Edtech Startup Bhanzu Raises $15 Mn To Eradicate “Math Phobia” Among Students

Edtech platform Bhanzu on Wednesday (September 21) said it has raised $15 Mn in Series A funding round led by global investment firm Eight Roads Ventures. B Capital also invested in the round from its Ascent Fund.

The global math learning startup plans to utilise the fresh funds to expand its business globally across multiple geographies, enhance its tech infrastructure, increase its workforce, and strengthen curriculum with more interesting and outcome-focused content. 

With its expansion plans across geographies, Bhanzu aims to eradicate global “math phobia” among students, helping them learn and love mathematics. 

“With this new development, we envision becoming the world’s largest and most impactful math education entity in the next few years,” Bhanzu CEO Neelakantha Bhanu, who is also known as the world’s fastest human calculator, said. 

Founded in 2020 by Bhanu, Bhanzu claims to have a meticulously designed curriculum that helps students become 4X quicker and better at math. The curriculum is personally curated by Bhanu with over four years of data collection and research.

“We are big believers in the potential of Indian education companies to solve global learning challenges over the next decade. Low math proficiency is a deep problem driven by lack of skilled teachers, poor engagement and math anxiety in students,” said Aditya Systla, partner at Eight Roads Ventures.

“We have been very impressed with Bhanzu’s proprietary pedagogy and curriculum which results in superior learning outcomes, cognitive development and future readiness,” Systla added.

Bhanzu raised $2 Mn in its seed funding round in 2021 led by Lightspeed and a few other angel investors. The funding was then deployed in scaling up its live virtual classes across the country and in increasing hiring for specialised technology and product teams, the startup said in a statement.

Bhanzu, which currently has a workforce of 400 people, aims to recruit high-impact talent who are ready to take the business to the next level across different verticals. 

The development comes at a time when the overall edtech ecosystem in India is reeling under the impact of the ‘funding winter’ and decline in users due to reopening of schools and offline classes. 

Edtech major BYJU’S saw its loss widen 19.8X to INR 4,588 Cr in FY21 along with a decline in income. 

While a large number of edtech platforms – from Unacademy to Lido, and Vedantu to BYJU’S-acquired WhiteHat Jr – laid off employees in the past few months, edtech startups like Udayy and Superlearn shut down.

As per an Inc42 report, the edtech slowdown has impacted the livelihoods of over 3,000 people directly. Indian edtech startups raised $2 Bn in the first half of 2022, a 41% decline from the funding raised in the second half of 2021, according to an Inc42 analysis.