Edtech Startup xQ Raises $1.4 Mn from Gujarat-based Angel Syndicate

The funding round was led by a Gujarat-based angel syndicate and included senior professionals from organisations like Google, Axis Capital, Deloitte, Shell and Tata 1mg. xQ has educated over 6000 students from 8+ countries in video-creation till date and will be using the funds to ramp up their reach in schools across India and build a portfolio of insightful tech products that enable kids to learn video-making & create impactful videos

xQ, an edtech start-up which teaches kids the art & science of video creation has raised USD 1.4mn through a Gujarat-based angel syndicate along with a select group of HNI investors which includes senior leadership personnel from Google, Deloitte, Tata 1mg, Axis Capital, and award-winning international photographer Joseph Radhik. The startup was founded by IIM alumni Simon Jacob and Kartik Talwar in 2021 in collaboration with professional filmmakers, educators and advertising professionals.

A first-of-its-kind Video Creators Academy for children, xQ believes that video is the most effective & powerful medium of communication today and it is therefore an essential 21st century skill for kids. “Video is the language of the future”, says Simon Jacob, CEO & CoFounder at xQ. “It is no longer a good-to-have extracurricular activity and if we want to introduce video-creation as a core skill to children at scale, it needs to be a part of the school curriculum”, he adds

xQ will be using the funding amount to expand their reach in schools through their flagship offering – the xQ Video Lab. The xQ Video Lab is a space within schools, just like a computer lab or a physics lab, which is dedicated to teaching kids video-creation skills. At an economical cost, xQ offers access to a thoughtfully designed video-creation curriculum, state-of-the-art shooting gear and access to an e-learning platform which allows students to continue learning & practising their video-making skills at home.

“My favourite part of xQ is the Video Lab. I learned photography and filmmaking entirely by myself on the internet, and I can tell you it wasn't easy. I'd have loved to know that this is a viable career choice as a kid, and more importantly not have to navigate countless resources on the internet to figure it out on my own. The Video lab is a great way for kids to learn creativity in a structured manner - just like school. Basic skills like problem solving, collaboration, and camera confidence are essential to creating videos, but these skills are often overlooked in our traditional schooling systems and they go way beyond helping creators to contribute to any workplace.” Says photographer Joseph Radhik.

xQ has built a strong academic team led by an ex-headmistress along with award-winning filmmakers to fine-tune their video-creation curriculum. The team is building a library of over a 1000 video-based curriculum projects where children can integrate video-making techniques like transitions, green screen shooting and stop motion animation into curricular projects for subjects like maths, science, social sciences and English.

“4 out of the 5 co-founders’ at xQ have teachers as parents and I believe this drives the team to create products & solutions which have been thoughtfully created for the schooling ecosystem. The fact that they have built an entire team dedicated to developing curriculum projects and to working on teacher training shows that they are genuinely invested in making video-creation accessible to students across different categories of schools,” said Anand Taparia, Director- Innovation at Colgate Palmolive India Ltd, who has invested in xQ in his personal capacity.

To make learning immersive and personalised through video-creation, xQ is also building a digital learning platform which is designed to be a safe space for children to learn video creation techniques, showcase their videos to students across the globe and learn new skills from each other in the process.

“I am excited about the differentiated approach that xQ has taken in a crowded sector like edtech. Their vision of creating a community where kids learn from each other through video-creation is refreshing and I believe that the e-learning platform they are developing to help students learn video-creation has tremendous potential given the explosive growth of video content in recent years,” said Tanmay Saksena, Chief Operating Officer at Tata 1mg.

Till date, xQ has educated over 6000 students across eight countries in video-making and they are now on a mission to touch at least 1 million lives by 2025.

About xQ

xQ is an ed-tech start-up that focuses on teaching children the art and science of making videos. Built by an IIM-alumni duo in collaboration with professional filmmakers, educators, and advertising professionals, xQ believes that video is the primary language of learning and communication in the 21st century and it is therefore critical that kids are empowered with this essential life skill from an early age. xQ is on a mission to make video-creation skills accessible to students in schools across India and touch at least one million lives by 2025.

EdTech Startup PrepInsta to Tie Up with 30+ Colleges and Universities Across India; Aims to be Available in 70+ Universities by the End of 2022

Offers over 150+ courses like C, C++, Java, Python, Machine Learning, AI, Ethical hacking, Cyber security, and others 

PrepInsta, India’s no 1 and most visited website for placement, has announced a partnership deal with 30+ colleges and universities across India, intending to double this number and be available in 70+ universities by the end of 2022. The startup assists students with complete placement preparation, skill development, learning to code, and interview preparation through its product PrepInsta Prime. 

Given that most colleges and universities follow a placement curriculum that is not designed for the latest market trends. PrepInsta’s upskilling courses aim to systematically tailor the Indian education system by capturing students’ interests and demands. The start-up offers over 150+ courses like C, C++, Java, Python, Machine Learning, AI, Ethical hacking, Cyber security and others. The courses offered are pocket friendly for students as they do not have to pay for different courses sequentially; instead, they can access everything with a single subscription. 

“We are pleased to announce our affiliation with 30+ colleges and universities, following an overwhelming response from students and their consistent request that we become affiliated with their universities/colleges. We have always worked towards placement training to be included in the University curriculum from the very first semester itself. Students are always keen to learn and get polished but are deprived of the platform through which they can land a job of their choice. We look forward to working closely with the affiliated institutions and our noble initiative will help universities and colleges to generate a skilled workforce and will assist students in finding their dream job,” said Atulya Kaushik, Co-Founder, and CEO, PrepInsta. 

Prepinsta aims to provide upskilling courses to college students as early as the first semester and even offers a four-year plan to colleges/universities that includes all of the elements required for placement and interview preparation. PrepInsta Prime membership for university students will be offered at a discounted price as compared to the normal price offered on the website of the start-up. The subscription price is expected to be under three digits per student respectively. 

PrepInsta Prime students receive an average package of 7.1L, with 71% students receiving more than two offers. Last year, the highest package offered to a PrepInsta student was 41LPA. PrepInsta is used by over 2 million students each month, and the start-up has seen 50% growth year on year. 

Founded in 2016, in the dorm room of VIT Vellore, PrepInsta is a one-stop destination for placement and the fundamental aim of the company is to resolve the existing imbalance of career opportunities in India. PrepInsta aims to address that with skill-based learning as provided in its product PrepInsta Prime students can get placed in their dream company. The company helps students with end-to-end placement preparation, skill-building, learning to code, and also the key to every successful job which is – interview preparation. 

Incepted by the three friends who are now its co-founders- Atulya Kaushik, Aashay Mishra, and Manish Agarwal had a similar vision to make the entire process of placement easy, accessible, and inclusive for all. The company currently has two offices, one in Noida and the other in Bengaluru.

AI-driven Hybrid EdTech Platform SpeedLabs Receives an Additional Funding from India Discovery Fund (IDF)

35 North - India Discovery Fund has made this additional investment. This SEBI registered Cat I Angel Fund is an early stage growth fund that looks into discovery of future unicorns and nurtures their rapid growth with capital and board members.

This new investment will sum up their development in terms of extending their market share. The subsequent tremendous demand from TIER 3 and TIER 4 cities has been the driving force behind this expansion.

AI-based hybrid EdTech platform SpeEdLabs has raised funding from 35 North - India Discovery Fund. The company closes this pre-series round with a total raise of USD 2.5 million. The other investors include Mumbai Angels, LetsVenture, Ecosystem Ventures, Ah Ventures, SucSeed Ventures and a few family offices. The funds will be utilised to grow the company's presence and strengthen its infrastructure.

SpeEdLabs has has over 3000 B2B Tutorials clients in K-12 and Test prep segment across 200+ cities in India. By June 2022, the start-up is on track to generate INR 1.5 crore each month. Currently, SpeEdLabs receives over 2 million questions per month from its Question suggestion engine, resulting in more than 10 million analytical data points per month.

Commenting on this investment, the fund’s media spokesperson, Rajarshi (Raj) Roy, India Discovery Fund (IDF) said, “We will invest about USD 2 million in SpeEdLabs, an AI enabled edutech services platform for the Indian tuition market. A part of these funds were released earlier this week. The enablement of personalized and customized feedback and education for the students in a Hybrid model is the need of the hour. One size fits all does not suit students in a conventional set-up and the traction experienced by SpeEdLabs is a testimony to this fact.”

 

Vivek Varshney, founder of SpeEdLabs

"As the world evolves toward a hybrid education paradigm, it's past time for children and students to receive education that is tailored to their own needs. During the Covid shutdown, pure online tutoring was a forced option, but now the successful hybrid model will be the offline classroom model with technology. To help students achieve their full potential, the SpeEdLabs platform employs data-driven hyper customization, dynamic adaptive learning, algo-driven automated content management, and analytical data visualisation. We're also grateful for the backing of well-known investors. SpeEdLabs will aim to expand their presence to 800 locations throughout 23 states in the country, allowing 10million+ students and empowering over 50,000 teachers,” said Vivek Varshney, Founder of SpeEdLabs.

Letsventure, Mumbai Angels, Ecosystem Ventures, SucSeed Venture, and Ah Venture are among the company's angel network platform investors. The other existing investors in SpeEdLabs include people like Manish Chhajed (SEP Venture), Mukul Agrawal (Param Capital), Ajith Pai (Paipal Venture), Nirav Mehta (MD - Morgan Stanley India), VGA Venture, Rohit Chanana, Pankaj Prasoon, Kshama Dhir (Partner - E&Y), Vipul Mittal (Partner - E&Y), Abhishek Goyal (Traxn) and Avinash Gupta (Ex- Merrill Lynch), Ritesh Mangla (Partner - Deloitte), Keval Doshi (Partner – E&Y).

About SpeEdLabs - Over 100 schools throughout the country have partnered with the company to provide teachers and students with customised practise and analytics-driven feedback, individualised assignments, and a data-driven academic audit in order to change pedagogy toward hybrid learning in the classroom. The company has created 100+ practise facilities in partnership with its tutors to drive supervised practise in coaching centres, giving good digital and technological infrastructure as well as real-time access to customised feedback and attention from teachers. SpeEdLabs, which is presently in 200+ places and serves 100,000+ students while empowering over 5000 teachers, will soon expand to 800 cities across 23 states.

About 35 North - India Discovery Fund - With its team of global industry veterans with extensive connections and with its global alumni support of London Business School (LBS), UBC, Columbia, ISB among others, this fund aids founders with a core backbone support of operations, marketing and finance to support the growth plans of its investee companies.

Marwari Catalysts' Portfolio Startup, XOOG Raises USD 150k in their Pre-seed Round

EduSocio tech startup, XOOG has raised USD 150K in their pre-seed round with a series of institutional and individual investors investing in the startup. The strategic investors who participated in this round were Seetharaman Thiruvenkatam, Kavitha Seetharaman, Prasad Prabhakaran and Prashanth Prabhakaran. The round also saw further participation from existing investor Marwari Catalysts, India's fastest growing startup accelerator.

The seed capital will be utilised for improving the value proposition by enhancing the ecosystem for talent showcasing and enrichment, to onboard more users using performance marketing and growth hack, expand their product engineering team and to accelerate its product-led growth in order to expand its footprint in India as well as globally.

 

Karishma Seetharaman, Co-founder and CTO | Ritvik Raj Prasannakumar, Co-founder and CEO

Founded by Karishma Seetharaman and Ritvik Raj Prasannakumar in 2020, XOOG is building a safe ecosystem for talent showcasing and enrichment. The startup provides a Safe Social platform with skill clubs for students to showcase, compete and earn rewards.

Based in Bangalore, this gamified reward-based platform enables students to be a part of various skill clubs like Rubik's, Art, Music and more, showcase their skills, achievements on a safe feed, get rated by their peers, participate in challenges & competitions and earn real life rewards and scholarships.

In today's date, where students learn various skills from various educators, EdTech organisations or the courses but the hard truth is that the parents are not really aware of their kids interests, progress , or where they stand among their peers.

Also, most of the time students dropout after learning the basics due to lack of a structured roadmap with an end goal, lack of knowing where they stand and lack of a structured approach on how to improve further.

To rectify this situation, XOOG has an innovative ranking mechanism and algorithm for above mentioned skills which makes it a trustable, safe, engaging and fun brand with community focused for parents and students to understand more about their skills, progress and interests and enable them to make better decisions when it comes to their future in education.

Commenting on the fund raise, Karishma Seetharaman, Co-founder & CTO, XOOG says, "We have always wanted to do something in the field of education because it is one area where we can make a huge impact in a lot of lives. On todays date it is painful to see students labelled as failures at the age of 10-12 based on their academic performances but we wanted to make a difference by letting students shine at what they were born for."

She further elaborates, "To make this vision a reality, with XOOG we help students showcase their skills, their daily learnings, achievements and progress to the world, get rated by their peers, enhance their future and earn scholarships and rewards in return. We are hereby delighted to receive this tremendous support from the strategic investors who have not only provided us with their financial support but also understand our business model deeply to support our vision of making talented individuals of tomorrow by giving them the right opportunities today."

Accelerated by Marwari Catalysts, XOOG was selected out of 500 startups in the accelerator's cohort program, 'Thrive'. The EduSocio tech startup gives students the practical, real-life experience needed to gain confidence to pursue their interests and succeed in the longer run.

Commenting on the announcement, Ritvik Raj Prasannakumar, Co-founder & CEO, XOOG says, "As a country, we are blessed with abundant talent and with a structured approach, anyone could build their future around it! Our students keep winning science competitions, spell bees on the international stage but they are extremely good at painting, singing, dancing and other areas too. One of the problems with Indian education is that we only focus on marks and exams. This leaves very little scope for students to realize their potential in other areas. For too long, a student's IQ (intelligence quotient) has been linked to his/her math and verbal skills, which is a skewed and narrow parameter to judge."

He further adds, "But with XOOG, we are providing a platform for students to showcase their talent and also enable parents make better decisions for their childrens education and skills."

Sharing his opinion upon his investment, Seetharaman, MD of Shri Hari Venkateshwara Paper Mills says, "A range of viable career options are coming up in India, beyond the traditional vocations of engineering and medicine. And with the opening of new frontiers in the Indian Education sector that has paved the way for a comprehensive vision on education, XOOG is perfectly positioned in providing a platform for talented students to showcase their skills and as a result giving a new definition to the education system of India."

XOOG has seen aggressive growth in terms of enrolments, since its launch in 2020.

"We believe in XOOG's vision and are positive about the EdTech industry, the model, the product, and most importantly, the executing team to make XOOG a flagship name for talent discovery & enrichment in the times to come," says Sushil Sharma, Founder & CEO, Marwari Catalysts.

Further adding he says, "Being a part of the Edtech industry for the past 10 years, I understand the need of addressing the skills gap and XOOG has created social clubs that match the present and future requirements for students. We are excited to work with the passionate founding team of XOOG that sees this gap clearly and aspires to bridge it."

Sharing his rationale, Devesh Rakhecha, Founder & COO, Marwari Catalysts says, "Over the next 10 years, the EdTech industry will be revolutionised, which direly needs new concepts as well as upgradation. With XOOG, we plan to be pioneers in this upheaval task of talent discovery and enrichment, which our current education system lacks. Together with the founding team, we are looking to create progressive pathways for the students who are in our skill ecosystem, by ensuring they not only get recognised because of their talent, but are hand-held and get rewarded. I am confident that the latest funding will further accelerate their growth trajectory and will help the startup carve a niche for itself."

On a concluding note, XOOG's founding team also comments, "We are thrilled to have Marwari Catalysts as a partner in building XOOG. Their experience of working with entrepreneurs to build strong organisations and brands with rapid scale-up is a very apt fit for us at this stage in our growth journey."

For its future journey, the startup now plans to raise USD 500K in the next 3 months.

'Maths Workouts' App Countingwell Raises $1 Mn in Pre-Series A Funding

Nirmal Shah - CoFounder, Countingwell

Bangalore, December 15, 2020: Illuminati Learning Solutions Pvt. Ltd., an EdTech startup and the parent company of maths learning app Countingwell today said it has raised a Pre-series A funding round of US$ 1 million (₹7.3 Crore) from Delhi Private School, UAE, and Interstar, an education management company and other angel investors. The startup said it will use the funds for marketing and new market expansion as well as enhancing the platform's technology content.

Founded in 2018, Illuminati had recently launched Countingwell app on Google Play and Apple App Store. The startup ambitiously aims to transform maths learning across India through a daily 'maths workout' concept. The Countingwell app currently targets middle school children in classes 6-8 and is aligned with the CBSE and NCERT curriculum. It also aims to democratize maths learning for them through a proprietary pedagogy that is designed to build confidence and overcome anxiety around maths.

Nirmal Shah, Co-founder of Countingwell said, "Countingwell is borne out of two years of research and development of a unique pedagogy, which focuses on inculcating an analytical thought process and developing maths problem-solving skills in children. This round of investment from leading educational operators in India and UAE, even as we are just starting, stands testimony to the strengths of our pedagogy and our unique 'maths workout' based learning model."

Countingwell helps students learn maths by encouraging them to do a 20-minutes "maths workouts" daily. These workouts are extremely small, micro-learning modules and are uniquely personalised for individual students using a "formative assessment" model. Following a child's skill gaps assessment, the app accurately identifies the child's current skill level and learning needs.



The workouts are highly interactive and encourage enquiry based learning in the child, besides teaching concepts through a question-answer mode. "Our goal is to get school going children to not just learn maths, but love it, encourage a growth mindset and develop a problem-solving attitude towards everything in life," Shah added.

"Countingwell has picked the right audience in middle school students, which is not only a highly underserved segment when it comes to learning, but also spans the most important years to build a foundation for future career. We are glad to partner and support them and are confident that their unique learning approach will go a long way in helping children learn maths as well as analytical and problem-solving skills, thus enhancing their all-around development," said Pravin Batavia, Director, Delhi Private School, UAE.

"Unlike other educational apps, Countingwell's singular focus is on maths learning and only maths, this focus has allowed them to develop a unique pedagogy from the ground up with a workout-centric learning model. As operators we believe that Countingwell can make maths a subject that children love, rather than fear or hate. By working with our schools and teachers, Countingwell will ensure that the core values of the product remain focused towards delivering maths proficiency for all children.", says Amit Kothari, Executive Director of Interstar.

The Countingwell app is currently available only for Indian users and will soon be launched in several global markets. It uses a subscription-based model for its learning modules.

About Countingwell:

Available on iOS and android, Countingwell is a dedicated maths learning app for students of middle school, studying in classes 6-8. With a singular focus on maths learning, the app has developed a unique and proprietary pedagogy that is designed to build confidence and overcome anxiety around maths among middle school students. It also features a unique learning model via 20-minutes 'maths workouts' daily, designed to minimise screen-time. For more information, please visit https://Countingwell.com

 

EDTech Startup Sunstone Eduversity Raises INR 24 Crore in Series A FUnding led by Saama Capital

L to R: Ashish Munjal, Co-founder and CEO, Sunstone Eduversity and Piyush Nangru, Co-founder and COO, Sunstone Eduversity

Sunstone Eduversity (owned by Sunstone Education Tech. Pvt. Ltd.) an edtech startup offering industry-ready higher education programs with Pay after Placement, has raised INR 24 crore in Series A funding. The funding was led by Saama Capital, with participation from Ashish Gupta, MD - Helion Advisors, Pankaj Bansal, Co-founder & CEO - PeopleStrong. 

Existing investors, Prime Venture Partners, Rajul Garg and Purvi Capital also participated in the round. 

The company will use the fresh capital to invest in its technology platform, hiring and curriculum. Sunstone is also planning to use the funds to strengthen its efforts in creating industry-ready professionals and building its network of colleges across multiple cities. 

Sunstone takes complete accountability of a student's career by operating on a pay after placement model. Students pay a nominal registration amount as an upfront fee and the remaining fee is to be paid only after getting placed at a job at the completion of the 2 year full time program. This unique Pay after Placement model aligns with students' interest making it a highly attractive proposition for students. 

Owing to the huge demand from students, Sunstone received 10,000+ applications this year as compared to 2500 last year. Sunstone has enrolled 1000 students this year, a 3x growth over last year. With the growing number of new-age businesses and dynamic job profiles, the requirement of graduates with a high-level domain knowledge and core competencies is the need of the hour. Sunstone works closely with corporates to develop industry ready specializations such as BFSI, Logistics, Analytics, Sales Management, Digital Marketing and others. The programs are designed to equip the students with the required expertise to tackle everyday business problems and build competencies across industry verticals. The industry-focused and constantly updated curriculum coupled with dual specializations ensure that the students at Sunstone Eduversity are job ready and have the desired skill sets that are in sync with the requirements of any industry. 

Founded by IMT-Ghaziabad alumnus Ashish Munjal and Piyush Nangru, Sunstone has eight partner institutions in six cities and will have 20 partners in 15 cities by July 2021. Sunstone Eduversity graduates of the batch of 2018-20 secured 100% placements. 

Some of the prominent recruiters were Axis Bank, HDFC, WNS, Genpact, Amazon, TCS, Karvy, Byjus, Reliance Retail, PolicyBazaar and Swiggy among others.

Ashish Munjal, Co-founder, Sunstone Eduversity "We are delighted to welcome Saama Capital into the Sunstone family. Sunstone Eduversity is fixing the problem of large scale skill gaps in students by adopting one simple principle, Accountability. By collecting fees only after our students get jobs, we make sure that all the cogs in our system are working towards the success of our students. One of the challenges faced by freshers is the lack of industry-relevant skills that reduce their chances of getting hired by reputed companies. We focus on imparting practical skills training instead of outdated theory and remote learning methods. For the batch of 2019-21, we generated more than 450 Internship offers even during this pandemic." 

Kiranbir Nag, Partner, Saama Capital "Increasingly, the need for education to be outcome-oriented is dominating the minds of both students and the industry. With its technology-focused, data-centric approach and alignment with the students, we believe Sunstone is well placed to bring about a shift in the present higher education system by equipping the students with the latest tools that would make them ready for real-world job opportunities. We are excited to partner with the founders and other investors of Sunstone and believe that the company's vision has the potential for tremendous impact." 

About Sunstone 

Sunstone Eduversity is creating industry-ready professionals with its unique pedagogy and technology-enabled education delivery. Sunstone offers India's only Pay after Placement higher education programs in partnership with several colleges and private universities. The edtech startup works closely with corporates to develop industry ready specializations such as BFSI, Logistics, Sales Management, Digital Marketing and others. The company's goal is to bring about a shift in the present higher education system by equipping the students with various skill sets so that they are readily absorbed by the recruiters. For more information, please visit: sunstone.edu.in.

UIncept Invites Applications for Edtech Startup Program 2020

Gurugram based Accelerator, UIncept invites applications for the next cohort of its 6-month acceleration program for early/advanced stage Edtech entrepreneurs starting in the first week of November 2020. UIncept has been investing in and accelerating startups for more than 5 years now.

According to a recent article by The New Indian Express, in the wake of the pandemic, work from home and online learning has become the new normal. And Edtech companies have become one of the biggest gainers amidst the crisis. Clearly, this number will grow with every passing year.

During pandemic the experts at UIncept factored low sustainability rate amongst startups in the country and drafted a program to help budding entrepreneurs get hands-on experience with right fundamentals, to take on any obstacle they may experience in their Startup journey. Hence making their business ‘Future-proof’.

With a portfolio of over 40 companies, where majority are focused in the EdTech space, UIncept is all set for its upcoming acceleration cohort and will be looking for passionate founders of early/advanced stage Startups with initial traction/revenue and with business model scalability.

What makes this program unique is its unparalleled customized approach according to each business requirement, access to our connections amongst education policy makers, educators and students across schools and colleges PAN India, topped up with Global perk partners and events for collaborations and networking opportunities.

Founder and Chief Mentor- UIncept, Mr. Manish Gupta comes with over 25 years of rich experience in spearheading Jagan Group of Institutions having colleges and universities across India.

Gathering his thoughts on the Program, Mr. Gupta firmly says, “Building a conducive space for entrepreneurs to help them fast track their entrepreneurial journey is very important. It’s critical for entrepreneurs to understand the complete business ecosystem to contribute to the economic and social growth of the country, with the right guidance and support."

UIncept functions under the leadership of CEO, Ms. Divvya Guptaa, a vibrant entrepreneur and a strategy nester.

Be it the right network of mentors, investors, or partnering with tech support brands, arranging relevant meetups/events, UIncept is pulling every string it can to empower the future change makers.

About UIncept’s Acceleration Program 2020

The 6-month structured program, to be held at UIncept’s Gurugram campus, will be a customised and milestone driven program designed to address unique business ideas focussing on – Test prep, learning app, K12, individual learning & online tutoring, and more. The aim of the program is to support business entrepreneurs scale up their ventures. Mentors from India's most prestigious institutions and B-Schools, founders from successful enterprises, technocrats working with leading technology companies will head boot camps and sessions to cover all business aspects.

Soon after the program commences, the startups are analysed and divided into two categories basis their scale and rate of growth:

• Reaching MVP
• MVP+

The program in a nutshell:

KPI/Milestone driven program

• Weekly 1:1 session with quality in-house resources (EIR, Growth Hacker, etc.)
• Online/offline boot camps on core functions including Design, Tech, Growth Hacking.
• Regular Mentorship from experts as per requirements.

Funding opportunity from UIncept during/after the program*

• Access to Investors, Investments and funding partner.
• Introduction to Investors, angels & VCs across industries for attracting further funding.

Global perks benefits

• Value more USD 21K to support cash burn including cloud credits, marketing credits, CRM benefits, payment gateways, etc.

Access to world class office space

• Well-equipped and state-of-the-art office space for each startup in Gurugram for a duration of 6 months.
• Modern and stylish co-working spaces, Conference rooms with advanced projection technology.
• Event space to accommodate 100-120 attendees. Multipurpose room for training sessions, telephone booths, library with entrepreneur-recommended books and an Ideation lab to bring Ideas to life.

Access to network in Education Industry

• Network and collaborate with various stakeholders of the education industry including schools, colleges, universities, publishers, etc.
• Opportunity to pilot with colleges and universities in the network.
• Access to international network associated - IXI Summit 2020, Global Edtech Startup Awards with MindCET Israel, Local Startup Meets by IITs and many such high decibel networking events.

All this is provided to the promising startups for an equity of 3%.

You can apply for the program by clicking here: ttps://uincept.selecteev.io/apply

Ranveer Singh Launches Online Education App: Eduauraa

• Founded and led by CEO Akanksha Chaturvedi, Eduauraa aims to democratize the online education sector in India.
• Eduauraa has brought on Ranveer Singh as the brand ambassador in a bid to empower over 310 million students in India
• Eduauraa is now available on Android, iOS, ZEE5 and web browsers

 Eduauraa, is a premium digital learning platform created with a vision to utilize world-class technology and make quality education available in every corner of India at an affordable price. Eduauraa's educational content accurately follows the syllabus for each of their 9 boards in both, Hindi and English, not only for video lectures but also Value Added Services (VAS) content like e-books, test papers, MCQ's, mind maps and past papers.

Through a strategic partnership with ZEE5, India's Entertainment Super-app, customers can enjoy all of this, in addition to 1.25 lac hours of bespoke premium entertainment content across genres and languages, starting at just INR 999 per year. This association will redefine education and entertainment with a reach of 75 million households countrywide.

In India, 85% of people earn below 8 lakhs a year, yet private school expenses of a single child have risen from INR 55,000 in 2005 to INR 1,25,000 in 2015. Limited access to good education in India has led to a surge in tuition culture, with tuitions accounting for 15% of the total expenditure on private education and about 11-12% of the average family income is dedicated to tuitions. These factors contribute towards making education a privilege and not a right. However, Eduauraa aims to close this gap by providing the best quality education at affordable rates for students of class 6 to 10 in 4 subjects - Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry and Biology.

The Indian youth ranked second last among the 73 countries that participated in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). Eduauraa aspires to change this statistic by giving access to the superior learning tools within their app to every child so they can easily understand and absorb concepts. A team of teachers from India's top 10 schools, Subject Matter Experts, visualizers, animators, editors and directors help create an engaging learning experience so every child now gets a level playing field. 

Ranveer Singh Brand Ambassador & Akanksha Chaturvedi, Founder & CEO of Eduauraa

Ranveer Singh, Brand Ambassador of Eduauraa, commented, "When Akanksha told me about Eduauraa and their vision to democratize education, it resonated with me. Eduauraa will allow every child in this country to create their own destiny and shine. The right education for every child in India will help them shatter glass ceilings and fulfil their aspirations. I am excited to be part of this journey and I wish Eduauraa all the very best in their mission."

Akanksha Chaturvedi, Founder and CEO of Eduauraa commented, "India currently ranks 112th out of 188 countries on the global education index. This is a ranking that speaks volumes about the accessibility of quality education in our country. My aim with Eduauraa is to be instrumental in changing our current global education ranking. With the onset of digitalisation in our country, we saw a sizable shift in pricing of services or products but even after learning modified to E-learning, the pricing element was the key problem. When I started analysing this, one question that I kept asking was if OTT platforms can provide accessible entertainment at INR 999/- a year why can't education do the same? And today with Eduauraa, we have democratised education and E-learning in India. We are also extremely excited to have Ranveer Singh as our brand ambassador. His vibrant personality resonates with our young and passionate brand ethos."

Primary features of Eduauraa:

Customized to syllabus for ICSE + CBSE + 7 state boards - Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu to Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

• Convenient user interface with a built-in navigation system, aided by a voice search feature
• Content design- Video lectures with 2D/3D & alpha animations, images and real-life examples
• Value added services- Mind-maps for diagrammatic representation and revision, MCQ's, e-books, passed papers, objective & subjective test papers
• Eduauraa Proficiency Quotient to analyze a student's progress
• Eduauraa Assistant for easy study scheduling

EPQ for self- evaluation in the app:

Eduauraa uses technology for  evaluation analytics so students are provided with detailed insights into learner's progress during the course:

• Adaptive tests
  • The difficulty of the test is determined by the students' performance such that it will get harder or easier following a correct or incorrect answer respectively.
• Knowledge tests
  • Eduauraa's AI uses answers to assess user knowledge levels on a specific topic, allowing for active and engaging participation

Eduauraa offers 3 levels of subscription packages:

• Base video pack subscription - INR 999/- per year (introductory offer)
  • Includes annual subscription to Eduauraa and Zee5 premium
  • 6000+ hours of video content made by India's top teachers (download enabled)
  • 2D/3D & alpha animations in each video
  • Eduauraa Assistant
• VAS pack subscription- INR 1999/- per year
  • Includes all Value-Added Services materials like- e-books, test papers, mind maps and past papers
  • Eduauraa Proficiency Quotient (EPQ)
  • Eduauraa Assistant
• All inclusive subscription - INR 2499/ - per year (introductory offer)
  • All access to Eduauraa content + Zee5 premium + VAS services

The app also offers a free guest user version, enabling access to limited sample content for an unlimited time span. Eduauraa's immersive learning experience is built so that every student in India has access to the best education at any time.

Download the Eduauraa app here now:

Play Store: bit.ly/34Mkghx 
App Store: apple.co/316KCIN

Website- https://eduauraa.com/ 

Edtech Company LEAD School Raises $28 Mn in Funding led by Westbridge Capital

Mumbai-based edtech company LEAD School, that transforms affordable private schools via its Integrated System, has raised US $28 million in a Series C funding round led by Westbridge Capital along with existing investor Elevar Equity. The latest round of funding will be used by the company to accelerate the development and rollout of new product offerings, increase its school network in Tier 2-3 cities and hire talent across domains. 

LEAD School has grown at a rapid pace over the last 3 years and the current Series C round is its third round of institutional funding since 2017. Both the previous rounds were led by Elevar Equity, which remains a major stakeholder.

Founders Sumeet Yashpal Mehta and Smita Deorah began their LEAD School journey by running affordable schools and teaching middle school students. Through their hands-on experience, they built the LEAD School Integrated System with a mission to make excellent schools accessible and affordable to every child. In 2017, the company started offering its Integrated System to schools and has seen rapid adoption with more than 800 schools partnering with LEAD School. LEAD School now serves over 3 lakh+ students studying in these affordable private schools.

LEAD School Co-founder and CEO Sumeet Mehta, “We aim to democratize excellent learning by transforming schools in Tier 2-3-4 towns where the majority of India lives. Our firm belief is that every child, irrespective of their economic background or location of birth, should have access to an excellent education. LEAD School partners with affordable private schools to transform them into centres of excellent learning through our Integrated System. In the last 3 years, we have seen rapid adoption by schools and class averages improvement from below 60% to above 70%. During this pandemic too, our Integrated System has enabled schools to deliver an uninterrupted learning experience for all students. The new round of funding will help us bring more innovation and reach more students and schools.”

“In the new world order, the lockdown ensuing the pandemic has given a massive boost to online education. In the last few months, the edtech sector has evolved rapidly, changing the trajectory of the Indian education system multifold. We see great potential in LEAD School, given their innovative and focused approach in ensuring accessible, quality school-level education for all. As a firm, we believe in investing in ventures that have a large scale impact and are convinced LEAD School will create a strong positive impact on the educational outcomes of millions of young minds”, said Sandeep Singhal, Managing Director, WestBridge Capital.

“We have seen LEAD go from strength to strength, growing to over 800 affordable private schools from fewer than 10 when Elevar first invested. What really differentiates LEAD is their strong solution orientation - understanding and addressing each school stakeholder’s pain points in depth, while keeping the child’s learning outcomes at the center of it all. We are even more excited about the future - as LEAD builds to solve the education quality conundrum in schools, at scale for the first time”, said Sandeep Farias, Founder and Managing Director, Elevar Equity.

LEAD School is betting big with LEAD School Integrated System (IS), a one-of-its-kind solution to transform school quality in India. With LEAD School IS, schools can offer a complete schooling experience to their students, irrespective of whether they’re physically open or shut. With this new round of funding, the company aims to bring innovation to schools hitherto unseen in India.

About LEAD School

LEAD School is promoted by Leadership Boulevard, one of the fastest growing EdTech companies in India. It combines technology, curriculum and pedagogy into an integrated system of teaching and learning, thus improving student learning and teacher performance in schools across the country. LEAD School partners with 800+ schools with an estimated 3 lakh+ students in more than 300 cities, including tier 2 to tier 4 cities, in 15 States.      

About WestBridge Capital

WestBridge Capital is a highly experienced investment firm, managing approximately $3 billion of capital, which focuses on investments in India. WestBridge Capital leverages both its capital and experience to help companies succeed. WestBridge seeks to partner with some of India’s most promising mid-sized companies run by outstanding entrepreneurs and management teams for the long-term, whether they are public or private. In the last fifteen years, the team has led investments in over 80 companies and oversaw a total investment of over $2 billion. The WestBridge team is one of the most recognized in the industry and has a combined 50+ years of experience in investing in Indian companies. Armed with this wealth of experience, the team is able to assist its portfolio companies – when required - in many areas including strategy, operations, management recruiting and fundraising. WestBridge Capital has offices in Mauritius, California and Bangalore.

About Elevar Equity

Elevar Equity connects the economic vibrancy of low income communities with capital markets. Elevar has been the founding or early stage investor in entrepreneur-led business models that demonstrate a direct correlation between high impact and returns. The Elevar Method has democratized access to essential products and services for over 30 million households and catalyzed billions of dollars of capital into ~40 companies, in India and Latin America.

Edtech Startup Teachmint Launches India’s 1st Free Live Tutoring Mobile App & Raises Funds from Better Capital

An IIT alumni team creates the fastest free digitization platform for 1 Mn tutors fostering the Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan. 

Bangalore-based edtech innovator, Teachmint announced its first funding round led by Better Capital with participation from Titan Capital. Teachmint has launched India’s first free live tutoring mobile app for digitally empowering 1M+ tutors.

The adoption of online learning in India is at an all-time high, setting a new benchmark for the rest of the world. However, despite the surge in online learning demand, the current platforms are falling short of delivering a true student-tutor connect that is necessary for effective learning. While schools and colleges can implement complex solutions, India’s 1M+ private tutors and coachings are struggling with lack of simple & effective tools to move their tutoring online. 

Teachmint (www.teachmint.com) has launched a mobile-first video-first app that enables tutors to seamlessly digitize their tutoring business with a simple and familiar mobile experience. Teachmint is India’s first mobile and web app that delivers high quality 2-way streaming video as well as a simple tutoring business management workflow to mark attendance, create content, conduct tests and a lot more. 

Thousands of tutors across 300+ cities have adopted Teachmint to manage their tutoring sessions with a combination of online as well as recorded videos. With a strong word of mouth, Teachmint has raced past 25,000+ users within just weeks of its launch. 

Teachmint is founded by alumni of IIT Bombay and IIT Delhi (Mihir Gupta, Payoj Jain, Divyansh Bordia and Anshuman Kumar) who have led important initiatives at leading brands like OYO, Swiggy, Open, Mckinsey and Roposo. The founders see a large opportunity for contributing to India’s Atmanirbhar Bharat Abhiyaan by empowering tutors with tools to deliver effective learning outcomes for students and parents, who spend Rs. 25,000+ crores on private tutoring every year. 

Team Teachmint: the company takes pride in excelling a 100% remote working model.

“We strongly believe that teachers need to be given control within the online education space in order to address the needs of the diverse student base in India. Repeated studies have shown that learning happens best in cohorts where there is a personal touch from the teacher and there is a connection within the cohort. Recent times have highlighted the struggles of teachers while dealing with online tools that are not built for a teaching use case. 

At Teachmint, we are enabling teachers with the right digital tools so that they can run their classes efficiently and take their own unique styles of teaching to many more students. Over the past 3 months, thousands of teachers have trusted Teachmint as the one-stop solution to digitise their classes and we hope to support millions more in the near future. ” said Mihir Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO at Teachmint.

Teachmint is a free app that tutors can simply download and get started with their online tutoring. A dedicated Customer Happiness team ensures tutors are successful with Teachmint via phone, email and video support.

“Teachmint is the need of the hour in India - a simple digital companion that helps millions of tutors deliver an effective learning experience for students and a far more convenient experience for their parents. The rapid adoption of Teachmint by tutors across categories is a testament to the intensity of the need as well as the finesse of the product. I am excited to partner with the Teachmint team in this important mission”, said Vaibhav Domkundwar of Better Capital. 

The fresh funds will be utilised for product enhancement, customer happiness and enabling reach to tutors in all parts of the country. 

Edtech Startup Winuall Raises Second Round of Funding for Scaling up the Business

Bengaluru based ed-tech startup Winuall announced today that it has raised second round of funding to an undisclosed amount. This funding round was led by Ramakant Sharma, Cofounder - Livspace and Amit Lakhotia , Cofounder - Park+, ex-VP  PayTM Business. Other Investors include Akash Gehani (Cofounder, Instamojo), Abhinav Patwa (VP, Onsitego), and existing investors Ankit Bhati (Cofounder, Ola) and Nitin Gupta (Head of Engineering, Milkbasket).

With this new funding, Winuall plan to bring to more than 100,000 tutors & coaching classes under their ambit whose earning potentials has been badly hit due to pandemic. During the last few months, the Winuall team is helping thousands of solo tutors and coaching to go online to teach live and sell courses on the app. The company has achieved 10X growth with 70% month on month growth in both revenues and transactions achieving profitability overall. 

In the words of Ramakant Sharma, Co-founder, Livspace who lead this round of funding said, “Online education is not new in the year of 2020. Talking just about India, the market value of education is more than $100 billion, and it is expected to see a rise of double in under a decade. Hence, it is time for the tutors to come up on the web and explore the opportunities. ”

According Ashwini Purohit - Founder of Winuall, “Our SaaS business is already on the fast growth and profitability path. We aim to empower more than 100,000 tutors in the next 2-3 months to become the Shopify for tutors. 

He further added that we will continue to scale SaaS business and explore other levels of growth, such as providing tutors with an e-commerce store and financial aids. 

About Winuall

Winuall is an edtech startup that is working with the coaching institutes &solo tutors that focuses on learning methods & improving the performance of the students. It manages entire end-to-end operations with  inbuilt features that include live classes, insights about students performance & recommendations on the improvement,  Digital library to create test, home work  & daily practice assignments, online test & quizzes, fee collection & receipts, batch management & regular communication with parents about the coaching institute. 

Learning Matters' Virtual Voice Teacher 'Tara' is Revolutionising the Way Students Learn in India

'Tara' - the proprietary virtual voice teacher of Learning Matters, an ed-tech company headquartered in Bangalore, is radically changing the way students learn in schools and in their own homes across the country.

Tara - a dynamic, two-way interactive teaching assistant that uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing (NLP) - has been instrumental in solving challenges brought on by COVID-19 in online teaching and learning through the use of voice technology. With the use of text-to-speech and speech-to-text, Tara employs voice technology to create an immersive learning experience.

[caption id="attachment_149764" align="aligncenter" width="884"] Learning Matters Team[/caption]

Tara is extremely light on hardware, requiring only a smartphone or a simple voice-enabled device such as the Echodot and a voice platform like Amazon Alexa. Speaking about the easy deployment of Tara, Gowri Mahesh, co-founder and COO of Learning Matters says, "Tara requires only a minimum 3G connection to function effectively, making it not only a simple interface to use but also very easy to deploy and use anywhere. Further, Tara ensures natural learning by making use of the most natural way in which human beings learn - through conversation and interactivity i.e. listening and speaking. And with content that is aligned to curriculum, engagement with learners is high."

The pandemic has made video-based learning the default mode of teaching. However, video-based learning has its own set of mandatory requirements including high-speed internet and a tablet, laptop or desktop. With Tara, Learning Matters is solving these challenges that are contributing to the digital divide. With just a smartphone and an app, learners can access their lessons and assessments. Furthermore, Tara can repeat lessons, exercises, and assessments as many times as learners need, without any fatigue. She supports individualized learning as well as pair, small-group, and large-group learning. With such varied use cases and capabilities, Tara has proved to be an able teacher assistant that allows students to continue uninterrupted learning, whether at school or at home.

Tara can teach in Hindi, too. "Tara English" an Amazon Alexa skill teaches English to non-English speaking users in an easy and seamless way. By simply saying, "Alexa, Tara English open karo", users can launch the Tara English skill and go through lessons based on levels of proficiency. Tara English is available on the Amazon Alexa skill store.

Speaking of the USP of Tara Saraswathy Ramamoorthy, Co-founder & CMO of Learning Matters says, "The biggest advantage of Tara is that she will not only tell learners they are incorrect but also explain why and correct them. And, because she is a non-judgemental teacher, learners learn without fear, whether they are adults or children. Also, with Tara there is no concern about screen time."

Ramamoorthy G, Co-founder & CEO of Learning Matters speaking about the future plans for Tara said, "Tara is already in use to effectively teach English to students and teachers. Soon, Tara will also teach science and the humanities making it a superior intervention tool in education."

To learn more about Tara from Learning Matters, go to www.learningmatters.xyz/voice.

About Learning Matters

Learning Matters is an ed-tech company headquartered in Bangalore. Their vision is to make education scalable, sustainable and impactful. They accomplish this through their educational solutions and services for schools such as Tara - a virtual, voice teacher; Kengine - a digital content platform on the cloud; StarTeacher - professional development and training programmes for teachers; and ToolBox - activity kits for teachers and students. Their website is www.learningmatters.xyz. They can be looked up on social media at: facebook: @LearningMatters.xyz, LinkedIn: learning-matters and Twitter: @LMofficialHQ.

For editorial queries, please contact priyanka.shetty@learningmatters.xyz or +91 87922 87138.

Ed-Tech Firm uFony Services Raises Funds from Chennai Angels for Its School Diary® Platform

uFony Services Pvt. Ltd., the Pune-based Ed-Tech company, has raised funding from The Chennai Angels & other independent investors for School Diary®, an interactive platform that brings education to smartphones. School Diary® is a user-friendly platform that caters to K12 schools, helping them engage students and conduct classes virtually without compromising on privacy.

It is an integrated virtual classroom with online teaching, virtual PTMs, instant academic and non-academic updates, and even an online store where parents can shop for school products. The platform also has an administrator interface to collect online payments, automate accounting, manage transport, track live busses, monitor driver/staff behavior, manage payroll, inventory & accounts, and much more.

Running profitably for the last 3 (three) years, uFony is a leading player in the K12 Education space. The company provides SAAS solutions to 1000+ educational institutes including colleges, schools, coaching, pre-schools, and daycares across 10+ countries. Post-COVID, uFony aims to bring about a change in traditional teaching methods and make them more compatible for the future.

“School Diary® is being leveraged by Schools across Asia, Africa, Europe, and South America. It is generating interest from a lot of School Districts in the USA,” said Ashish Chaturvedi, Founder of uFony Services Pvt. Ltd. “With smartphone penetration on the rise and digital learning to gain acceptance, we expect more and more schools in the USA and other countries to sign up for School Diary®. Our recent raise is to enhance our digital presence and enroll business partners to scale up quickly in the international market.”

The education industry is rapidly changing to adapt to an unstable situation. “The great thing about Ufony is its constant efforts to rediscover themselves and to provide greater value to their existing customers. By providing new features constantly, Ufony unfolds new ways of using its services at little or no extra cost and certainly with minimal efforts,” said R. Narayanan (Naru), the Investment Director. “Take for example its latest feature of video. With the mere addition of a tripod on which the cellphone can be perched, the teacher is able to instantly include an ailing child who is unable to attend class. Just at the press of two or three buttons on a phone, the sick child is transported right into the class where they can view their teachers and friends as well. Great application to a video conferencing function. Even greater addition to School Diary®’s functionality.” 

Chandran Krishnan, CEO of The Chennai Angels says, “The traditional education system that schools followed pre-COVID has led to a disruption in studies for students across the globe. Platforms like School Diary® have paved the way for education to be advanced, accessible, and most of all fun. Students seem to enjoy the idea of online classes, a trend that might become essential in the near future. We are excited to see the growth of School Diary®, which brings school to students’ smartphones.”

Established in November 2007, The Chennai Angels (TCA) is one of the leading angel networks in India. TCA is sector and geography agnostic, and has made 52 investments till date, with a 20% exit track record, in enterprise solutions, consumer products, education, healthcare, automotive, gaming and other sectors. TCA is a member-driven network with 100+ successful industry leaders, technocrats, and business professionals in its network. 

EdTech Firm GlobalGyan Signs MOU with NASSCOM becomes NASSCOM FutureSkills Platform Partner

GlobalGyan Academy of Management Education, one of India's fastest growing corporate EdTech companies, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NASSCOM FutureSkills, the flagship reskilling initiative by NASSCOM, the trade association of Indian IT-BPM industry to become a Platform Partner for the NASSCOM FutureSkills platform. Under the MoU, GlobalGyan will partner with NASSCOM FutureSkills on a journey to reskill and upskill 2 million current employees and also train another 2 million coming into the workforce from universities.

The research report on Talent Shortage 2020 shows that 63% of Indian companies report major talent shortage and IT remains one of the hardest roles to fill. Various reports also point to significant gaps in job-readiness amongst students graduating from Indian colleges. NASSCOM FutureSkills is a first-of-its-kind industry initiative to get India accelerated on the journey to building skills and becoming the global hub for talent in the emerging technologies, with an intention to create a skilling/up-skilling/re-skilling ecosystem to facilitate continuous learning as well as knowledge enhancement of all applicants in line with their aspirations and aptitude in a self-paced digital skill environment.

The partnership will enable GlobalGyan to empower thousands of IT industry professionals and students, with access to courses on professional skill development, creating dynamic learning experiences. GlobalGyan will support NASSCOM FutureSkills with a focus on content, evangelism and industry connects, to enable the skilling, re-skilling and up-skilling imperative for the IT-BPM industry in India. GlobalGyan courses are designed across key skill domains for future IT leaders which include Problem Solving, Design Thinking, Program Management, etc.

Expressing his delight on the partnership, Amit Aggarwal, CEO, IT-ITES SSC NASSCOM & Co-architect of NASSCOM FutureSkills initiative said, "Globally there is a greater need for the Arts (A) to get embedded in STEM. It is imperative for modern workforce to be better at skills like problem solving, critical thinking, collaboration and communication for seamless integration of technical know-how with real-world applications. These skills have become a critical requirement to succeed in the IT-ITES industry these days, and should be studied and learnt along with traditional STEM subjects. We are happy to welcome GlobalGyan as a NASSCOM FutureSkills Platform Partner and we are confident that their industry-oriented, practical approach to professional development will aid with the STEM to STEAM transition."

Srinivasa Addepalli, CEO and Co-founder, GlobalGyan said, "The real jobs crisis is that there is a mismatch between the skills that the industry desires and those possessed by professionals and students. GlobalGyan has been founded on the belief that industry has to play a significant role in educating and skilling individuals. NASSCOM FutureSkills is a great platform to not only prepare India for future jobs but also create an environment of creativity and innovation. We are excited to partner with this prestigious industry body and look forward to creating wonderful learning experiences on the platform."

About GlobalGyan

GlobalGyan Academy of Management Education is an Edtech startup building a digital platform to help professionals progress their careers with learning and mentoring from industry leaders. Through its mobile and web apps, interactive content and personal coaching, GlobalGyan's network of experienced leaders provide practical knowledge that professionals can use immediately. Over 10,000 managers from India's largest corporates have built their business acumen and leadership capabilities at GlobalGyan since 2015. The company's angel investors include Ratan Tata, Dr. Jagdish Sheth and several other business leaders in India & overseas.

Find more information about GlobalGyan and how it is helping professionals prepare for the future of work at: www.globalgyan.in.

~ Newsvoir

EdTech Platform Edvizo Raises $150K in Seed Funding from Inflection Point Ventures

• $1,50,000 raised in Seed round by Edvizo



• First institutional round closed by Edvizo



• Edvizo marks 8th investment by IPV in the last 60 days



• IPV emerges as one of the most active angel platform in India continuing with deals even during the pandemic



• Funds raised to be used to strengthen the technical & sales team, along with acquiring more users and expanding to more cities


• Edvizo has associated with 2650 institutes and have 50,000 registration on their platform

Bangalore-based Edvizo, an early stage ed-tech startup, has raised over $150k in seed round from Inflection Point Ventures. The Company has raised their first institutional investment while IPV has closed their 8th investment in the last 60 days, since the Corona Virus outbreak started. 

IPV has been investing in startups in sectors like health tech, ed tech, delivery, social distancing tech to help companies working in these areas scale up and eventually create a large scale impact for helping people in managing the COVID situation. 

Vinay Bansal, Co-founder  CEO, IPV, says, “Most ed tech startups are going after the school, universities or directly to students kind of a market. But the coaching institute market is an untapped opportunity which Edvizo seems to be capitalising quite well. Their understanding of the market, pain points faced by the coaching institutes and application of tech in solving those issues has put them in the market very well. We are happy to back a very unique, an already profitable business model, being run by a passionate founding team. We look to support the business in its growth journey.”

Edvizo acts as an online marketplace to search, compare and enrol in the best institutes for competitive exam preparation. It enables coaching institutes to get more students through their platform thereby  helping them reduce their expenses on marketing and branding and invest more in acquiring top teaching talent. Edvizo has associated with 2650 institutes already, along with over 50,000 registrations on their platform.  Edvizo intends to utilize these funds to strengthen the technical & sales team, along with acquiring more users and expanding to more cities. 

Ravi Nishant, Founder & CEO, Edvizo says,“We are excited to work with IPV to continue building and rolling out our ed-tech platform at another level. Since the education sector is undergoing an enormous transformation due to the COVID-19 lockdown, most of the institutes are currently facing a lot of difficulties from conducting online classes to getting students for their new session. We are trying to tap into this opportunity.”

Edvizo plans to up its tech prowess to continuously improve data quality which would help them on-board credible institutes. The Company currently has a layered process to filter an institute and bring it on-board. Institutes are onboarded post personal visits and checks & balances, guaranteeing authenticity and building trust among the users. 

In India, more than 71 Million students take help of private coaching and tuitions, pursuing mainstream education system parallelly.  A Google-KPMG report mentions that the current size of private coaching industry in India stands at $40 billion, along with a record growth rate of 35%. Edvizo hopes to tap this potential market with their current and upcoming offerings. 

Edvizo is a Bangalore based startup that aspires to re-invent India's educational institutions via innovative technology and a passion to serve. Edvizo acts as an online marketplace to search, compare and enrol in the best institutes for competitive exam preparation. It enables coaching institutes to get more students through their platform by making them put less efforts, time and money on marketing and branding so that they can give their 100% focus on teaching quality only without worrying about the admissions.

Inflection Point Ventures is an initiative of accomplished CXOs & Angel Investors who firmly believe that ‘Everyone can Grow with Startups’. Started in 2018, IPV has invested more than Rs 100 crore across 35+ startups. IPV’s investors’ base is currently at 1600 seeing a massive influx of highly accomplished CXOs and HNIs who are looking to invest in startups with rational valuation and sustainable business model.

NEAT- AICTE Partners with EdTech Startup Skill-Lync to Provide Technical Training

In an attempt to ensure that there is no hiatus in student education during the ongoing lockdown, Govt of India's All India Council of Technical Education - NEAT announced partnership with Chennai based Edtech startup Skill-Lync. The global startup Skill-Lync is first-of-its-kind engineering technical education platform that provides job leading courses for Mechanical, Electrical and Civil Engineering students in India and across the world.

During COVID19 outbreak, under this partnership, Skill-Lync has opened up its Rs. 50,000. worth Mechanical Engineers Essentials program to students from AICTE. Interestingly, they've had over 15000 subscribers to their free online coursework in the last two weeks itself and the number is growing by the day.

Given the extended at-home learning requirements that the industry is catering to, this partnership is aimed at accelerating the online learning process for mechanical, electrical & civil engineering students. Until now most computer science students had access to coding platforms that taught them industry relevant skills. But a lot of non-software core engineering domains missed out on this. This also accelerates the adoption of online learning for non-software engineering domains.

There is a great amount of push from the government to safeguard student education including professional & technical skills. Recently, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the immediate launch of 'Pradhan Mantri e-VIDYA' initiative for digital education which is likely to give a boost to Edtech startups across the nation.

[caption id="attachment_144798" align="alignleft" width="350"] (Left-to-Right) Sarangarajan V (CTO) and Suryanarayanan P (CEO)[/caption]

Speaking on the announcement, Surya P, Co-founder & CEO, Skill-Lync, said, “Our aim is to provide students access to in-depth technical skill sets that would give them a good exposure to industry oriented problems and how it gets solved. We want to ensure that students get exposed to all the technical skills that industries are/will look for. This introductory set of courses allows engineers to get a clear idea about what domain that they need to specialize in as they enter into their professional career. During these tough times, the right use of digital technologies can go a long way in achieving the goals laid out by the government. This partnership with AICTE is to support Government's initiatives in enhancing digital learning and deal with the ‘new normal' in an efficient way.”

Talking about the courses, Surya added, “Currently we are offering free courses and live bootcamps every week. These are specially designed for learning Matlab & Python for Mechanical Engineers, CFD using SolidWorks, FEA using SolidWorks and MBD using SolidWorks. These courses provide a good amount of introductory knowledge in numerical simulation, computational fluid dynamics, finite element analysis and multi body dynamics.”

Amidst COVID, Skill-Lync saw 6-fold growth in its subscribers as compared to last month. The interesting thing is not only did they see traffic coming in from India, but had users signing up for the course from US, Europe and Asia. Last month the startup released a Masters in Electric Vehicle Design and Simulations coursework, which is India's first Master course to focus in the area of EV.

Skill-Lync is backed by global investors including Better Capital's – Vaibhav Domkundwar, Y Combinator and Founder of Gmail & YC Partner – Paul Buchheit.

EdTech Startup Illumnus Raises $100K from Angel Investors, HNIs

Edtech start-up Illumnus on Tuesday said it has raised USD 1,00,000 (about Rs 75 lakh) in seed funding from a group of high networth individuals (HNIs) and angel investors to market and expand its services.

The key investors are a group of HNIs and angel investors from Dubai, UAE, the company said in a statement, without disclosing any details.

"We are very excited about this. We plan to market and expand our services in four countries by the end of this year with an organic and sustainable growth," Illumnus founder Akash Deep Singhal said.

"We have already doubled our team bringing A-players to build a scalable SaaS based LMS platform, which the educational institutions always deserved but never got," he added.

Illumnus, the Collaborative Learning Management System (C-LMS) for educational institutions, was founded by IIT Bombay alumnus Akash Deep Singhal and his brother Akshaya Singhal from BITS Pilani.

"We are thrilled to support and help Illumnus grow leaps and bounds. In times where the world of education is increasingly becoming digitally driven, we find Illumnus very well placed to capture the market not only in India but in other global markets as well," the investor group was quoted as saying in the statement.

"Edtech in the business-to-business (B2B) space has seen a lot of investment in recent times from large players like Google and Microsoft as well. However, the solution offered by Illumnus is more end-to-end and provides seamless learning and pupil management capabilities to schools and parents alike," it said.

As the country is under lockdown to curtail the spread of COVID-19, edtech platforms have seen a surge in enrolment with professionals signing up for up-skilling and schools and colleges using them to finish pending syllabus.

Illumnus provides premier educational institutions with their internal digital learning network, simplifying the communication flow among the students and teachers even after school hours. PTI SM

AI-based Edtech Startup ‘Winuall' Raises Funding from OLA Co-Founder Ankit Bhati and other Angel Investors

Bangalore based Winuall, an edtech startup helping coachings in going digital,today announced that it had raised an undisclosed amount from Ankit Bhati Co-Founder of OLA, Nitin Gupta - Head of Eng, Milkbasket along with other angel investors. The startup will utilize the funds for expanding the business and curating more content providing an entire ecosystem for the coaching industry across India. Winuall recently launched live classes also which enables teachers to teach online.



According to Nitin Gupta, “Edtech industry is at an inflection point and is undergoing an enormous transformation since the outbreak of COVID. I believe what Winuall is building is precisely what this ecosystem needs – improving in-class learning through tech and AI. This opens up a huge opportunity for them to cater millions of students and create an ecosystem. They can help all coachings irrespective of their size and segment, and boost coaching’s brand by shining the spotlight on teachers rather than on technology."

[caption id="attachment_145558" align="alignright" width="300"] Ashwini Purohit[/caption]

Ashwini Purohit, Founder of Winuall, says, “While ed-tech space has seen many players transforming self-paced learning, there hasn’t been much impact on in-class learning, Winuall is looking to disrupt this space. Today, coaching classes are silent contributors to the Indian education ecosystem bridging an important gap that schools and colleges are struggling to fill. There are over 700k coaching’s across India, and not even 10% of them have moved digital. We are not only aiming to build business out by our SaaS platform, but also, aiming to create an entire eco-system of students where they can get financial aid,a marketplace where teachers and the institutes could offercourses and counseling to over 300 Mn+ students.”

He further added that investment at this critical juncture with the ongoing pandemic,it gives a picture of how edtech will reshape education in Indiaand how newer trends of online learning & distance education will emerge in the times to come.

Winuall was founded by Ashwini Purohit back in 2018 along with his team Abhinav Prakash

Aniket Prakash, Pratik Sahay & Harsha Ravi. With a presence across 50+ cities across India, this edtech startup has seen massive growth with over 3Mn+ minutes of learning in April with over 4Mn+ responses from both teachers & students providing in-depth analytics to both students, and teachers.


Winuall assists coaching institutes as well as educators to focus on the learning outcome of students. The startup facilitatescoaching institutes in going digital, providing them with high-quality contentand performance improvement recommendations using AI (Artificial Intelligence).

About Winuall


Winuall is an edtech startup that is working with the coaching institutes & educators that focuses on learning methods & improving the performance of the students. The app helps coachings in managing entire end-to-end operations with features like live classes, video-based course creation,online assessment, homework  & assignments, a digital library of questions, fee management, batch management, and communication with parents and students. 

STEPapp, the gamified learning app for school students soon to be relaunched in all subjects

In the situation where most of the sectors are at standstill in terms of new innovations and expansion, lockdown has inadvertently catalyzed growth for edu-tech industry. Following the growing demands and needs, tech-education player continues to introduce develop their business horizon. From promptly making of the app at discounted price, grading up the courses to adding the new elements, the supplementary edu- tech players are going beyond to beat the competition during crisis.

STEPapp one of the emerging players in the edu – tech has sensed this opportunity through the growing figure of users and downloads. STEPapp which is a gamified learning app, has seen an increase of more than 3 lakh users from March 15th. In last four months, the app has a total of 2 million downloads on Play Store and App Store.

During the lockdown period, STEPapp has turned out to be a popular solution for students to learn Math & Science concepts in a gamified format mapped as per the CBSE, ICSE and SSC boards.

Based a strong popularity of the gamified learning format in last few months. STEPapp has decided to relaunch the app by introducing new subjects. With an effective approach of Artificial Intelligence, the app will be adding Social Science and language subjects as per the education board guidelines. The newly introduced subjects will be soon available for CBSC board students. The app is in process to prepare the course for other education boards as well.

The additional feature of the app, such as segregated topics of each chapters that allow students revise and grasp the concepts easily, simplified testing methodology to track the progress of students and dashboard that collects data on each subscribed students will also be added to the newly introduced subjects.

“As a part of the education sector for the last 22 years, our aim is to ensure that students receive the best quality of education. After seeing the amazing response on our app in the past few months, it is our responsibility to introduce all the subjects and made it available to students and teachers in the neediest time. Hence, even when the situation is not in our favour, our team continue to work, improvise and innovate the app with the use of the best technology.” Said Praveen Tyagi, Managing Director, Pace- IIT & Medical, CEO and Founder, EduIsFun Technologies (STEPapp)

About STEPapp

STEPapp is a gamified, personalized, interactive and adaptive learning app which makes learning Math & Science fun and interesting for school students from grades 1st to 12th.

STEPapp is an innovative way to learn concepts while ensuring that all the stakeholders (parents, principals, teachers and policymakers) are aware of the learning outcomes at all times.

It is created by a team of 400+ IITians and Doctors after over 10 years of extensive research, STEPapp is a unique gamified learning software product that provides conceptual clarity.

STEPapp was implemented in the 14 Eklavya Residential Model School a year ago and it has helped the students to improve their performance in their school exams and 15 students from EMRS got selected for the NTSE exam’s first round for the first time. Based on the student and teacher feedback they have offered to implement STEPapp further in 11 EMRS. The central government of India has issued a letter recommending STEPapp to all Eklavya Model Residential Schools across India.

“Our students have always had a phobia with Math and Science subjects, but after using Eduisfun app (STEPapp), they really feel that these subjects are very easy. They can go through the content very easily, very clearly, very precisely. They are using this technology for studying, for performing better in competitive exams. This technology is really helping make teaching more effective.” - Principal, EMRS Chikhaldhara.

STEPapp has also signed an agreement with Tamil Nadu government to provide STEPapp for 10 lakh students in the government schools. STEPapp has also signed an MoU with Podar schools to implement STEPapp as homework and revision app, benefiting 1.5 lakh students.

Every child deserves access to quality learning and education. The motto is to ensure that STEPapp reaches every child in the country irrespective of their socio-economic status.

EdTech Platform Univariety Secures $1.1 Mn Funding from InfoEdge

Univariety, India’s leading edtech platform, today announced it has raised $1.1 Mn (INR 8 Cr) from India’s premier online giant Info Edge. In a span of two years, this is the second investment that Info Edge has led in the Hyderabad-based startup Univariety.  Info Edge is India’s premier online classifieds company in recruitment, matrimony, real estate and education with multiple leading sites like Naukri.com, 99acres, Jeevansaathi, etc..

This Primary Funding will be used by Univariety for Business Growth with a focus on product development, scaling up its alumni platform for Schools and deeper brand building. The products will be unique and will support the students & parents in making crucial decisions along the career journey.

Commenting on the investment, Hitesh Oberoi, Co-Promoter, MD and CEO, Info Edge said, “India is witnessing a growing need for students to make more informed choices about their future. Univariety has succeeded in making Career Guidance mainstream in K-12 education, by partnering with hundreds of top Schools. The next phase of Career Guidance is about preparing students for the Skills and Careers of the 21st Century, many of which don’t even exist today. Univariety is uniquely positioned to impact how Indian Students face Global competition beyond just College admissions. We believe it is ‘Career Guidance 2.0’.”

Univariety’s approach is one of a kind and ensures that guidance comes from multiple perspectives (psychometric tests, counselors, alumni, and universities). It is the only company in the category to have exclusive partnerships with top brands like UCLA, Fortune India, and many others.

Speaking about the latest fundraise, Mr. Jaideep Gupta, Founder, and CEO, Univariety said, “The fact that Info Edge has invested in us despite the gloomy external environment is invigorating. Univariety is deeply committed to making Career Guidance mainstream in Indian Schools. Our next phase of growth is focused on bringing in parents fully into the mix.  Our products & programs will help parents upgrade the definition of Success to beyond just the College Admissions.”

Hyderabad based Education focused Loestro Advisors was the sole advisor to this transaction.

 

About Univariety: Offering Guidance to 100,000+ Students

Owned and operated by International Educational Gateway, Univariety is an online marketplace with students at the center of the college admission process. It involves key stakeholders like Parents, Alumni and the School Management to deliver comprehensive Career Guidance for Students.

Incorporated in 2015 by Jaideep Gupta, Univariety offers blended (online & in-person) Career Guidance to Students in its partner Schools across 60+ cities in India.  Students can explore 75,000+ courses at up to 14,000 universities across ten countries on the Univariety Platform. Univariety is partnered with 350+ Schools in India and serves 100,000+ students.

Info Edge: An Overview

Since its inception in 1995, Info Edge has grown to become one of the most popular and successful online classified companies. Started with online recruitment business naukri.com, India-headquartered Info Edge is now the parent company of top online portals like 99acres, naukri.com, Jeevansathi.com, and online education platform Shiksha.com.

With a network of 62 offices located in 43 cities throughout India, it is India’s premier online classifieds company in recruitment, matrimony, real estate, education, and related services. According to the company’s filings, it has seen an increase in sales turnover with the last financial year closing at INR 1,209.41Cr. (total income as of March 2019).