Startup Deep Dive : NoPaperForms — FY26 operating revenue Rs 115.6 crore with profit Rs 11.9 crore; filed updated DRHP for IPO with a Rs 375 crore fresh issue

NoPaperForms , rebranded as Meritto in 2023, is an Indian education SaaS company based in Gurugram that sells enrolment automation, CRM and fee-collection software to colleges, universities and schools.

This Startup Deep Dive explains what NoPaperForms does, how it makes money, who backs it, how it compares with rivals and what could go wrong, using publicly available information. It is educational and not investment advice. Last updated: October 2026.

NoPaperForms in Brief

  • What it is: NoPaperForms is an Indian Edtech SaaS (admissions CRM) company based in Gurugram.
  • Who it serves: businesses, institutions, consumers, learners and public-sector buyers.
  • Sells SaaS tools for student recruitment, admissions and enrolment to educational institutions.
  • Product suite includes Enrollment Cloud, Education CRM, Application Platform, Education Payment Cloud and Engagement Suite.
  • Collexo handles fee collection and payments, including EMI options for learners.
  • Funding: About $5.35M over five rounds per one tracker (older data).

NoPaperForms Quick Facts

Company NoPaperForms
Founded 2017
Headquarters Gurugram
Founders Naveen Goyal, Suraj Sapra
Sector Edtech SaaS (admissions CRM)
Total funding About $5.35M over five rounds per one tracker (older data)
Latest round Series B of about $3.98M (Rs 28 crore) from Info Edge in December 2018, per one tracker
Valuation Reported IPO target valuation of about Rs 2,000 crore (not a priced round)
Website Not disclosed

Figures marked “reported” come from published reports and may differ between sources; “Not disclosed” means no reliable public figure was found.

What Is NoPaperForms?

NoPaperForms operates in the Edtech SaaS (admissions CRM) space in India. Understanding a company like this starts with three questions: who is the customer, what painful problem is being solved, and why the solution is better than the alternatives. The sections below apply that lens to NoPaperForms.

  • Sells SaaS tools for student recruitment, admissions and enrolment to educational institutions.
  • Product suite includes Enrollment Cloud, Education CRM, Application Platform, Education Payment Cloud and Engagement Suite.
  • Collexo handles fee collection and payments, including EMI options for learners.
  • Mio AI suite lets institutions deploy AI agents across student-facing workflows.
  • Claims about 1,183 customers in FY26, including 104 overseas clients.

The Origin Story of NoPaperForms

Every company starts from a noticed gap and a team willing to commit to closing it. Strong origin stories are specific: a clear problem, a founding team with relevant skills, and an early product that real customers could test. Founder-market fit, meaning the team’s lived experience or technical depth in the domain, tends to predict how fast a young company learns.

  • Founders: Naveen Goyal, Suraj Sapra.
  • Started as NoPaperForms, an online admission-form platform that replaced paper forms; early model charged applicants extra per online form.
  • Founding year reports differ: 2017 in most sources, 2016 in one acquisition report.
  • Founders named as Naveen Goyal (CEO) and Suraj Sapra; one directory also lists Ankita Goyal.
  • Rebranded to Meritto in June 2023 to reflect an expanding platform and markets.

Key Milestones and Challenges

No startup grows in a straight line. Early years usually involve slow adoption, product rewrites, hiring mistakes and funding gaps. In the Edtech SaaS (admissions CRM) sector the common turning points are a first paying customer, a regulatory approval, a successful product demonstration or a funding round that lets the team invest ahead of demand. How a team responds to setbacks says more about resilience than any single headline.

  • 2017: Company founded (reports differ, one says 2016).
  • 2017-2018: Info Edge invested about $400K in seed and $3.2M in a 2018 Series A.
  • December 2018: Series B of about $3.98M (Rs 28 crore) from Info Edge, per trackers.
  • June 2023: Rebranded from NoPaperForms to Meritto.
  • July 2025: Converted into a public company ahead of IPO.
  • November 2025: Confidential DRHP filed.
  • March 2026: SEBI approval received.
  • 2026: Updated DRHP filed for Rs 375 crore fresh issue plus offer for sale of up to 3.8 crore shares by Info Edge.

NoPaperForms Funding and Investors

Funding history shows how much outside confidence a company has attracted and how long it can operate before needing more capital. Figures below are reported and may differ between sources; valuation figures are estimates unless the company has confirmed them.

  • Seed: about $400K, Info Edge.
  • 2018 Series A: about $3.2M, Info Edge.
  • December 2018 Series B: about $3.98M (Rs 28 crore), existing investor Info Edge.
  • Total about $5.35M over five rounds per one tracker; Info Edge holds about 48%.

How Does NoPaperForms Make Money? (Business Model)

A business model describes who pays, how often and how much it costs to serve them. Strong models show repeat usage, improving margins with scale and acquisition channels that do not depend only on paid spend. Weak models show one-off sales, rising costs and growth that stops when spending stops. For companies selling to businesses, institutions, consumers, learners and public-sector buyers, sales cycles and contract size matter as much as headline growth.

  • Subscription SaaS sold to educational institutions.
  • Payments and fee collection add transaction-linked revenue via Collexo.
  • Average revenue per customer Rs 9.8 lakh in FY26, up from Rs 9.2 lakh in FY25.
  • India contributes 91.2% of FY26 revenue, international 8.8%.

The Numbers: NoPaperForms Financials

Financial figures show whether growth is turning into a self-sustaining business. Small and private companies often disclose little, so any number below is included only if it was found in public reporting.

  • FY24: operating revenue Rs 70.4 crore, profit about Rs 4 lakh.
  • FY25: operating revenue Rs 92.3 crore (up about 31%), profit about Rs 1.9 crore (reports differ, headline says Rs 2 crore).
  • FY26: operating revenue Rs 115.6 crore (up 25.2%), profit Rs 11.9 crore.
  • Q1 FY27: operating revenue Rs 44.8 crore, net profit Rs 6 crore.

Market Opportunity for NoPaperForms

Market size is easy to exaggerate, so a useful approach separates the total market from the portion a company can realistically reach with its current product and distribution. The main forces behind demand in this sector are rising digital adoption, cloud and mobile penetration, growing enterprise technology spending, government digitisation programmes and a deep pool of engineering talent. Each of these widens the opportunity, but capital efficiency and execution decide who captures it.

  • Serves over 1,200 education organisations; expanded into the UAE and Malaysia.
  • Customers cited include Manipal University, Shiv Nadar University, NMIMS and PhysicsWallah.

Technology and Product at NoPaperForms

Technology is rarely the whole moat, but it drives speed, cost and customer experience. A practical way to assess it is to separate the capability the company controls from the commodity infrastructure it rents. In this sector the important factors are product quality, data and integration depth, security, scalability and the speed of shipping improvements.

  • Cloud-based enrolment CRM and application platform.
  • Mio AI agents for student-facing and institutional workflows.
  • IPO proceeds earmarked: about Rs 148 crore for tech stack and cloud, about Rs 96 crore for customer acquisition.

Team and Culture at NoPaperForms

Teams are the most important and least measurable asset of a young company. Look at how complementary the founders’ skills are, how deep the second layer of leadership is, and how the company hires and retains specialists. Culture shows up in small repeated behaviours: how quickly bad news travels upward and whether commitments to customers are kept.

  • Naveen Goyal is founder and CEO; Suraj Sapra co-founder and CSO per one profile.

NoPaperForms Competitors: Competitive Landscape

A fair competitive analysis names direct rivals, adjacent players who could move into the space, and the customer’s default alternative. Durable advantages include proprietary data or technology, licences and approvals, brand trust, switching costs and cost leadership.

Competitor How it differs
SlideRoom Listed as a rival in one profile, US-based admissions software
LeadSquared General CRM comparison
Zoho CRM General CRM comparison
ExtraaEdge Education CRM, listed as a peer by a tracker

Risks and Challenges for NoPaperForms

  • Thin profitability history: first profit only in FY24.
  • Rivals say the form-based model has little proprietary IP and can be copied.
  • Dependence on education-sector buying cycles and India (91% of revenue).
  • Large selling shareholder Info Edge exiting partially via IPO.
  • Competition: low barriers to entry and well-funded rivals can compress pricing and slow growth.
  • Funding risk: technology businesses often burn cash before reaching profit and depend on investor appetite.

Risk is not a reason to avoid a company; it is a reason to price it correctly and to monitor the right indicators over time. Regulation in this sector is shaped by data protection rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, sector regulators, consumer protection law and IT rules.

NoPaperForms Growth Outlook: What to Watch

  • Plans IPO with a Rs 375 crore fresh issue to fund technology, customer acquisition and acquisitions.
  • Profit and revenue growing: FY26 profit up about 534%.
  • Key indicators: recurring revenue, customer retention, gross margin, customer acquisition cost and runway.
  • Funding position: Whether NoPaperForms can reach its next milestone before needing new capital.
  • Regulation: Changes from data protection rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, sector regulators, consumer protection law and IT rules.

Industry Context: Where NoPaperForms Fits

India's technology startup ecosystem is one of the largest in the world, supported by cheap data, a large base of smartphone users, digital public infrastructure and a deep engineering talent pool. Companies now build for education, software, mobility, logistics, agriculture, defence, media and more, selling both to Indian customers and abroad.

Durable technology companies usually combine a clear customer problem with repeatable distribution and disciplined unit economics. Growth funded only by spending tends to fade, while products that customers keep using and paying for build compounding advantages.

For readers new to this field, a useful habit is to separate announcements from evidence. A plan, a partnership or a funding headline describes intent, while a delivered product, a paying customer or an audited financial statement describes results. Comparing the two over time shows how reliably a company turns promises into outcomes.

Bull Case and Bear Case for NoPaperForms

An investment thesis is a short, testable statement of why a company could become far more valuable, together with what evidence would prove it wrong. The points below are general to this sector and are not forecasts for NoPaperForms.

Bull case

  • A large and growing base of digital users and businesses expands the addressable market.
  • Recurring revenue and strong retention can compound growth.
  • Selling into global markets widens the opportunity beyond India.

Bear case

  • Heavy competition can compress pricing and margins.
  • Dependence on external funding can force painful cost cuts.
  • Regulation or platform changes can disrupt a product quickly.

Lessons Founders and Investors Can Take from NoPaperForms

Studying a company in the Edtech SaaS (admissions CRM) space offers lessons that go beyond any single firm. The points below are general lessons for the sector and are not claims about NoPaperForms.

  • Solving a clear, frequent customer problem matters more than adding features.
  • Retention and repeat usage are better health signals than sign-ups.
  • Disciplined spending extends runway and keeps options open when funding tightens.
  • Distribution, not just product quality, decides who wins in crowded markets.
  • Building trust through data protection and reliability is part of the product.

How to Evaluate NoPaperForms as a Startup

  • Customer clarity: Can NoPaperForms name its customer and the problem it solves in one sentence?
  • Evidence of demand: Look for repeat customers, signed contracts or measurable usage rather than announcements alone.
  • Economics: Check whether margins improve as volume grows.
  • Execution: Compare announced timelines with what has actually been delivered.
  • Funding runway: Estimate how long current capital lasts at the present spending rate.
  • Regulatory standing: Confirm required approvals are in place.
  • Customer concentration: Check whether a few customers account for most of the revenue.
  • Management depth: Look for experienced leaders beyond the founders and a stable core team.

The Takeaway

NoPaperForms is part of India’s growing Edtech SaaS (admissions CRM) ecosystem. The useful lesson from studying it is the discipline of asking structured questions about customers, economics, advantage and resilience. Companies that answer them well, repeatedly and under pressure are the ones that endure. Readers should treat any single report, ranking or funding headline as one input among many, and should re-check key facts against recent company announcements. Because public information on young companies is often limited, patience in verifying claims is part of good analysis. Public sources can also describe the same company in different ways, so it is worth checking dates, definitions and whether a figure refers to revenue, total income or transaction value, and whether it covers one entity or a wider group, before drawing conclusions. Small differences in rounding, currency conversion or reporting periods can also change how a figure reads. Comparing the same figure across several recent reports helps show whether it is stable or has changed over time. This article is educational and is not investment advice.

  • Clear customers and repeat demand matter more than announcements.
  • Regulation and capital needs shape how fast a startup in this sector can grow.
  • Track a few leading indicators over time rather than one headline metric.

NoPaperForms FAQs: Frequently Asked Questions

What is NoPaperForms?

NoPaperForms, rebranded as Meritto in 2023, is an Indian education SaaS company based in Gurugram that sells enrolment automation, CRM and fee-collection software to colleges, universities and schools. It is profiled in the Startup Deep Dive series, which explains business model, funding, competitors and risks.

Who founded NoPaperForms?

NoPaperForms was founded by Naveen Goyal, Suraj Sapra, and the company reports a founding year of 2017.

How much funding has NoPaperForms raised?

About $5.35M over five rounds per one tracker (older data). Funding figures are reported and may differ between sources, so readers should check the latest company announcements.

How does NoPaperForms make money?

NoPaperForms earns revenue from its Edtech SaaS (admissions CRM) products and services sold to businesses, institutions, consumers, learners and public-sector buyers. The exact revenue mix is described in the business model section and is not fully disclosed publicly.

Who are the competitors of NoPaperForms?

Reported rivals include SlideRoom, LeadSquared, Zoho CRM, ExtraaEdge. See the competitor comparison above for how they differ.

What are the main risks for NoPaperForms?

Main risks include competition: low barriers to entry and well-funded rivals can compress pricing and slow growth, funding and capital needs, competition and regulation by data protection rules under the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, sector regulators, consumer protection law and IT rules. This is educational content, not investment advice.

Related Startup Deep Dives: Stockal — Stockal: global investing platform with $9M Series A (2022) | Postman — Raised $225 million Series D at a $5.6 billion valuation in August 2021. Browse the full Startup Deep Dive series.

Source

Source: Publicly available data, published reports, industry research, and other credible sources.

Picture of Indian Startup Times

Indian Startup Times

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *