Uolo, a B2B EdTech startup, has recently announced the acquisition of Tekie, a platform that builds coding skills in school-going learners for an undisclosed amount. The transaction is an equity swap between the company and Tekie’s investors which includes GSV Ventures, Multiply Ventures and Better Capital.
According to the press statement, Tekie utilises technology to expand on principles by introducing HTML, Java, and Python programming. The coding programme is run in the schools. This acquisition is in line with Uolo’s vision to take EdTech to masses in partnership with K-12 schools.
Co-founded by Pallav Pandey, Ankur Pandey and Siddharth Singh in 2013, Uolo provides affordable programs aligned with school curriculums. Its open architecture platform allows third-party education publishers and content creators to develop physical learning programs designed for K-12 schools and students. The Gurugram-based startup claims to be developing online capabilities of its partner private schools.
Commenting on the acquisition, Co-founder & CEO of Uolo, Pallav Pandey, said:
Uolo will introduce the Tekie program in schools that are already using its school management platform. We believe that the acquisition of Tekie furthers our mission to take modern, high-quality EdTech programs to the masses.
So far, Uolo has partnered with more than 8,500 schools in India. It also claims that it currently caters to more than 3.7 million students across the country. The platform offers learning programmes in coding and English speaking, and plans to introduce more programs across STEAM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects in the coming months.
Founded by Naman Mukund and Anand Verma, Tekie is a live coding platform for kids that uses the power of storytelling, to make learning to code a movie-like experience. The company has built the world’s first animated series on coding that educates school students through a cinematic journey where they solve problems and challenges using coding concepts like variables & strings, loops and data structure. The platform teaches Text-based Coding, which involves actual coding language syntax rather than basic drag and drop functions provided by competitors.
Teki’s Text-based coding curriculum ensures that students write actual code during the program, giving them a distinct advantage and deeper knowledge of the subject. It has been garnering attention from all sides because of its long-format animated educational series which consists of 45 episodes that teach the basics of programming. The super intuitive coding platform has an inbuilt code simulator, workbooks, projects, and a mentor to clarify all the doubts on the go and to help students analyse algorithms. The Bengaluru-based startup currently has more than 12000 students enrolled on the platform, and is planning to expand the offerings in other markets like the US, Canada, and the UK after successfully establishing a presence in India and the company has grown from just seven employees to 50+ employees.
In December last year, Uolo had raised $22.5 million in its Series A funding round led by UAE-headquartered venture capital fund Winter Capital, along with participation from existing investors Blume Ventures and Dubai-based fund Morphosis Venture Capital. Prior to that, it had raised Rs 20 crore in a seed funding round led by Blume Ventures in November 2020.
On the other hand, Tekie had raised $1.5 million in its seed round co-led by GSV Ventures and Multiply Ventures in March 2021.
