Edtech platform WeSkill, under the parent company JAP Edutainment Pvt Ltd, has raised over $400,000 (around Rs 3 crore) from angel investors and syndicates, as part of its pre-Seed round of funding led by Shrishti Sahu from Swadharma Source Ventures (SSV), the company said in a statement.
The round also saw participation from Umang Vohra (Managing Director and Global Chief Executive Officer, Cipla), Arpan Sheth (Senior Partner, Bain & Company), Nikhil Srivastava (Partner and MD, Head of India Private Equity at PAG), Renu Satti (Chief Operating Officer, Paytm), Narendra Rathi (Investments VP, SoftBank vision fund), Raj Shastri (ex-partner, Kaizenvest), Sayan Ghosh (venture capitalist at International Finance corporation), Soonicon LLP (managed by former Fitso founder’s), Mayank Gupta (co-founder, Zopper), Aditya Pittie (CEO, Pittie enterprises group); Rajesh Razdan (co-founder, Devtron Labs) and IIT Madras professors, among others.
Founded in 2020 by IIM Ahmedabad alumni Shaurya Joshi, Shashank Patidar, and Praneet Agarwal, WeSkill offers courses and workshops on extracurricular activities such as dance, music, arts and chess, through live online classes. The platform looks to address the lack of access to experienced instructors by offering an engaging and informative experience for the children, it said in the statement.
“When we started WeSkill, we did not anticipate such a high demand coming from all parts of the country. However, consistently-high NPS and retention numbers from learners, our courses, delivered in six different languages, indicate a universal demand for solutions which provide long-term learning opportunities and can be accessed from a safe space at a convenient time,” said Joshi.
Shrishti Sahu is an entrepreneur and investor, who has been associated with around 700 startups while working at Facebook where she was leading startup programmes. Currently, she is Managing Partner and angel investor at the VC firm, Swadharma Source Ventures.
In similar deals, edtech startup Gurucool raised $150,000 (around Rs 1 crore) in a pre-Seed round led by angel investor Parvez Jasani, Chief Executive Officer of Zulie Venture Inc; and startup incubator FreeFlow Venture Builders.
Earlier this month, edtech startup NxtWave raised $2.8 million (approximately Rs 21 crore) pre-Series A funding led by Orios Venture Partners and Better Capital.
Last month, edtech start-up Edvizo raised $150,000 (approximately Rs 1.13 crore) in an angel funding round from ah! Ventures.
With over 9,000 edtech startups, of which 750 have raised about $8.5 billion to date, India is the third-largest economy to attract private investors during 2021.
