Indian FinTech Startup Kuhoo secures US$20 million Seed Funding from West Bridge Capital

India-based student loan FinTech startup Kuhoo has raised US$20 million in Seed Funding from WestBridge Capital. The startup will be using the fresh funding to transform the student loan FinTech sector.

Kuhoo aims to provide online loans to students aspiring to study in universities both in India and abroad. It is also the first student loan provider to offer products across several streams like MBA, Engineering, online courses, executive education, and even new age courses.

“We are on a mission to make Indian students Atmanirbhar. In our cumulative experience of over 30 years in lending to Indian students, we have observed that many talented students do not apply to good universities because they worry about burdening their parents with high costs of fees & living expenses. We want to change this. At Kuhoo, we combine our vast experience with advanced technology & data science to create risk & credit models. These models help us evaluate students’ potential employability and future incomes for various courses students enrol in,” Kuhoo’s founder Prashant A Bhonsle said in a statement.

“With this unique ability, Kuhoo can offer different products best suited to individual profiles of students from varied family backgrounds. The other – usually underrated – benefit to the students will be that this loan will help them build credit history while studying. As we all know that in today’s world, a good credit score ensures that the students will get access to the best financial products like credit cards, other loans, etc., once they start working,” he added.

Deepak Ramineedi, Partner at West Bridge Capital, said, “With the rising costs of education, we believe India needs loan providers who comprehensively understand the problems of students, parents, and academic institutes. Assessing the future employability and income of students are two of the biggest challenges for existing banks and NBFCs offering student loans. We are glad we have found the right entrepreneur in Prashant. Other than his experience in creating one of the most successful student lending companies in India, we like his vision of using technology and analytics to build an online business model.”

About Kuhoo

Kuhoo was founded in 2021 by a former ICICI, HDFC Credila, and Incred executive and a banking veteran, Prashant A Bhonsle,

The startup intends to fill the gap between the increasing cost of education and affordability and create products primarily based on the academic background, college, course rankings, and career prospects for the students.