Making Education Funds Accessible Financepeer is expected to launch several innovative products to strengthen the education ecosystem. The company envisages making education accessible to the masses

A Google-incubated startup that endeavours into education fee financing while envisaging access to quality education to the masses, Financepeer was founded in 2017 by Rohit Gajbhiye, Sunit Gajbhiye, Naveesh Reddy and Debi Prasad Baral to address the gaps that have hindered the progress of the education ecosystem.

"We are determined to create a working environment that is free from prejudices and biases. Ours is a gender-neutral organization that strives to provide equal opportunities for employment, growth, and development to all our employees irrespective of their caste, creed, or religion. We promote new ideas and healthy competition between our employees," said Rohit Gajbhiye, founder and CEO, Financepeer.

Education has remained one of the top priorities for parents despite all odds. According to Gajbhiye, quality education has a cost component added to it and this is a visible gap that exists in the education sector. Financepeer offers an innovative fee payment solution where the parent can pay their education fees in multiple parts at zero additional cost thereby eliminating the parents' burden of making bulk payments.

Financepeer is providing the fee payment solution at EMI across India with zero cost and zero interest. Financepeer is an enabler for institutions to receive a 100 per cent fee at the beginning of the academic session and facilitates a no-cost and zero-interest EMI for parents.

"One of the most evident effects of the pandemic was the loss of income for millions of families. Due to this, millions of students either had to drop out of school or had to compromise the quality of their education. Several reports suggest that during the pandemic more than 4 million students shifted from private schools to government schools. We did thorough research on the problems in the Indian education sector, identified the gaps, and brainstormed on how to address the issues. We also keep tabs on the school dropout rates, the status of girl students, school fee increments, etc. Most importantly, we are always conducting research on how to bring innovative products for the convenience of our customers," commented Gajbhiye.

Gajbhiye believes that fee financing has revolutionized the education system and holds huge potential. It has helped remove capital as a barrier from the education sector. All the stakeholders of the education sector have not only recognized but also acknowledge the importance of fee financing. Fee financing has also made its way to tier II and tier III cities and rural areas.

The biggest challenge faced by Financepeer was that most people confused it with conventional education loans. Spreading awareness of the differences between fee financing and loans was a big task.

Having raised $31 million in Series-B funding led by US-based venture capital fund QED Investors, domestic investor Aavishkaar Capital and Ardent Ventures, Financepeer has a network of over 13000 institutions and 3 million students. The company is operational pan-India and also penetrating tier-II and tier-III markets. Financepeer is also expected to launch several innovative products to strengthen the education ecosystem and the company envisages making education accessible to the masses.

"My suggestion to those planning to venture into the sector is to not look for shortcuts but rather aim at providing the solutions which the industry requires. Besides business one should also view it as a noble cause. Therefore, apart from making profits, entrepreneurs should also focus on what they are giving back to society," advises Gajbhiye to the budding entrepreneurs.