Mohandas Pai-backed online book retailer BookAdda.com has launched Acadzone.com retailing education books online across the country. AcadZone has been envisioned as a one-stop-solution for all academic and competition book and houses over 1 crore titles.

The books range from university textbooks, job vacancies and test preparations like UPSC, banking &finance, engineering, law, MBA and medical. Apart from buying new books, students also have the option of buying and selling their old textbooks through an exclusive Facebook App. This makes it the first such app in India that allows students to network and trade in used books.

The website also facilitates One Click Buy for all course books offering syllabi across all the courses for 15 + universities, covering more than 2,000 colleges across India. The website has already mapped more than 20 leading universities in India and will offer curriculum books catering to the wider student community of over 2,000 colleges under these universities.

BookAdda has also been selected by Microsoft to launch an exclusive Acadzone app which will be available on the upcoming Windows 8 platform. Available on computers and laptops, the app will enable students to buy books and even resell old ones. With these initiatives, Acadzone aims to make education more interactive by bringing students together.

Hemant Kohli, CEO and Co-Founder, BookAdda.com, said, “Online shopping culture has gained ground in India and this is true even for books. Although that has led to the mushrooming of many online book retailers, there was still a big gap when it came to the availability of academic books. Acadzone.com isthe first step towards bridging that gap and the website will offer the most comprehensive collection of books related to different curriculums.”

In April 2012, former Infosys director TV Mohandas Pai and his partner Ranjan Pai,  through their $100 million private equity fund, had invested in BookAdda.com, an online book retailer, in collaboration with a group of early-stage investors. This investment comes as a part of their $100-million (Rs 500 crore) private equity fund, choosing to back two Indian and two US-based companies with a total of $35 million.