PingoLearn, an English language learning platform, has raised Rs 2 crore in a pre-Seed funding round led by Titan Capital and AngelList's syndicate, the company said in a statement.
The company said it will use the funds to expand the team, set up content machinery, and develop the product.
Founded by Mohit Menghani and Shubham Maheshwari in 2021, PingoLearn offers language courses with mini-video lessons.
Founded in 2021 by BITS Pilani alumni Mohit Menghani and Shubham Maheshwari, operated by PingoLearn Education Pvt Ltd, it offers language courses with mini video lessons inspired by real-life conversations, the statement said.
PingoLearn said it aims to build the “least boring” app to master a language.
“I come from a Tier-3 city, and had very little exposure to spoken English in my school days. You speak what you hear, and that becomes your version of the language, be it vocabulary or pronunciation. My "version" of the English language has significantly improved over the years by consuming videos and getting feedback from my friends. We are artificially creating that environment at Pingolearn with snackable content for learning actual usable language and speech assessment engines for immediate feedback on pronunciation and fluency,” Mohit Menghani, Co-founder of PingoLearn, said.
He added, “This fresh round of funding and collaboration with these industry leaders will ramp up our development pace to create an authentic language learning experience.”
The edtech market in India has witnessed frenetic funding and mergers and acquisitions (M&A) activity since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic last year. In October, VCCircle reported that Amsterdam-based Global University Systems has acquired a 100% stake in Indian education firm Edvancer Eduventures Ltd, which offers online certification courses in data science.
Vernacular edtech platform Vidyakul raised an undisclosed sum in a financing round from Dholakia Ventures and other angel investors. Similarly, Bengaluru-based ForeignAdmits raised Rs 3.5 crore in a seed funding round led by Unicorn India Ventures.
In July, Teachmint Technologies Pvt Ltd, focused on tutor-student connectivity, raised $20 million (Rs 149.4 crore) in a pre-Series B funding round led by global edtech-focused VC firm Learn Capital. In November, Unacademy Group-owned Graphy acquired edtech platform Spayee for $25 million.
In 2021 till date, three edtech companies have turned unicorn, taking the total number of such startups in the country - with a valuation of over $1 billion, to five.
Executive education platform Eruditus and higher learning startup upGrad became unicorns in 2021, with Vedantu being the latest edtech company to join the club in late September, after raising $100 million in a Series E round led by Singapore-based impact investor ABC World Asia.
India’s edtech sector is expected to grow at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of over 15% from $2.8 billion in 2020 to $30 billion in 2030, citing a BLinC Investment Management report, which also makes India the world’s most active edtech market.
