How Seekho Escaped A Near-Death Blow To Build An INR 600 Cr Edutainment Powerhouse

How often have we been told that knowledge is power? However, as life slips into routine, the pursuit of learning fades into the background — and there are countless reasons why.

The story of three IIT Kanpur alumni and now the founders of Seekho, a learning-based short video platform, is a testament to how they kept knowledge and learning as the core focus of their venture in the era of doomscrolling to build an INR 600 Cr+ edutainment venture in four years.

The trio of founders had one thing in mind, which was to build a platform that offered everything in the realm of learning and upskilling —  from how to play guitar to improving public speaking, and even figuring out how to get government work done without running from pillar to post. 

The quest of Rohit Choudhary, Yash Banwani and Keertay Agarwal — first college acquaintances and then colleagues at Kuku FM — started when many were sprinting to become TikTok doppelgangers, following its ban in June 2020. 

“During the peak of the pandemic, we asked ourselves: What if Indians wanted to scroll for something meaningful rather than just mindlessly flipping through content?” said Choudhary, cofounder, CEO of Seekho. 

The question stuck so much with them that they quit their cushy jobs at Kuku FM and focussed their energies on building a platform that could help Indians learn with every vertical swipe on their smartphones.

However, the road to over 2 Mn paid users and INR 50 Cr in monthly revenues has been nothing short of hard-fought. 

At one point, in mid-2022, the trio of founders ran completely dry of funds and had less than a month of runway in their bank FD. They were on the brink of giving up. Yet, they stayed undeterred and prevailed.

Then, fortune favoured the brave, and the company today is on track to harvest more than INR 600 Cr in FY26 revenues.

• So, what triggered the turnaround for the Seekho founders, whose fledgling venture was staring straight into the abyss of failure? 
• How did they pull off a comeback when nearly every TikTok wannabe either folded or was forced to pivot?
  
• And more importantly, what strategies turned their vision into a platform that today commands 2 Mn paid users?

To satiate this curiosity, let’s start from the top.

When Destinies Intwined: The Rise of Seekho

Besides their obsession with learning, the Seekho founders have a lot in common — an IIT Kanpur connection and Kuku FM. 

Choudhary, a 2015 B.Tech graduate from IIT, joined Kuku FM in October 2018, while Agarwal and Banwani, both 2016 B.Tech graduates, came on board in November and December 2019, respectively. Choudhary was working as a product lead at Kuku, Agarwal was a product growth analyst, and Banwani was a senior software developer.

Before joining Kuku, Choudhary worked with Toppr, a now-shuttered edtech startup, for nearly three years. Agarwal has worked with Team Computers, a provider of IT solutions, as a business analysis consultant, and Banwani was a software engineer with Next Education India.  

“Now that we look back, ours was a match made in heaven — a complete team comprising a product lead, a software developer and an analyst,” the founder said.       

Their connection, while working at Kuku, kept growing stronger. Choudhary reminisced about long sessions with Agarwal and Banwani over creating something that could take precedence over half-witted, dull content — something that is power-packed with real-life hacks, skills, learnings and knowledge hidden in plain sight.

The idea of Seekho was taking shape bit by bit.

Then came the pandemic, and we all know how that story unfolded. In June 2020, the government banned TikTok, and the aftermath was fascinating — a wave of new apps, including Moj, Chingari, Mitron and others, quickly proliferated to fill the void.

It was a content creator gold rush back then, and new short-video apps jumped in to attract the TikTok-displaced creators to keep their platforms buzzing.

“Quality content was in short supply, and even if it existed, most creators were relatively unknown, and their reach was limited,” Choudhary said.

The founders, too, wanted to take advantage of this content creator treasure hunt, but not in the way others were doing it. 

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“While at Kuku FM, we often heard from aspirational middle-class Indians — especially those earning INR 50K or less — that they wanted content which could help them pick up skills to improve their earning prospects,” he said.

The very insight laid the foundation for Seekho, unlocking two primary areas for the founders to work on — education and upskilling.

“However, choosing the format was a no-brainer. We went with videos, as we found them far more engaging and better at delivering value.”

By mid-2020, Seekho became their side hustle. The trio of founders also joined hands with a senior developer from Kuku FM to kickstart the project. Before they knew, the four were already burning their midnight oil and weekends, scraping any content remotely related to learning or skill-building — from how to play guitar to improving public speaking.

It Was Time To Bid Adieu To Kuku 

By early 2021, the founders already had a fully functional product. With bags full of dreams and aspirations, they started reaching out to investors in droves.

 Juggling their day jobs with building Seekho and chasing investors was becoming increasingly hectic. Stars aligned for the founders to leave Kuku.

Following this, Choudhary approached his ex-boss, Mohammed Zeeshan of Toppr, who helped the team secure INR 2 Cr in seed funding.  

With a financial cushion in hand, the founders broadened their content lineup, roping in a humble lot of content creators to produce videos.

“These were people driven more by learning than money. Initially, we paid just INR 100 per video, but even that was a welcome reward for them,” Choudhary said.

Another key piece of the puzzle was to avoid long videos and stick to short, crisp clips under five minutes that get straight to the point. 

A mix of concise content, an endless-scroll format, and free access helped the platform grow to 300K users by mid-2022. But this was not enough. Dark clouds of uncertainty were gathering on the horizon.

Seekho’s Tipping Point: From Ventilator To Victory

Despite traction, the Seekho founders were staring into the eye of a major problem. They were running out of funds, and the platform had not earned a single dime as of mid-2022.

Even though Seekho was not making any money, it was still paying influencers and spending on performance marketing. 

As their runway began to shrink, they dared to approach investors again — only to be ghosted. The reason was obvious: no revenue in sight.

The founders reached out to more than 100 investors, but to no avail. 

“We were barely left with a month’s runway, and it was time to call the shots. With our fingers crossed, we decided to put a paywall — an annual subscription of INR 199,” Choudhary said.

Subscribers who were serious about learning and well-engaged in our content paid, and this was the first time Seekho generated any money.

“We made INR 4 Lakh in mid 2022 — our first ever revenue harvest that helped us clear salaries and other expenses on our own,” Choudhary said.  

The next step was to raise the revenue bar. Therefore, the founders decided to increase influencer payouts, with many now making as much as INR 50,000 a month. 

With proof that the platform had money-making potential, Seekho reached out to Elevation Capital and managed to secure $3 Mn. 

It was time to revamp the product.

At first, the founders focussed on boosting influencers’ value to ensure a steady stream of high-quality content.

The founders gave them customised dashboards to track and analyse their performance and make content around what’s trending. 

Seekho also churned out some creators and hired the ones aligned with their vision of delivering the content that would keep the platform thriving.

“We decided not to chase virality like other platforms, where success often depends on luck or user mood. Instead, we knew that if a video delivers real value in a short format, users will watch it,” Choudhary said.

To provide a sense of security to content creators, the founders made sure that creators had a stable income, regardless of how their videos performed.

By mid-2023, Seekho was off the ventilator and sprinting, with 50K paid users and INR 30 Lakh monthly revenues. The startup then focussed on unlocking new markets with content around finance, business growth, life hacks, and astrology. 

By the end of 2024, Seekho’s tech team was focussed on improving recommendations and curating videos by category, similar to what Netflix offers. The platform also introduced a new format where creators hosted shows on specific topics.

With this added value, the founders raised their annual subscription from INR 199 to INR 599. This increase was also crucial because Seekho had now grown to a team of 35 members.

To keep their growth ball rolling, the founders managed to mop up another $8 Mn from Lightspeed and Elevation Capital.

By the end of March 2025, Seekho’s paid user base stood at 2 Mn. While the startup clocked INR 150 Cr in FY24 revenues, up to 13X YoY, losses stood at INR 17 Cr.

Racing Towards INR 600 Cr Revenue Milestone

From zilch to INR 600 Cr revenue run, Seekho’s journey has been nothing if not extraordinary. Three IIT Kanpur alumni left safe pastures to navigate the uncharted waters of edutainment. They faced investor rejections time and time again and stood on the brink of bankruptcy. But they did not give up and added more sails to their ship with each pivot.

Result? Seekho has added another $28 Mn in its funding war chest. The fresh capital infusion from Bessemer Venture Partners, along with Goodwater Capital and existing investors Lightspeed Venture Partners and Elevation Capital, will give the startup enough headroom to try new things.

Seekho will primarily utilise the fresh capital to make learning accessible and fun. The founders are working on expanding to new categories and hiring more content creators. They are also mulling an international market. The startup has already launched agriculture as a new category on the platform.

The founders are also leveraging AI to make learning more interactive. Seekho is now developing a new feature that lets users ask questions and receive answers on specific topics.

It is also foraying into regional languages. It has already launched content in Tamil and Telugu, and now plans to launch content in Bangla and Malayalam.

Combined, these efforts have helped the startup unlock INR 50 Cr+ in monthly revenues. This means that the startup is on track to close FY26 with more than INR 600 Cr in revenues.

Edited By Shishir Parasher