Ola co-founder, Milkbasket exec back AI-based edtech startup Winuall

Bengaluru-based Kuzagan Technologies, which runs edtech startup Winuall, has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round led by Ankit Bhati, co-founder of cab aggregator Ola, and Nitin Gupta, head of engineering at grocery delivery platform Milkbasket.

Meena Kanwar Family Fund and other angel investors, whose identities were not disclosed, also participated in the round, according to a statement.

The company will use the fresh capital to expand its business and curate more content for the coaching industry across India, it said.

“While the edtech space has seen many players transforming self-paced learning, there hasn’t been much impact on in-class learning. Winuall is looking to disrupt this space,” Ashwini Purohit, founder of Winuall, said. 

“There are over 7 lakh coaching centres across India, and not even 10% of them have moved digital. We are not only aiming to build business with our SaaS platform, but also want to create an entire ecosystem of students where they can get financial aid, and a marketplace where teachers and (educational) institutes could offer courses and counselling to over 300 million students,” he said.

Winuall, founded by Purohit with Abhinav Prakash, Aniket Prakash, Pratik Sahay and Harsha Ravi in 2018, leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to help coaching institutes and educators with digital services, provide content and recommend performance improvement solutions. It has a presence in over 50 cities across India.

The investment comes at a time when the Covid-19 crisis is reshaping the education sector, with edtech leading this transformation.  

“The edtech industry is at an inflection point and is undergoing an enormous transformation since the outbreak of Covid-19. I believe what Winuall is building is precisely what this ecosystem needs – improving in-class learning through technology and AI. This opens up a huge opportunity for them to cater millions of students and create an ecosystem,” lead investor Gupta said.

Read: Coronavirus India LIVE updates

Edtech has emerged as an investor favourite in the otherwise bleak funding environment. 

Earlier today, Any Time Classes (ATC) Educational Services, which runs an eponymous edtech platform, raised an undisclosed amount in a bridge funding round from Mumbai Angels Network. 

Last month, Ahmedabad-based edtech startup Pedagogy raised $400,000 in a bridge round, led by Inflection Point Ventures. 

Around the same time, Noida headquartered Qin1 raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round led by incubator Venture Catalysts.