Avagmah - A Startup Focused on Higher Education

Infosys ex-cofounder Kris Gopalakrishnan and Atul Nishar, founder of Hexaware and Aptech have invested an unspecified amount in Avagmah, a Bangalore-based tech startup focussed on higher education. Avagmah said it will use latest investments for technology improvement and in acquiring new Indian university clients.

Though the details of this round of funding haven’t been disclosed, Avagmah has secured USD 5 million in investments in the last 18 months. Two-year-old Avagmah, founded by entrepreneur K.S. Karthik, provides an instinctive technology platform on a distributed services model to assist universities with digital marketing technology. It also provides application-based and web technology solutions for the delivery of courses by universities.

"The current brick and mortar higher education system is facing major challenges of excellence and access, with only 24 million students enrolled out of the potential 120 million. I see a great potential in startups like Avagmah which can bring in positive disruption in our education system through technology," Kris Gopalakrishnan said.

Through Avagmah's platform, universities can help working professionals and distant students pursue a degree program and connect with their professors for lectures and doubt clarifications. Currently, 45 percent of the students who are registered for university programs through Avagmah are from Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Raipur, Chattisgarh, and Gujarat.

Atul Nishar sees a shortage of quality faculty as the single major challenge that universities are facing today. “Universities will gradually resort to using technology to increase their reach and ease faculty access to students,” he said.

Lionrock Capital, Singapore, Ganesh Krishnan (TutorVista founder), and NeerajBhargava (founder of Zodius Capital) are Avagmah's other investors. It is currently working with three universities that include Pondicherry University, Bharathidasan University, and Los Angeles-based UCLA Extension.