In the fiscal year to March 2025, Leverage Edu’s revenue from operations climbed 91% to ₹173 crore ($18 million), and its net loss grew right alongside it, widening 56% to ₹106 crore, per the company’s Registrar of Companies filings as reported by Entrackr in November 2025. The company was booking more study-abroad admissions than ever in a year when the number of Indian students actually leaving to study abroad was falling.
That is the tension running through this business. Leverage Edu, built by a first-time founder from a study-abroad app he coded during his own MBA, has grown revenue faster than almost any peer in Indian edtech, is reported to be raising money at a $300 million valuation, and is talking openly about an IPO. It has also never turned a full audited annual profit, spends more than a rupee and a half to earn each rupee, and depends for most of its money on a customer base that immigration departments in Canada, the UK and the US have spent two years shrinking. This piece works through both sides with the numbers on each.
Quick facts
| Company | Leverage Edu (legal entity Leverage Ed-Tech Private Limited; CIN U80900DL2015PTC279331, registered in New Delhi) |
| Founded | Entity incorporated 2015 per its MCA record; the company dates its founding to April 2017. Based in New Delhi |
| Founder(s) | Akshay Chaturvedi (founder and CEO), an ISB alumnus who previously worked at KPMG and EY |
| Businesses | Study-abroad counselling and admissions, plus student financial services (Fly Finance loans and forex/remittance), accommodation booking (Fly Homes), test-prep apps and live learning |
| Latest FY revenue | ₹173 crore operating revenue in FY25, up 91% year-on-year (ROC filings via Entrackr, November 2025). Company-claimed, unaudited FY26 revenue: ₹375 crore |
| Latest FY profit/loss | Net loss of ₹106 crore in FY25, up from a ₹68 crore loss in FY24 (Entrackr). No full-year audited profit reported to date |
| Listed | Private. Reported to have appointed bankers for a ₹2,000–3,000 crore IPO (Inc42, April 2026); no draft prospectus filed as of this writing |
| Market value / last valuation | ~$300 million (~₹2,900 crore) at a reported Series D in May 2026, up from ~$140–150 million at its July 2023 Series C (Entrackr, Inc42) |
| Key shareholders / CEO | Blume Ventures’ trustee vehicle was the largest single holder (16.9%) after Series C; founder Akshay Chaturvedi held 9.98% (Entrackr, October 2023). CEO: Akshay Chaturvedi |
What they do
Leverage Edu runs a platform that walks an Indian, Nigerian or Nepalese student through the whole journey of going abroad for a degree: shortlisting universities, building the application, sitting the English tests, arranging the loan, moving the money across borders, and finding a room in the destination city. It works with more than 700 universities and institutions worldwide, and it earns most of its money when a student it counsels actually enrols at a partner university and the university pays a commission. Around that core admissions business it has bolted on financial services, accommodation and test-prep, so that a single student can generate several fees on one journey rather than one. That bundling is the strategy to keep in mind before the numbers make sense.
The origin
Akshay Chaturvedi did not come out of the usual startup mould. He grew up in a lower-middle-class family, and before he founded anything he worked at KPMG and then EY, the accounting firms, while running side projects as a writer, mentor and small investor. In an interview reconstructed by Inc42, he traces the idea to something he learned at EY: that one in four Chinese students in the United States had studied with New Oriental Education, a Nasdaq-listed tutoring company then worth over $20 billion. If China had built a company that size on the back of students going abroad, India, which sends hundreds of thousands of students overseas every year, had nothing comparable. He left EY in 2014 to do an MBA, aiming first at Oxford and landing at the Indian School of Business. While at ISB he built an internal app, called Leverage, that let students connect with people who had already navigated higher-education admissions. That app became the company, which dates its founding to April 2017. It is worth being precise here: the legal entity, Leverage Ed-Tech Private Limited, carries a 2015 incorporation year on its MCA record, while the company itself points to 2017 as its start; both are stated rather than picking one silently.
The struggle years
The first near-death came fast. Leverage Edu sells help with physically relocating to another country for a course, and in 2020 that market simply closed. Over roughly the first ten months of the pandemic, as borders shut and flights stopped, its revenue collapsed, according to the account Chaturvedi gave Inc42. A company whose entire product assumes a student can get on a plane had, for the better part of a year, no plane to put anyone on.
The second problem was self-inflicted and, in hindsight, more instructive. To grow before the pandemic, Leverage Edu had leaned hard on performance marketing, spending as much as ₹6 crore a month buying student leads, per the same Inc42 account, with a customer-acquisition cost that ran to about $2,400 per enrolled student. That is a punishing figure in a business where the fee per student is measured in a few thousand dollars, and it is exactly the pattern that has bankrupted other Indian edtech companies: buy growth with marketing money faster than the unit economics can pay it back. The pandemic, by cutting off the revenue that funded the marketing, forced the company to confront a cost structure that was not going to survive contact with a downturn.
The turning point
The turning point was not a fundraise or a product launch. It was the decision, forced by the 2020 collapse, to stop buying growth and start engineering it. Chaturvedi’s team rebuilt acquisition around what he described to Inc42 as a data-led approach: instead of blanket performance-marketing spend, it concentrated on 144 micro-markets where the cost of finding a serious study-abroad student was lowest, and pulled back sharply from paid channels everywhere else. The stated results are stark on both sides of the line. Monthly performance-marketing spend fell from about ₹6 crore to roughly ₹15 lakh, and customer-acquisition cost dropped from around $2,400 to about $800 per student. The company said this let it reach EBITDA profitability in the quarter to March 2023 (Q4 FY23), though it noted at the time those quarterly figures were not yet audited.
The same period reshaped what the company actually sold. Its student-lending arm, then branded around “Fly Finance”, scaled its loan facilitation from about ₹30 crore in 2021 to roughly ₹270 crore in 2022, with the company projecting ₹700–800 crore for 2023, per Inc42. In other words, the turning point was the moment Leverage Edu stopped being purely an admissions-lead business and became a business that also moved money for the students it advised, a shift that shows up directly in the revenue mix a couple of years later.
The money behind it
- Series A, ₹47 crore (~$6.5 million), February 2021: led by Tomorrow Capital, with existing backers Blume Ventures and DSG Consumer Partners participating (Inc42; Indiablooms; Tomorrow Capital investment page).
- Series B, $22 million, March 2022, at a $120 million valuation: a broad round including Kaizenvest PE, DSP mutual fund entities, Artha Ventures, UAE-based NB Ventures, 9Unicorns, Trifecta Ventures and Bennett Coleman (Times Group), alongside returning investors Blume, DSG and Tomorrow Capital; angels included CRED’s Kunal Shah, Lenskart’s Peyush Bansal and BookMyShow’s Ashish Hemrajani (Entrackr; The PIE News; YourStory, March 2022).
- Series C, $40 million, July 2023: about $21 million equity and the rest venture debt. The equity was co-led by Educational Testing Service (ETS), the US body behind the TOEFL and GRE, and Shorelight, each putting in about ₹41 crore ($5 million); Three State Capital, Capri Global and Blume also invested (Entrackr, October 2023, decoding the regulatory filings).
- Series C valuation is contested: Inc42 and YourStory reported it at about $150 million; Entrackr’s filing-level analysis put the post-allotment valuation nearer $140 million. Both figures are cited here rather than one being presented as settled.
- Series D, reported May 2026: over $20 million (~₹200 crore) in equity and venture debt, with Dubai-based Aditum Fund said to lead the equity and IDFC FIRST Bank the debt, at a reported ~$300 million (~₹2,900 crore) valuation (Entrackr exclusive; corroborated by NewsBytes and IPO Central). This round is company-unconfirmed and is treated as reported, not audited.
- Total raised: about $70 million by the time of the Series C (Entrackr, October 2023), rising to nearly $90 million with the reported Series D (Entrackr, May 2026).
- What the backers changed: Tomorrow Capital’s Series A was the first institutional cheque that took the company past its founder-and-angel phase; ETS’s Series C lead was strategic rather than purely financial, tying the platform to the test-maker whose exams its students sit; and the reported Aditum-led Series D is the round the company is using to frame an IPO narrative.
How it makes money
Underneath the app, Leverage Edu is a commission and fee business stacked on a single customer journey.
- Money in, the core: commissions from universities when a student it counsels enrols. Student placement services alone were over 90% of operating revenue in FY24 and still 70% (₹120.6 crore) in FY25, per Entrackr’s read of the filings — this is the engine.
- Money in, the second leg: financial services under the Fly brand — education loans and, increasingly, forex and remittance — which brought in ₹29.7 crore in FY25, roughly double the prior year (Entrackr, November 2025). The company said its remittance arm processed about ₹2,000 crore in transactions in FY26 (company-claimed, Business Standard, October 2025).
- Money in, the rest: product sales (test-prep and related) of ₹21.2 crore and other income of ₹4.9 crore in FY25 (Entrackr).
- Money out: the three big cost lines in FY25 were employee benefits (₹64 crore), advertising and promotion (₹59.8 crore, up 2.2 times year-on-year) and commission to agents (₹51.2 crore, up 2.6 times) — Entrackr, November 2025.
- Where the margin sits: in cross-selling, not in any single admission. A student who takes a loan, moves money and books a room through Leverage Edu is worth several fees; the model’s whole logic is to raise revenue per student rather than chase more students. Its own reported revenue-per-student ran around $4,200 (Inc42).
- The part people get wrong: it looks like an edtech “courses” company, but very little of its money comes from teaching. It is closer to a broker — of admissions, loans, forex and housing — than to a tutor, which is why its costs are dominated by marketing and agent commissions rather than content.
The numbers
The figures below, unit ₹ crore, come from Leverage Ed-Tech’s Registrar of Companies filings as reported by Entrackr, with the FY26 line flagged separately because it is a company claim and not yet an audited, filed number.
| Fiscal year | Operating revenue (₹ crore) | Net profit / (loss) (₹ crore) |
| FY24 | 90.6 | (68) |
| FY25 | 173 | (106) |
| FY26 (company-claimed, unaudited) | 375 | Not disclosed |
- FY24: ₹90.6 crore operating revenue; net loss ₹68 crore; total expenses ₹162 crore; the company spent about ₹1.79 to earn each rupee of operating revenue (Entrackr).
- FY25: ₹173 crore operating revenue (up 91%); total income ₹177 crore; net loss ₹106 crore (up 56%); total expenses ₹280 crore (up 73%). EBITDA loss ₹83 crore, an EBITDA margin of about -47.4%; the spend-to-earn ratio improved to ₹1.62. Cash and bank balances were about ₹34 crore as of March 2025 (Entrackr, November 2025).
- FY26 (company-claimed, unaudited): revenue of about ₹375 crore, up 112% year-on-year, with the company saying it turned EBITDA-positive for the year (Entrackr; Business Standard). This is a company statement pending audited filings and is not treated here as confirmed.
The shape is unambiguous: revenue is compounding fast, but so is the loss, because the marketing and agent-commission lines have grown even faster than revenue. FY25 is the year the company doubled its top line and its absolute loss reached its widest recorded level. Whether the FY26 EBITDA-positive claim holds up in the audited accounts is the single most important open question about this business.
Where the money comes from
- By product, FY25 (Entrackr): student placement services ₹120.6 crore (70% of operating revenue); financial services (Fly) ₹29.7 crore; product sales ₹21.2 crore; other ₹4.9 crore.
- The direction of travel: in FY24, placement services were over 90% of revenue; by FY25 that share had fallen to 70% as financial services roughly doubled. The mix is deliberately diversifying away from pure admissions commissions toward money-movement.
- By student origin: the company’s addressable base is students from India, Nigeria and Nepal heading abroad, per its own descriptions; it partners with 700-plus universities on the receiving end. A precise revenue split by source or destination country is not published, so none is invented here.
- The surprise: the fastest-growing money is not tuition-adjacent at all. Remittance and loans — moving a student’s fees and living costs across borders — are becoming a second business inside the first, with the remittance arm alone said to have handled around ₹2,000 crore of flows in FY26 (company-claimed, Business Standard, October 2025). The counselling brand is increasingly a customer-acquisition funnel for financial services.
The risks
- The customer base is shrinking by government policy: the number of Indian students going abroad fell about 31% over three years, to roughly 6.26 lakh in 2025 from 9.08 lakh in 2023, on Ministry of External Affairs data reported by Business Standard (February 2026). Canada was hit hardest, with study-permit-linked arrivals down about 41% between 2023 and 2024, the UK down about 27% and the US down about 13%, as Canada capped study permits, the UK barred taught-master’s students from bringing dependants, and US F-1 rejection rates for Indians hit about 41% in 2025 (Business Today, March 2025; Business Standard). Because Leverage Edu earns most of its money only when a student actually enrols abroad, a shrinking outbound pool hits the core line directly, and no product decision of its own can reverse an immigration cap.
- Growth is being bought, not banked: FY25 losses widened to ₹106 crore precisely because advertising (up 2.2 times) and agent commissions (up 2.6 times) outran revenue. With cash and bank balances of about ₹34 crore at March 2025 against an ₹83 crore EBITDA loss for the year (Entrackr), the model needs continued external funding to keep spending at that pace — which is the fragile part of any marketing-led acquisition engine when a downturn arrives.
- Revenue concentration in commissions it does not set: even after diversifying, 70% of FY25 revenue came from placement commissions paid by universities, and a rising share of costs is commission paid out to agents. The company sits between two commission structures it only partly controls; if universities trim inbound-agent payouts or agents demand more, the margin is squeezed from both ends.
The takeaway
The transferable lesson in Leverage Edu is what a company does when its single market contracts for reasons it cannot influence. Faced with a customer base being cut by immigration policy, it did not simply fight harder for a shrinking pool of admissions; it changed what it sold to each customer it did win, layering loans, forex, remittance and housing onto the same journey so that revenue per student could rise even as the number of students available fell. That is why its top line kept doubling through years when the count of Indians going abroad dropped by a third. The unresolved half of the lesson is equally clear: diversifying revenue is not the same as fixing economics, and until an audited year shows the company keeping more than it spends, the widening loss is the fact that travels with every growth headline.
Frequently asked questions
What does Leverage Edu do?
It is a study-abroad platform that helps students, mainly from India, Nigeria and Nepal, shortlist and apply to overseas universities, prepare for English tests, arrange education loans and forex, and book accommodation. It works with more than 700 universities and earns most of its money from commissions when a student it counsels enrols at a partner institution.
Who founded Leverage Edu and when?
Akshay Chaturvedi, a former KPMG and EY employee who built an early version of the product as a student app during his MBA at the Indian School of Business. The company dates its founding to April 2017; its legal entity, Leverage Ed-Tech Private Limited, carries a 2015 incorporation year on its MCA record.
How much money has Leverage Edu raised, and at what valuation?
It raised a ₹47 crore Series A (2021, led by Tomorrow Capital), a $22 million Series B at a $120 million valuation (2022), and a $40 million Series C led by ETS in 2023 at a reported $140–150 million valuation. In May 2026 it was reported to be raising a Series D of over $20 million at about a $300 million valuation, taking total funding to nearly $90 million.
Is Leverage Edu profitable?
Not on an audited full-year basis to date. It posted a net loss of ₹68 crore in FY24 and ₹106 crore in FY25 on operating revenue of ₹90.6 crore and ₹173 crore respectively (Entrackr, from ROC filings). The company has claimed it turned EBITDA-positive in FY26 on about ₹375 crore of revenue, but those figures are company-stated and not yet audited.
What is Leverage Edu’s biggest risk?
Immigration policy in its destination markets. The number of Indian students going abroad fell roughly 31% over three years to about 6.26 lakh in 2025, as Canada, the UK and the US tightened study visas. Since the company earns most of its revenue only when a student actually enrols overseas, a policy-driven fall in outbound students directly shrinks the market it depends on.
Sources
Figures are as of September 2026. Currency converted at $1 ≈ ₹96.0 as of 18 September 2026 (Trading Economics).
- Entrackr, November 2025 — “Leverage Edu posts Rs 106 Cr loss on Rs 173 Cr revenue in FY25”
- Entrackr — “Leverage Edu crosses Rs 180 Cr revenue in FY25”
- Entrackr, October 2023 — “Decoding Leverage Edu’s Series C round”
- Entrackr, May 2026 — “Exclusive: Leverage Edu set to raise over $20 Mn Series D at $300 Mn valuation”
- Inc42 — “How Leverage Edu Cracked The Profitability Puzzle In Cash Guzzling Edtech Market”
- Inc42, April 2026 — “Exclusive: Leverage Edu Taps Bankers For ₹2,000 Cr-3,000 Cr IPO”
- Inc42 — Leverage Edu company profile and financials (accessed September 2026)
- YourStory, July 2023 — “Leverage Edu bags $40M in Series C funding from ETS, others”
- YourStory / The PIE News, March 2022 — Series B, “$22M at $120M valuation”
- Inc42 / Indiablooms / Tomorrow Capital, February 2021 — Series A, ₹47 crore led by Tomorrow Capital
- Business Standard, October 2025 — “Leverage Edu targets 2x FY26 revenue on Africa, SE Asia expansion”
- Business Standard, February 2026 — “Indian students going abroad fall 31% in 3 years as visa rules tighten”
- Business Today, March 2025 — “UK, US, Canada visa curbs: Indians studying abroad drop by 15% in 2024”
- Ministry of Corporate Affairs — Leverage Ed-Tech Private Limited, CIN U80900DL2015PTC279331
- Trading Economics, 18 September 2026 — USD/INR exchange rate
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