enrollment automation engine that makes it easy for academic institutions to accept admission applications online. The startup was first recognised in 2011 for its innovative product and business model when it won the first prize at Eureka, Asia’s largest startup competition organised by the Indian Institute of Technology in Mumbai.

Naveen Goyal, Director and Chief Strategy Officer of Careers360 says,

The NoPaperForms acquisition will help Careers360 augment and strengthen its B2B clientele offering and help institutes spend smartly on digital media. We plan to build strong analytics engine on top of the enrollment platform to help institutes spend money judiciously.

NoPaperForms manages over two lakh applications for over 30 clients, the company claims. “With our market reach coupled with investments in technology and product, we hope to deploy the platform in over 500 colleges within the next two to three years,” adds Naveen.

Vishal Shah, Founder and former CEO of NoPaperForms, says, “The combination of Careers360’s unparalleled academic reach with over six million monthly active users and NoPaperForms’ dynamic enrollment platform could potentially make online admissions the norm in India before the end of this decade.”

Founded in 2011, Career360 is an online tool that uses data from students and institutions to help predict and recommend academic and career-related results and choices.

The four-year-old startup, which has an employee count of 120, has tied up with institutions that offer courses in subjects like engineering, management, medicine and law.

Careers360 raised Rs six crore in angel funding from six angel investors in 2014. The investors include edupreneur and private equity investor Ranjan Pai, who heads Manipal Education and Medical Group; Satya Narayanan, Founder of Career Launcher group; and digital media expert and venture capitalist Mahesh Murthy of Pinstorm.

YourStory's take

An India Ratings and Research report estimates the Indian education market to be worth Rs. 5.9 trillion in 2014-15. According to industry estimates, the online education market in India is expected to grow to $40 billion by 2017. A number of changes have happened in the world of Indian education, from interactive textbooks to gamification. Credit for this change can be given to the plethora of edutech startups that have emerged in the last few years.

The landscape of online education has taken new shape with a couple of acquisitions in the sector. Singapore-based Xseed Education acquired Delhi-based edtech startup Pleolabs in April, and in September, Delhi-based education company Wincourse acquired social learning platform Mappr. We expect more such acquisitions as the industry matures.