Edtech player Doubtnut raises Rs 224 cr for vernacular base expansion

- Business Standard

Edtech platform Doubtnut has raised a Rs 224 crore (approximately $30 million) funding from SIG and James Murdoch’s Lupa Systems and existing investors Sequoia Capital India, Omidyar Network India and Waterbridge Ventures. With this, the company has so far raised $50 million in total.

The fresh capital raised will be used for expansion into more languages and curriculum subjects and to launch new paid courses.

According to reports, edtech decacorn Byju’s was in talks to acquire Doubtnut last year at a valuation of $100 million but the deal fell through in the last stage over valuation differences.

Founded by IITians Tanushree Nagori and Aditya Shankar, Doubtnut is a multi-lingual doubt-solving platform that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning for image recognition, natural language processing and proprietary algorithms to provide video-based solutions. It has live tuition classes, video lectures, test series and other learning materials for classes 6-12 and test preparations for IIT-JEE and NEET with over 2.5 million daily active users spending 600 million minutes per month on Doubtnut platforms.

It offers solutions to more than 65 million questions monthly in 9 languages for students of CBSE and 15 state boards. While 85 per cent of its current user base comes from outside the top 15 Indian cities, 60 per cent users belong to state boards where the typical medium of instruction is the local vernacular language. More than half of the users have come online for the first time in the last 12 months.

“Doubtnut has been built with a vision to improve learning outcomes for all students, especially those outside the major Indian cities. We specialize in developing content in vernacular languages and use technology to create affordable solutions for people in this large target segment,” said Nagori.

Avendus Capital acted as the exclusive financial advisor to Doubtnut on this transaction.

As the Covid-19 pandemic fast-tracked the popularity of edtech startups last year, the sector saw an investment of over $2 billion in total, including some big ticket fund raises by Byju’s, Unacademy and Vendantu. This year several early stage startups have raised funding below $10 million such as Practically, Kyt, and Pariksha.