Elevation And Lightspeed-Backed Bluelearn Shuts Operations, To Return 70% Money To Investors

Social learning platform Bluelearn has announced shutting down its operations just after over three years of launching the startup, citing it tough to grow fast.

The startup also said it will return 70% of the capital it raised to its investors.

“We realised that building a venture-scale business with Bluelearn was challenging. We had been very conservative with capital, enabling us to return 70% of the capital we raised back to investors,” Bluelearn’s cofounder Harish Uthayakumar posted on X.

In a video uploaded on YouTube, Uthayakumar mentioned that they could not envision Bluelearn evolving into a large-scale business capable of generating significant revenue.

“I am grateful and have immense respect for all the incredible VCs and angels who took a bet on two college kids. They gave us an incredible launchpad and have always been supportive,” he said while addressing to stakeholders.  

Uthayakumar further pointed out that they realised building a venture-scale business with Bluelearn was challenging. He mentioned they had been very conservative with capital, enabling them to return 70% of the raised capital to investors.

Founded in 2021 by Uthayakumar and Shreyans Sancheti, Bluelearn started as a telegram channel for students to help each other with common questions. Currently, it claims to have a community of over 1,50,000 members from over 5,500 colleges and startups across more than 20 countries and growing 30% month to month organically.

This development comes over a year after Bluelearn raised $3.5 Mn in a seed funding round led by Elevation Capital and Lightspeed. Not to mention, the round also saw participation from Titan Capital, 2am VC, and angel investors such as Meesho founders Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, and Pixxel founder Awais Ahmed.

Prior to this, it raised INR 3.25 Cr in a pre-seed round in June 2021.

With startups eyeing profitability and sustainable growth as a key matrix, we have seen startups failing to raise follow-on rounds and shutting operations. Notably, as many as 15 startups wrapped up their operations last year and the trend has somewhat continued well into 2024.

For instance, in April, Peak XV-Backed digital health platform Nintee announced shutting operations with commitment of remaining capital refunds to investors.

In March, fintech startup GoldPe ceased its operations citing the absence of a sustainable revenue stream, a flawed business model, and cash flow issues.

Previously, in February, youth-focused neobanking startup Muvin also reportedly shut its operations after the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in 2023 forbade UPI in a co-branding arrangement.

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