BlueLearn raises pre-seed funds from LightSpeed to increase footprint in $10 billion edtech industry

BlueLearn, one of India’s largest community driven edtech platforms, has raised INR 3.25 crore in a pre-seed funding round led by LightSpeed, Titan Capital, 2am VC and angel investors such as Rahul Mathur, Gaurav Mandlecha and Surabhi Randev also participated in the funding round.

This is in addition to the first round led by 100X.VC. BlueLearn was founded earlier this year by Harish Uthayakumar and Shreyans Sancheti who are currently in their final year of electrical engineering at BITS Pilani. The start-up plans to use the raised funds to build their core team, hire new talent and further develop their product to cater to their growing community of users.

Harish Uthayakumar, Co-Founder, BlueLearn, said they started building the BlueLearn community in August 2020. “In our conversations with them, we realized there was a huge gap in the industry exposure and opportunities students in tier 2 and 3 colleges received. Through BlueLearn, we want to democratize access to knowledge and bring back the human element in the age of virtual learning,” he said. “We are thankful to LightSpeed, Titan Capital, 100X.VC 2am VC and our angel investors who have shown faith in our vision. We are confident that with their support and guidance we will be able to build a valuable and iconic product for our users.”

Vaibhav Agarwal, Partner, LightSpeed, said there is a gaping need for clutter breaking new experiences in higher education, while the world has moved to social communities, byte sized content and hyper specific skills, the education systems are still stuck in classrooms (now zoom rooms), static curricula and rote learning of the 1900s industrial era.  “Lightspeed is excited to work with the imaginative, creative founding team of BlueLearn that sees this gap clearly and wants to create a big dent in this space.”

Ninad Karpe, Partner, 100X.VC, said they are elated to see their portfolio companies growing and making an impact in the industry and the entire ecosystem. “BlueLearn’s concept is unconventional and that’s what interested us the most. We are confident that BlueLearn will scale rapidly in the coming future.”

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BlueLearn provides a platform for students to learn new skills, network with like-minded peers and get exposure from top industry experts. The start-up aims to provide access to knowledge and opportunities for individuals from across backgrounds. Initially, the founders started building their community on the messaging app Telegram, where students would share questions with specific experts around building new skills. Today, the BlueLearn community has organically grown to 42,000 members with 20,000 MAUs from 14 countries across the globe including India, USA, UK, Singapore and others. With a team of 13 members spread across the country, BlueLearn is gearing up for the next phase of its growth.

The Founders of BlueLearn want to bridge the gaps left by the traditional college education system in India that is inadequate for GenZ and millennials. To address this, they built their platform where like-minded people come together and build a productive community to learn new skills, network and connect with industry experts.