Online education platform CollegeDekho has launched offline counselling centres, called CollegeDekho Cafes, in Lucknow, Patna, Guwahati and Ranchi. It plans to launch these centres in other cities in the near future. Students can avail personal education counselling and recommendations for colleges and universities and/or courses. The company currently claims to have a database of 22,000 colleges and 500,000 visitors monthly. Funding: Last month, the Gurgaon based company raised $2 million in funding from Man Capital. It would be used for upgrading its technology, acquiring new talent, marketing activities and onboarding more colleges. In December last year, the company raised seed funding worth $1 million from GirnarSoft, the parent company of CarDekho, which would be used for development of the platform, building its team and marketing. Other companies who have ventured in the offline space recently: - In March, MobiKwik launched the ‘Explore Nearby’ feature on its app, which let users discover neighbourhood stores, restaurants, cafes which accepted MobiKwik payment. - In February, Big Bazaar Direct, the ecommerce arm of retail provider big Bazaar, tied up with Oxigen to let Oxigen’s retailers sell goods from Big Bazaar Direct through Oxigen’s platform at physical stores. - In the same month, Paytm tied up with offline players in the mobile and electronic appliances sector to list their stores on its e-commerce marketplace. - A month before that, digital payments company TranServ partnered with Ratnakar Bank to offer physical VISA prepaid cards. - In January, online fashion retailer Yepme launched its first brick-and-mortar store in…
