Online Music Learning Platform Artium Academy Bags Funding From Chiratae Ventures, Others

Online music learning and community platform Artium Academy has raised $3 Mn in a funding round led by tech-focused venture capital firm Chiratae Ventures. 

Other early-stage investors like Anicut Capital, Jet Synthesis, and Whiteboard Capital as well as several entrepreneurs like Madhusudhan R, cofounder of M2P Finance; Priyamvada Balaji, executive director of Lucas Indian Service; Varun Alagh, cofounder of Mamaearth; Piyush Shah, cofounder of InMobi Group; and Vikas Dosala, cofounder of Fraazo, also participated in the funding round.

Artium Academy will use the fresh capital to accelerate its plans to develop new offerings and expand into newer markets, especially to the diaspora population outside India, its cofounder Vivek Raicha said.

The startup will also use the funding to invest in product and content-led organic channels for learner acquisition.

Artium Academy, founded by Ashish Joshi, Raicha and Nithya Sudhir, offers music education using modern pedagogy combined with technology. It offers music lessons and courses in the form of one-to-one live classes. 

“Our vision is to make music learning more relevant, participative, and engaging where a user can take the journey of a learner to a performer to a potential influencer with our music tech platform. We are building AI based assessment and prescription tools to aide efficient learning and performing, thereby offering qualitative pedagogy to the learners globally,” Artium Academy CEO Joshi said. 

Artium Academy recently tied up with Warner Music India and Global Music Junction (GMJ) to create original music content with its maestros, teachers, and learners under its brand Artium Originals.

According to its website, Sonu Nigam, Shubha Mudgal, and KS Chithra are among the faculty heads at Artium Academy.

“We see a significant opportunity in the passion/ extracurricular learning space. We believe that performance arts for Indians living here and abroad is a significant addressable market which has no age limits as well,” Anoop N Menon, principal and consumer tech lead at Chiratae Ventures, said. 

The fundraise comes at a time when edtech startups in the country are reeling under the impact of the funding winter. According to Inc42’s layoff tracker, edtech startups have laid off  over 4,000 employees in 2022 so far.

The funding raised by Indian startups declined around 50% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) to $3 Bn in Q3 2022. The average ticket size of funding raised by Indian startups also fell 54% to $11 Mn in the third quarter of 2022 from $27 Mn in the corresponding quarter of 2021, as per an Inc42 report.