Delhi-based edtech startup Leverage Edu has delivered one of the strongest turnaround numbers of the season: operating revenue more than doubled to ₹364.4 crore in FY26, up from ₹173.3 crore in FY25, while the company turned EBITDA-positive and narrowed its net loss 82% year-on-year to ₹19 crore. In a tighter startup funding market in India where investors are demanding visible unit economics, the study-abroad platform's profitability pivot is exactly the story capital is chasing.
The growth engine sits outside India. International markets contributed over 81% of total revenue, rising 2.3 times to ₹297 crore — a sign that the company's bet on global expansion has become its core business, not a side experiment. Leverage Edu helps Indian students secure admissions at overseas universities, a segment that has proven far more resilient than domestic K-12 edtech through the post-pandemic shakeout.
Profitability becomes the new fundraising currency
The numbers land at a telling moment: weekly startup funding in India slipped to $232 million, down 45% year-on-year, even as it rose 92% week-on-week. Investors are writing bigger, more selective cheques to companies with a credible path to profit. Leverage Edu's FY26 performance puts it squarely in that cohort — an edtech that survived the sector's reckoning by internationalising early and tightening its cost base before being forced to.
The turnaround also sharpens the company's pre-IPO positioning. The Delhi startup has been reported to be in talks around a ₹500 crore pre-IPO round targeting FY27, and two consecutive years of revenue growth above 100% with losses compressing to a fifth of their earlier level strengthens its negotiating hand with growth-stage investors.
Why it matters for founders
Leverage Edu's playbook — double revenue, go international for 81% of it, cut losses 82% in the same year — is the template investors are funding right now. In a market where seed funding fell 37% in Jan–Sep 2026, profitability isn't a nice-to-have; it's the fundraising strategy.