Vidyakul, a vernacular after-school e-learning platform, raised a bridge round worth $ 500,000, led by We Founder Circle (WFC) along with participation from other canopy investors, including JITO Angel Network and Thinkuvate.
Vidyakul provides after school e-learning for state board students in vernacular languages. The platform believes that education is best delivered when it is in one’s own language. The edtech startup currently offers education in four languages to 1 million students from 10 states.
The startup had raised $ 500,000 in seed round earlier this year.
“We started helping Vidyakul in 2019 and have invested $ 100K in January 2021 as we were optimistic about the growth of the vernacular eLearning consumer. Since launching the Gujarati language after starting with Hindi, many of our investors and the local business community were willing to actively work with them, “said Gaurav Singhvi, co-founder of We Founder Circle, adding that with overwhelming demand from the Gujarati community, they reinvested $ 250,000 in this round again.
The brand plans to use funds to expand the team and improve the functionality of the platform.
“Rural education in India has been the main focus of the government. Vidyakul, is mainly focused on the BHARAT with a huge content bank of ~ 100k + video lectures covering more than 10 state boards in Math and Science … (We) are very confident that the founders will lead the company to great heights, “said Sunil Kumar Singhvi, Vice President of JITO Angel Network.
Tarun Saini, founder of Vidyakul, said the platform has been receiving overwhelming responses from students from all states. With the increasing penetration of the Internet, the scope of digital learning has expanded.
“E-learning has the ability to address long-standing challenges of: accessing quality education, reaching the most remote areas, student-teacher ratio, etc. We, on top of that, have made it easier for students. students helping them understand concepts in their own language. So far, we are providing courses for 10 boards, and we plan to add 3 more languages and add courses for 3 state boards by the end of this fiscal year, “Saini said.
The Edtech industry has grown several times in the last year. The unique approach to offering quality education in vernacular languages makes it a reference platform for students from all regions of India. In 2017, the number of Internet users in regional languages surpassed English-speaking users and this number will only grow further, and models based on the vernacular will gain more relevance, said Neeraj Tyagi, co-founder and CEO of We Founder Circle. .
