Mahak Garg, Karan Varshney and Saumya Yadav, cofounders of Udayy.
Based in Gurgaon, edtech startup Udayy provides live online classes for children in English and math. Founded by Saumya Yadav, Mahak Garg and Karan Varshney in 2019, more than 200 teachers have taught 130,000 students using the startup’s interactive and game-based approach to learning—an early success that helped it raise in January $2.5 million in seed funding from investors including New York-based Falcon Edge Capital's Alpha Wave Incubation fund and India-based Info Edge Ventures.
The trio are among the tech entrepreneurs in the Consumer Technology category of this year's Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list.
Edtech represented a big opportunity for other entrepreneurs in India, where the country has witnessed an increasing demand for products able to assist its hundreds of millions of school students.
Divyansh Bordia, Anshuman Kumar, Mihir Gupta and Payoj Jain’s Teachmint is a Bangalore-based edtech platform helping offline tutors digitize their classrooms, engage online with students, and reach a wider audience. It raised in October $3.8 million in a seed round led by Lightspeed India and investors Better Capital and Titan Capital.
To Ishaan Singh and Mikhil Raj, e-learning can be more about school subjects. Their online education platform FrontRow offers celebrity-led courses including batting with cricketer Suresh Raina, singing with Neha Kakkar and rapping with Divine. “FrontRow has changed how one can learn and be better at their passions,” says the duo, which raised $3.2 million from Bollywood actor Deepika Padukone, Elevation Capital (formerly SAIF Partners) and Lightspeed.
Gaming galore
Gaming and entertainment entrepreneurs are also represented in this year’s 30 Under 30 Asia list. Founded in 2018 by Dilsher Singh Malhi and Siddhant Saurabh, the live trivia gaming app Zupee has over 10 million users. It offers quizzes across a range of topics including math, movies and sports, and users can compete against multiple players for cash prizes. The Gurugram-based startup has raised $20 million from Matrix Partners, WestCap Group, Smile Group, Falcon Edge Capital and Orios Venture Partners.
In Japan, Takuya Kato is bringing entertainment events online to help businesses cope with the fallout of Covid-19. His Tokyo-based Vark is a virtual reality app for live and recorded idol music events. Owners of PlayStation VR, Oculus and others can use the service for free, but pay for actions like throwing bouquets on stage. Acts pay to broadcast but also sell merchandise such as T-shirts and tote bags. Vark has raised about $10 million in capital, including from Mitsubishi UFJ Capital and ANRI.
To see the full Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list in the Consumer Technology category, click here.
(This article has been updated from the original version published on April 20, 2021.)
