Sparkl Edventure Secures $4 Million in Seed Funding from Rainmatter and Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal

Funding Alert

By StartupStory | December 24, 2024

Delhi NCR-based edtech startup Sparkl Edventure, founded by Aakash Chaudhry, has raised $4 million in a seed round led by Rainmatter Foundation, founded by Nithin Kamath, and Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal. The development, first reported by The Economic Times, was confirmed by Chaudhry in an interview with YourStory.

The seed funding comes just months after Sparkl Edventure launched its platform in October 2024, which focuses on providing one-on-one online tutoring for students in grades 6 to 12. The platform specializes in International Baccalaureate (IB) and Cambridge curricula and aims to build a robust student base by the academic year 2025-2026.

“I believe this is an education segment, which in my personal experience as a parent and knowing so many parents struggling to find good tutors on IB, is underserved. This is because IB curriculum in India is a fairly new phenomenon and most people are used to teaching CBSE, ICSE, or state board so teaching IB framework is a tougher problem to solve,” said Aakash Chaudhry, Founder of Sparkl Edventure.

He further elaborated on the economic dynamics of the segment, saying, “This market also has a higher paying capacity, and that allows us to run the one-on-one program, which requires higher economics.”

The company plans to utilize the fresh funds for hiring experienced teaching talent, enhancing its technological infrastructure with AI capabilities, and investing in marketing and brand-building efforts.

The seed round was strategically designed to include consumer-tech leaders like Kamath and Goyal on the company’s cap table to leverage their expertise. “The seed round aimed to bring in smart consumer tech leaders like them to the cap table and understand and use their intelligence, their experience, and their vision to build Sparkl,” explained Chaudhry.

While paperwork from a few other investors is still underway, the funding round is expected to close by January 2025. Discussions regarding board membership for Goyal or Kamath are yet to be finalized.

Founded by the team behind Aakash Institute and Meritnation, Sparkl Edventure is committed to bridging the gap in quality education for IB and Cambridge curricula students, a niche yet promising market in India.