On Thursday, Ahaguru (1), the Chennai-based edtech startup, secured an undisclosed amount in a Series A funding round. An investment firm managed by the family office of Anand Mahindra led the latest fundraise.
The firm plans to utilize the latest funds to hire more teachers on the platform, develop new technology features and online courses for high school students. Ahaguru further claims that it has increased its user base across India and the Middle East.
Gomathi S and Dr. Balaji Sampath founded Ahaguru in 2012. It offers two products on its platform; a mentored learning program and live virtual online classes. The former gives students a personal mentor to track their progress and answer their doubts. Whereas the latter is a two-year program that helps students directly learn from experts.
Ahaguru to Use Artificial Intelligence for Personalised Learning Experience to Each Student
While commenting on the latest fundraise, the co-founder of Ahaguru, Balaji Sampath, stated that the funding would enable us to launch new courses to help students with their school and board exams. The team is also investing in Artificial Intelligence or AI to personalize the learning experience for each student.
He further added that the predictive learning model of Ahaguru identifies the learning patterns of students and offers suggestions to enhance and improve students’ success rate.
Notably, India has over 1.5 million schools and over 260 million students enrolled. Moreover, there about 751 universities and 35,000 colleges across the country. Each year, millions of students take competitive exams at various levels, spends millions of rupees on schooling, coaching, training, and more. Yet, no player in the edtech sector can claim to be profitable so far. Except for BYJU’s, most startups are currently facing massive losses and burning cash at a rapid pace.
As per reports, there are over 4450 edtech startups in India. Out of this, 66% of the total online education market would be covered by K-12 and test prep niche by 2021. Estimates suggest that the market size of K-12 would be around 773 million USD and growing at 60% CAGR.
