Ed-tech startup Rubix raises pre-Series A round

By Shweta Sharma

  • 17 Jan 2018

Pune-based ed-tech startup Rubix108 Technologies has secured $1 million (about Rs 6 crore) in a pre-Series A funding round led by Polaris Fund, a company statement said.

Ayush Kankariya, a high-net-worth individual and financial services expert, also participated in the round.

The startup will use the funds to acquire customers, on board more schools, and will enter foreign markets such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and the Middle East, the statement added.

“The funds will be used to prune the product and augurs well for the huge demand we are witnessing from international clients. We aim to treble the customer base this year and increase the top-line ten times. Proactively identifying solutions to make educational institutions more productive is one of our key drivers,” said Manish Harodia, co-founder and chief executive of Rubix108 Technologies.

Founded in 2015, Rubix offers educational institutions an app to manage their communications and administration requirements. The Rubix app comes in two versions—Rubix Total connects institutes and parents and keeps the latter up to date on exams, schedules, attendance, homework, etc. Rubix Teacher helps teachers plan their work and integrates their activities on a single platform.

The company claims to have over 3 lakh students on its platform along with over 10,000 teachers using the app.

The startup was founded by Anmol Chhoriya, Rahul Kankaria, and Harodia. Chhoriya, a management graduate, is a third generation entrepreneur with over three decades of family-run business expertise in real estate and construction.

Kankaria is the firm’s chief technology officer and has previously worked at Symantec and HCL Technologies. His expertise lies in cloud, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and architecture. He is also the founder of Botlab Robotics, a research startup in the robotics field.

Harodia is a seasoned first generation entrepreneur. A management graduate from IIM Kozhikode, he has made angel investments in his personal capacity and profitably exited one of his earlier ventures in 2015.

Other ed-tech startups that recently raised funds include Bangalore-headquartered CollPoll, which runs a communication and collaboration platform for educational institutes. It raised an undisclosed sum in a pre-Series A round led by Manipal Global Education Services.

Last week, Ronnie Screwvala’s UpGrad is set to raise around $40 million (Rs 266 crore) in its first round of external funding.

In December 2017, Springboard, which offers professional courses, raised $9.5 million (Rs 62 crore) in a Series A funding round led by US-based early-stage venture capital firm Costanoa Ventures.