Doubtnut, a Gurugram-based online learning platform that provides video-based solutions to student queries, has raised $15 million in a Series A funding round led by global giant Tencent.
The fresh round was joined by the company’s existing investors Omidyar Network India, AET Fund, Cure.fit co-founder Ankit Nagori and Sequoia Capital India.
Launched in 2017 by IIT-Delhi alumni Aditya Shankar and Tanushree Nagori, Doubtnut is a multi-lingual online learning platform that uses artificial intelligence and ML technologies for image recognition, natural language processing and proprietary machine learning algorithms to provide video-based solutions in response to students’ queries. With 1.2 million daily active users, it is one of the most used education platforms in India in the K-12 segment. It has over 13 million monthly active users across several platforms – app, web, WhatsApp and YouTube.
Currently catering to K-12, IIT JEE, and NEET students, Doubtnut app helps users get instant answers to their math, physics, chemistry and biology problems in an easy-to-use format – simply take a photo of a problem and the Doubnut app serves up a video of the solution within 10 seconds. The app also simultaneously suggests other concept to help students learn the topic better. The app can read questions in 11 Indian languages, as well as English.
Speaking about the company, Tanushree Nagori, Co-founder, Doubtnut, said in a statement,
“Doubtnut is truly democratizing education across India with its student-focused approach. Our user base reflects the entire demography of India, something which no other education app in the country has come close to achieving. 85% of our users are from outside the top 10 metro cities in India, strengthening our belief that we are really solving for Bharat. 60% of these users have come online in the last 12 months. This gives us an indication that despite a massive growth in our user base, there is still a significant target audience that is yet to be tapped. We aim to use technology to provide a democratic, comprehensive and easily accessible education solution to all students – in the language and manner that they best understand.”
Doubtnut claims its app is extremely popular in low-income groups where demand for low cost educational services is high. In 2019, the company launched a WhatsApp number (8400400400) to provide another query resolution channel for the students. Doubtnut said it has till date resolved over 250 million questions across subjects like math, physics, chemistry, and biology.
Commenting on the funding, Aditya Shankar, Co-founder, Doubtnut, said,
“Tencent will add immense value to our journey. Their experience of working with Yuanfudao in China will help our team get fresh and valuable perspective on distribution first edtech models.”
The company said that it will use the latest funds to widen its pan-India distribution, build on its content repository to cater to a fast expanding target group, invest in strengthening its technology stack and scaling its team.
Doubtnut’s videos are prepared by experts from IIT and other leading institutions and are a great tool for students and can also act as an aid to teachers. There are over 450,000 videos in their library and the company said thousands more are being added each month.
Meanwhile, prior to this latest funding, Doubtnut has raised $3.3 million in its Pre-Series A round in March 2019 led by Surge, Sequoia Capital, Waterbridge Ventures, Omidyar Network India, and AET Fund.
