Udayy Raises $2.5 Mn From Alpha Wave, Info Edge Ventures To Expand Live Learning Platform

Edtech platform Udayy, which offers live learning courses for children in grades 1 to 5, has raised $2.5 Mn in its seed funding round led by Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI), managed by Falcon Edge Capital, and InfoEdge Ventures. This round also saw participation from early stage fund Better Capital, CRED founder Kunal Shah and other angel investors.

Founded by Saumya Yadav, Mahak Garg, and Karan Varshney in 2019, the Gurugram-based startup will use the capital raised for curriculum development and expanding its product suite, as well as hiring across the product, curriculum and engineering teams.  Udayy had raised its pre-seed round from angel investors in June 2019. Currently, it offers math and English lessons to children in the age group of 6-11 years. It claims to have users from 45+ cities and towns across India, with 400+ classrooms being run on a daily basis.

Besides paid courses focussing on mathematical thinking and speech development with 3-5 children per live classroom, the startup recently launched a free app for daily worksheets for children. Udayy claims to have 97% retention rate for its paid courses.

Cofounder and CEO Saumya Yadav said Udayy’s live learning platform targets students in the primary grades as these are the 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 “An outdated education system is failing Indian parents and children.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.”

While its model overlaps with the likes of BYJU’s, Unacademy and other startups catering to the K-12 segment, Udayy claims to differentiate itself with a flipped classroom approach, where students drive their own learning pedagogy, customised as per each student’s individual capability. The company claims that it is building a niche in math and English in the younger age group segment, whereas much of the competition is focussed on school-based curriculum for older children.

Alpha Wave Incubation’s MD Anirudh Singh said that India’s after-school education market is as yet largely untapped for the younger age group segment. “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.”