Fintech platform Kuhoo on March 1 announced to have raised a whopping $20 million seed fund from West Bridge Capital. The firm aims to utilise this fund to transform the student loan fintech sector.
Named after the sweet sound of the bird Cuckoo, 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 various streams like engineering, MBA, executive education, online courses, coaching classes, and even new age courses.
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"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.
Bhonsle further added that they wish to give the most dignified experience to students, parents, universities, and all our partners though their financial assistance.
"We have closely followed the Indian education sector for over a decade now. With the rising costs of education, we believe that India needs loan providers who comprehensively understand the problems of students, parents, and academic institutes. Assessing future employability & income of students are two of the biggest challenges for existing banks and NBFCs that are offering student loans. We are glad that we have found the right entrepreneur in Prashant," West Bridge Capital partner Deepak Ramineedi said.
