Edtech Startup Uable Raises $3.5 Mn In Pre-Series A Round

Bengaluru-based online life-skill development platform Uable has raised $3.5 Mn in a pre-Series A round led by JAFCO Asia and Chiratae Ventures. Existing investor 3one4 Capital also participated in this round. 

Uable will use the funds to build a global team, scale the product globally and add more real-world domains for teenagers to explore.

Uable is looking to build a new category of edtech which solely focuses on skill development without giving creativity a miss. The company was founded in 2019 by Saurabh Saxena, who was one of the founders of leading edtech startup Vedantu. 

“At Uable, we are challenging the status quo of education, where for decades and possibly centuries, the notion that securing the highest marks, grades and degrees alone determined one’s future and chances of success. However, we are here to change that notion and bring a paradigm shift in education,” said Saxena, founder and CEO at Uable. 

Uable claims to be working to empower teens between 13 and 18 years of age to discover and design their own career pathways in the 21st-century domains including but not limited to AI, Climate Change, Gig Economy, Space Tech and Robotics. According to the company, its courses will offer kids an opportunity to immerse themselves in real-world experiences, learn from peers and receive mentorship from global domain experts. Though it is a subscription-only model, the company is exploring possibilities of offering certain courses for free. As of July last year, Uable was hosting free workshops to onboard more children into this learning experience.

In an earlier interview, Saxena told Inc42 that the traditional education system is focusing solely on traditional forms of education through digital content, without paying much heed to creativity. He noted that a child’s creativity drops from 98% to 12% between the age of 6 to 12.

“I have been an educator and an entrepreneur for the last 15 years… As a professional educator, I have seen that part of the world — conventional education system, star teacher, content, exams, rank, grades, marks, the entire journey — but over the last few years I started to realise that we need to see education from a different lens and we are only pushing them into a rat race by pushing them into a conventional system,” Saxena had said.

Uable’s last funding round was a seed round worth an undisclosed amount, led by 3one4 Capital in July last year. 

Indian Edtech Sector: A $10 Bn Opportunity

With a market size of $2.8 Bn in 2020, the Indian edtech sector is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 39% to reach a market size of $10.4 Bn by 2025, highlights an Inc42 Plus report,  “The Future Of Edtech In India: Decoding the $10 Bn Market Opportunity”. Some of the major factors driving the adoption of edtech apps in India will be convenience and cost-efficiency of the products and services, a surge in out-of-pocket expenditure on education and a rise in course fees. 

Test preparation, K12 learning, online certification and skill development are expected to be the major drivers of demand for Indian edtech startups in the coming years.