Udayy, the live learning platform for children in Grades 1 to 5, has raised US$ 2.5 million seed funding led by Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI), managed by Falcon Edge Capital, and InfoEdge Ventures. This round also saw participation from Better Capital, Kunal Shah and other angels.
Udayy was founded by Saumya Yadav, Mahak Garg, and Karan Varshney – alumni of IIT Delhi and Stanford University. It raised its first round of angel funding in June 2019. Since its inception, Udayy has built a highly differentiated model in India’s ed-tech ecosystem.
Through its online platform, the company teaches Maths and English to children in the age group of 6-11 years. It facilitates the development of mathematical thinking and confident speaking in children by engaging them in an interactive, small classroom with three-five children. They recently also launched a free app providing daily worksheets for children. Udayy’s robust model has solved for high contribution margins and upwards of 97 percent retention in an industry that has remained highly competitive and has seen investments of upwards of US$ 2bn.
Saumya Yadav, Co-founder and CEO at Udayy, said in a press statement shared by the company, “Primary grades are formative years of education for children. An outdated education system is failing Indian parents and children. Udayy is making learning fun and engaging for children by bringing ‘learning by doing’ methodology through games, roleplays, and activities to our classrooms. We are thrilled to partner with AWI, Info Edge Ventures and our other investors to bring our mission to life.”
Much of Udayy’s differentiation is attributed to its first-principles business building that entails the flipped classroom methodology, where the student drives her own learning pedagogy, which is customized to the student’s individual capability.
While India’s ed-tech industry has primarily focused on older students, Udayy is building its niche as the go-to learning platform for Math and English in the younger age group segment. Udayy will use the capital proceeds for the next phase of its growth which will include curriculum development, product suite expansion, and hiring across the product, curriculum and engineering Teams.
Anirudh Singh, Managing Director, Alpha Wave Incubation, said in a press statement, “After-school education in the younger age group segment is an untapped market in India. Udayy is on track to disrupt the space through its experiential learning model, which uses technology driven gamification as a key driver of learning outcomes. The team has shown deep market understanding and ability to iterate quickly, and we are excited to be the first institutional investors in the company.”
Kitty Agarwal, Partner at InfoEdge Ventures, said, “We are excited to partner with Udayy. We have immense faith in the team’s commitment to deliver an educational experience that resonates with both young children and their parents. The emphasis on peer interaction as much as curriculum helps children develop social skills and makes learning fun which is especially important in these times.”
