Cuemath, a Google-backed math tutoring platform, announced that it has raised $57 million (around INR 438 crore) in a fresh funding round led by Alpha Wave Global at a valuation of $407 million–a more than 2X jump in valuation.
The round also saw participation from all its existing investors, including Lightrock India, Sequoia Capital India, Alphabet independent growth fund CapitalG, Manta Ray, and Unitus.
With the fresh capital, the Bengaluru-based startup plans to strengthen product-pedagogy outcomes, growth initiatives, acquisitions, and partnerships. Currently present in over 70 countries, Cuemath now aims to expand to over 100 by FY23. This includes bolstering its presence in North America, Asia-Pacific, UK, Europe and West Asia and capturing markets in Africa and South America.
Founded in 2013 by Manan Khurma, Cuemath offers technology-driven after-school math learning programs for children. Its course content has been designed by experts from premier institutions across the world to build a strong math and coding foundation in students by sharpening their knowledge of concepts, aptitude and reasoning skills.
Cuemath mission is to make the world’s children great at math, and create invincible problem-solvers who will go on to solve humanity’s biggest problems.
Commenting on the latest investment, Chief Executive Officer of Cuemath, Vivek Sunder, said in a statement,
“Cuemath’s latest fund-raising is a significant feat given the present industry trends. Valuations have become more realistic with rationalization hitting the market; only those growth-stage start-ups with solid business fundamentals can now establish trust with VCs.”
Sunder further added:
“Product innovation and personalization coupled with a low capex model augmented our global scale-up and beefed our conversion rates by 3 times. With the best-in-class retention and acquisition engine, we have created a combination of a sustainable and scalable business model.”
Cuemath’s coding program includes coding for kids, app development, game development, python programming, grades 1-3 coding, 4-6 coding, and 7-8 coding.
Speaking about the company, Founder and Chairman of Cuemath, Manan Khurma, said:
“What distinguishes Cuemath from almost every other edtech company is that we focus on one thing and one thing only – deep math learning outcomes. In every Cuemath class, the student experiences a powerful and personalized combination of a highly visual math curriculum delivered by a rigorously trained, caring teacher. This has enabled Cuemath to have one of the best retention rates in the industry (80%), with half of all new admissions happening via referrals,” said Manan Khurma, founder and chairman.”
The latest fundraise of Cuemath comes at a time when the edtech sector in India is witnessing a significant slowdown amid a drop in demand for technology-based education solutions, thanks to schools, colleges and physical tuition centers reopening.
In September, Cuemath announced new senior appointments in its leadership team as part of its reorganization process. The startup has appointed Samir Kulshresth as chief financial officer (CFO), Nisha Popli as chief human resource officer (CHRO), Janardan Singh as chief of sales and Anushray Gupta as chief product and technology officer.
According to the company, it also aims to become the top maths teaching platform globally and its growth will be impactful and efficient and not ‘capital intensive.’
Anirudh Singh, MD, Alpha Wave Global, commented,
“Cuemath’s ability to successfully deliver outstanding learning outcomes through its proprietary platform and top-tier pedagogy has continued to impress us. Not only in India, its success in key international markets like the US, the UK, Middle East, and Singapore, while maintaining high-quality unit economics differentiates the company in a competitive and dynamic edtech market. High-quality adept teachers addressing a global need for specialised focus on math tutoring create a strong flywheel effect. We are excited to lead this investment as Cuemath deepens its penetration across global markets.”
In December 2020, Cuemath had raised $40 million (INR 297 Crore) in its Series C funding round led by LGT Lightstone Aspada and Falcon Edge’s Alpha Wave Incubation. The company’s existing investors including Google’s growth fund CapitalG, Sequoia Capital, and Manta Ray also participated in the round.
