GradRight’s loan-bidding platform, FundRight, has run more than ₹16,300 crore of education-loan requests through its online auctions, yet the company that built it keeps only a thin commission on the money that actually lends out, and it lost ₹16.4 crore in the year to March 2025. That is the central oddity of this Hyderabad ed-fintech: it sits in the middle of billions of rupees in student borrowing while its own audited business is small, loss-making, and, until August 2023, had raised almost no institutional equity.
By the time IvyCap Ventures wrote its first cheque, FundRight had already processed over ₹14,300 crore (about $1.75 billion) in loan requests for 55,000-plus students — on a founding team that had spent four years largely bootstrapped and had lived through study-abroad borders slamming shut months after it launched. This is the story of a marketplace that made banks bid against each other for students, and of whether a business that earns three-quarters of its money from lender commissions can grow faster than its losses.
Quick facts
| Company | GradRight (Indian entity: Gradright Edtech Private Limited; US holding entity GradRight Inc., Delaware) |
| Founded | 2019 — Indian entity incorporated 29 July 2019, Hyderabad, Telangana (Tofler/Tracxn, MCA records) |
| Founder(s) | Aman Singh (CEO) and Sasidhar Sista (COO) |
| Businesses | FundRight (education-loan bidding, launched December 2020) and SelectRight (college and course matching, launched October 2021) |
| Latest FY revenue | ₹39.3 crore (FY25, +37.5% YoY), per Inc42 off RoC filings |
| Latest FY profit/loss | Net loss of ₹16.4 crore (FY25), loss widened ~22% YoY (Inc42) |
| Listed | Private |
| Last valuation | ~$19.99 million (about ₹150 crore) at the August 2023 Series A (Inc42/PitchBook; company-stated “₹150+ crore”) |
| Key backer / CEO | IvyCap Ventures (Series A lead; partner Tej Kapoor on board); CEO Aman Singh |
What GradRight does
GradRight sells transparency in two of the most opaque decisions an aspiring overseas student makes: which programme to join, and how to pay for it. It runs two connected products for Indians heading abroad — mainly to the United States — and it charges the banks and universities, not the students.
- FundRight — an education-loan bidding platform. A student submits one profile (roughly 20-30 data points), and partner banks and NBFCs compete on rate and terms in a transparent auction where each lender can see rival bids (The PIE News, May 2021).
- SelectRight — a data-driven college/course match-making tool that pairs a student’s profile against hundreds of programmes and puts well-matched universities directly in touch with the student (The PIE News, September 2021).
- Value-added services — student insurance, forex, travel and accommodation offered alongside the core flow (Business Today, January 2024).
- Free to students: college shortlisting and the loan process carry no student fee; GradRight is paid by lenders and universities (Business Today, January 2024).
The origin
The founding insight came from inside a university admissions office, not a fintech lab. Aman Singh spent years in Indian higher education — Registrar work at BML Munjal University and a founding project role at Ashoka University — and kept watching capable students, especially from smaller towns, sign up for punishing loans. As he told The PIE News, families “were not thinking intelligently about funding” and routinely accepted “loans that are crazy 16-20%.” The problem was information: a student in a Tier 3 town had no way to make lenders compete.
Singh built GradRight with Sasidhar Sista, a BITS Pilani graduate who was among India’s early Fulbright scholars in higher education and had helped set up admissions and outreach at Ashoka University. Both had run the machinery of admissions and student finance from the inside. Their pitch was blunt: put students, universities and banks on one platform so that “students select right, universities admit right and banks lend right.” The mechanism was an auction — instead of a student begging one branch for a loan, FundRight makes a dozen lenders bid, in the open, for the same borrower. Loan decisions that took 30-45 days at a branch could land in hours.
The struggle years
GradRight’s timing looked disastrous. The company was set up in 2019; its flagship product, FundRight, went live only in December 2020 — into a study-abroad market that COVID-19 had frozen, with borders shut, campuses closed and consulates barely processing visas. A business whose entire premise is Indians flying out to foreign universities launched in the one year Indians largely could not fly out.
Two hard realities shaped these years:
- A capital-light grind (2019-2023): GradRight raised no disclosed institutional equity round for its first four years and built the platform largely on its own steam and angel support (Tracxn notes its first funding round came four years after founding). Its US holding entity clocked net revenue of only about $0.5 million in FY22 (early reporting) — a tiny base for a company already routing large loan volumes.
- A single-market bet: the demand it did capture was overwhelmingly US-bound. By January 2024, of 26 university partners, 25 were in the US and one in Canada (Business Today) — leaving GradRight exposed to any shock to US student mobility.
What kept it alive was that student demand for overseas degrees came roaring back after 2021, and FundRight’s core promise — a better rate, faster — worked in a market where the alternative was a slow, opaque branch queue.
The turning point
The hinge was August 2023, when GradRight raised its first institutional round after four years without one. On 24 August 2023 it closed a ₹50 crore Series A led by IvyCap Ventures, with IvyCap’s Tej Kapoor joining the board (Entrackr, Inc42). The numbers on each side of that event tell the story of a business that had scaled its marketplace long before it scaled its cap table.
- Before the round: zero disclosed institutional equity; FundRight had still processed over ₹14,300 crore ($1.75 billion) in loan requests for 55,000+ students across roughly two years, with 15 lender partners and 50-plus university tie-ups (Entrackr, August 2023).
- After the round: capital to widen the lender panel, deepen SelectRight, and push beyond the US — into markets GradRight has named as Vietnam, Africa and the Middle East, while it talks to investors about a Series B.
A second, distribution-side turning point followed in June 2024, when GradRight embedded its loan marketplace inside PhonePe. Indian students and parents could now access GradRight financing from within the PhonePe app — loans of up to ₹2 crore at rates starting around 9.25% — plugging the platform into a base of 535 million-plus users (Elets DigitalLearning, FinTechBizNews, June 2024).
The money behind it
GradRight’s funding history is unusually short for a company of its transaction volume — a sign of how capital-efficient (or capital-starved) the early years were.
- Series A — ₹50 crore, 24 August 2023, led by IvyCap Ventures. This is the well-corroborated equity round (Entrackr, Inc42, Business Today). Inc42 tags total institutional funding at about $6.05 million across one disclosed round.
- Reported round size discrepancy: Business Today (January 2024) described the September 2023 raise as ₹65 crore rather than ₹50 crore — a gap most likely reflecting an added debt component on top of the ₹50 crore equity. The ₹50 crore equity figure is the one multiple sources agree on.
- Valuation: Inc42/PitchBook peg GradRight’s last known valuation at roughly $19.99 million as of 24 August 2023; the company itself describes being “valued at ₹150+ crore.” Treat the valuation as reported/estimated, not audited.
- What IvyCap changed: beyond capital, the round brought a board seat (Tej Kapoor) and the credibility to expand the lender panel and geographies; Vikram Gupta, IvyCap’s founder, is listed as a nominee director on the Indian entity (MCA/Tofler).
- Next: GradRight has said it is in talks for a Series B to fund global expansion; no Series B had been announced as of September 2026.
How it makes money
GradRight looks like an edtech but earns like a fintech. Its revenue engine is the commission a bank pays when a loan sourced through FundRight is actually disbursed. The model, as GradRight described it to Business Today in January 2024:
- ~75% of revenue: bank commissions on loan disbursements — the take is triggered only when money changes hands, so GradRight is paid on outcomes, not clicks.
- University fees: partner universities pay platform subscription and usage fees to reach matched students via SelectRight.
- Value-added services: insurance, forex, travel and accommodation attached to the student journey.
- Take on the loan itself: the specific commission rate GradRight charges lenders has not been publicly disclosed; what is disclosed is the revenue mix above and the outcome-linked structure.
The efficiency claim is where the marketplace earns its keep: GradRight has said its loan approval rate runs around 70%, versus roughly 40% at a typical bank branch (Business Today, January 2024). Higher approval odds and competing bids are what make lenders willing to pay for GradRight’s funnel — and what let the platform serve a base where 80% of FundRight users come from Tier 2 and Tier 3 towns.
The numbers
GradRight’s audited Indian entity is small and loss-making, and it is spending well ahead of revenue to grow. The most reliable filing-based figures come from Inc42’s RoC-sourced compilation. Only two fiscal years could be verified to a consistent, filing-based source this session; earlier-year rupee figures from one aggregator were internally inconsistent and are not reproduced here.
| Metric (₹ crore) | FY24 | FY25 |
| Operating revenue | 28.6 | 39.3 |
| Net loss | ~13.4 (derived) | 16.4 |
| Total expenses | ~42 (derived) | 55.7 |
- Revenue: ₹28.6 crore (FY24) to ₹39.3 crore (FY25), up 37.5% (Inc42).
- Losses: FY25 net loss of ₹16.4 crore, which Inc42 reports widened about 22% year-on-year — implying an FY24 loss near ₹13.4 crore (derived from Inc42’s stated growth rate, not a directly filed figure).
- Costs: FY25 total expenses of ₹55.7 crore, up about 32% YoY (Inc42), so spending outran the ₹39.3 crore of revenue.
- Caveat: a separate aggregator (Tofler) displayed a small positive net-profit-margin snippet for FY25 that conflicts with the RoC-based net loss; this piece relies on the filing-based loss figure and flags the discrepancy rather than reconciling it.
Where the money comes from
The part people get wrong is assuming GradRight lends money. It does not. Banks and NBFCs put up the capital and carry the credit risk; GradRight is the marketplace that makes them compete and earns a cut on completed disbursements. The revenue split and the traction behind it:
- By revenue line (company-stated, January 2024): ~75% bank loan commissions; the remainder from university subscription/usage fees and value-added services.
- By geography: heavily US-weighted — 25 of 26 university partners in the US (one in Canada) as of January 2024; expansion planned into Europe, Vietnam, Africa and the Middle East.
- By student base: 80% of FundRight users from Tier 2/Tier 3 cities (Business Today) — the underserved segment where competitive bidding matters most.
- Platform throughput: over ₹14,300 crore ($1.75 billion) in loan requests and 55,000+ students by August 2023 (Entrackr); more recent tallies cite roughly ₹16,300 crore in loan requests and 200,000+ students, with the company stating 300,000+ students served overall (GradRight, 2025-26).
- Disbursals vs requests: the gap matters — of the request pipeline, GradRight cited about ₹2,000 crore actually disbursed over two-and-a-half years (Business Today, January 2024) and roughly $175 million disbursed against the $1.75 billion requested (Entrackr, 2023). Commission revenue tracks the smaller disbursed number, not the headline request figure.
The risks
GradRight’s risks cluster around the same fact that powers it: it is a thin-margin intermediary bolted to one volatile demand stream.
- US concentration and visa policy. With the loan book overwhelmingly US-bound, any tightening of US student visas or work-visa routes directly shrinks GradRight’s core demand. Co-founder Aman Singh was publicly fielding questions about US demand and job-market wobbles as recently as December 2024 (BusinessLine) — a signal that the single-market exposure is a live concern, not a hypothetical one.
- Losses outrunning revenue. FY25 expenses (₹55.7 crore) exceeded revenue (₹39.3 crore), and the ₹16.4 crore loss widened year-on-year. With only about $6 million in disclosed equity raised and a Series B still unannounced, GradRight has limited margin for error if the raise slips or study-abroad demand dips.
- Disintermediation and lender dependence. The commission model relies on 15-16 lender relationships and on banks continuing to pay for a funnel they could, in principle, rebuild themselves; students who discover options on the platform can also transact elsewhere. Regulatory scrutiny of digital lending and loan-sourcing arrangements is an added overhang.
- Crowded field. Overseas-education financing and counselling is contested by players such as Leverage Edu, Prodigy Finance, Avanse and HDFC Credila, pressuring both take rates and customer-acquisition costs.
The takeaway
GradRight is a clean case study in the difference between transaction volume and a business. Routing ₹14,300 crore — later ₹16,300 crore — of loan requests through an auction is a genuinely useful market design, and it made banks compete for students who used to have no leverage at all. But sitting in the middle of billions in borrowing is not the same as capturing much of it: GradRight keeps a commission on the far smaller sum actually disbursed, and it still lost ₹16.4 crore in FY25 while spending to grow. The transferable lesson is that a marketplace’s headline “value processed” is a vanity number until you know the take rate on the fraction that closes — and that a single-market demand engine, however elegant, is only as safe as the visa line at the consulate.
Frequently asked questions
What does GradRight do?
GradRight runs two connected platforms for Indians studying abroad: FundRight, an education-loan bidding marketplace where banks and NBFCs compete transparently on rate and terms, and SelectRight, a data-driven college and course match-making tool. Students use both for free; GradRight earns from lenders and universities.
Who founded GradRight and when?
It was founded in 2019 by Aman Singh (CEO) and Sasidhar Sista (COO), both of whom previously worked in Indian higher education, including at Ashoka University. The Indian operating entity, Gradright Edtech Private Limited, was incorporated on 29 July 2019 in Hyderabad, Telangana.
How much money has GradRight raised, and from whom?
GradRight raised a ₹50 crore Series A led by IvyCap Ventures on 24 August 2023 — its first disclosed institutional round, about four years after founding. Inc42 puts total disclosed funding at roughly $6.05 million and its last known valuation at about $19.99 million (around ₹150 crore). A Series B has been discussed but not announced as of September 2026.
Is GradRight profitable?
No. Per Inc42’s RoC-based figures, GradRight posted a net loss of ₹16.4 crore in FY25 on revenue of ₹39.3 crore, with the loss widening about 22% year-on-year as expenses (₹55.7 crore) ran ahead of revenue.
How does GradRight make money if students pay nothing?
About 75% of revenue comes from commissions banks pay when a loan sourced through FundRight is disbursed; the rest comes from university subscription/usage fees and value-added services such as insurance and forex (company-stated, Business Today, January 2024). GradRight does not lend its own money — banks provide the capital and carry the risk.
Sources
Figures are as of September 2026. Currency converted at $1 ≈ ₹96.0 as of 18 September 2026 (Trading Economics).
- Inc42 — “Edtech Startup GradRight Secures INR 50 Cr” (August 2023); GradRight funding and financials pages (2026)
- Entrackr — “GradRight raises Rs 50 Cr in Series A round led by IvyCap Ventures” (August 2023)
- Business Today — “This start-up has brought students, universities and banks together” (January 2024); “Edtech firm GradRight secures Rs 50 cr in Series A” (September 2023)
- The PIE News — Aman Singh interview (May 2021); “GradRight launches new course-matching tool” / SelectRight (September 2021)
- Elets DigitalLearning / FinTechBizNews — GradRight-PhonePe partnership (June 2024)
- BusinessLine — Aman Singh on US student demand (December 2024)
- Tofler and Tracxn — Gradright Edtech Private Limited, CIN U80302TG2019PTC134407, incorporation and directors (MCA-based, 2026)
- PitchBook — GradRight valuation and funding profile (2026)
- GradRight — company website (about-us, FundRight and SelectRight product pages), 2025-26
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