Spardha, a digital platform for learning music and performing arts, has raised Rs 3 crore (~$410K) in a Pre-Series A1 funding round led by Inflection Point Ventures, with participation from few US-based high net-worth individuals.
Founded by Saurabh Srivastav in 2016, Spardha provides a platform for all music and performing arts lovers, offering a personalized learning path for different student needs. With professionally certified trainers, the startup develops result-oriented curriculums for the students and facilitates the same via its digital learning platform.
Some of the popular courses that Spardha’s platform offers include Western Vocals Beginner, Acoustic Guitar Beginner, Electronic Keyboard Beginner, and Indian Vocals Beginner, among others.
Issuing a statement on the funding, Saurabh Srivastav, Founder & Chief Executive Officer, Spardha, said,
“For first-time founders like me, IPV is like a mentor helping us with all their specialized knowledge so that we take the right decisions and maximize the probability of our success. The platform has a large network of seasoned SMEs across various business functions like product development, marketing, sales, and finance, etc. who are always willing to extend their support in solving our key challenges.”
Spardha claims to offer a high-quality “local yet nationally integrated platform” where anyone can conveniently participate and learn new skills or groom their talent or skill in diverse areas and showcase them to the outside world. It offers a seamless learning experience to all its students through its unique digital platform. Students can take advantage of standardized yet personalized curriculums to learn new skills quickly, get access to regular progress feedback, weekly assignments, trainers, and a personalized progress roadmap for long-term growth and development. Additionally, students can also demonstrate their learned skills by posting their video performances on various internal and external forums.
The startup plans to use its fresh funding for branding and marketing, expansion of sales and products team, curriculum development and enhancement, digital platform enhancement, and expanding its presence in new international markets, particularly the UK, Singapore, Canada, and Australia.
Ankur Mittal, Co-founder, Inflection Point Ventures, commented on the investment,
“Spardha has found early adopters in users of all age groups across India and the wide Indian diaspora in the US. Future plans include expanding both the markets and the product offering to include a wider user base. Spardha has the potential to replicate the success of some of the leading EdTech companies which have similar appeal across other verticals.”
With the market size of over 40 million potential students in India across all age groups, and growing at the rate of 17% year-on-year, the demand for music and performing arts classes is high, according to the company. Globally, it is a multi-billion-dollar market growing at a CAGR of 18.68%, with China alone to become a $14 billion market in online music lessons by 2022.
