India’s First Online School 21K School Raises $5M in Pre-Series A Round

India’s first online school 21K School has raised $5 million (around INR 37 Crore) in Pre-Series A round from Ronnie Screwvala, Co-Founder and Chairman of higher EdTech giant upGrad.

The Bengaluru-based startup aims to utilize the fresh funds to expand its outreach to students in India and abroad, and strengthen its learning platform for data-driven instruction across all curriculums.

Founded in 2020 by Santosh Kumar, Yeshwanth Raj Parasmal, Dinesh Kumar, and Joshi Kumar, 21K School offers personalized, structured, and child-led education programs for online schooling across the Indian subcontinent. Conducting regular assessments for its students, the platform also offers computational thinking, coding, yoga, dance, music, among others as an integral part of schooling. The company aims to create a 100 percent online school offering children aged 3 to 18 years a choice of three curriculums – Indian, American, and British.

21K School is on a mission to create online learning spaces for communities that want to explore beyond the conventional. With a trained team that is constantly setting new benchmarks, it aims to bring only the best experiences to the students.

Commenting on the funding, Santosh Kumar, Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer, 21K School, said,

“Online schools like 21K School can offer equal opportunity and access to millions of students in India or across the globe. The investment by Ronnie will help us reach out to over 18 million Indians living abroad with an opportunity to study the increasingly popular Indian curriculum while they continue to live overseas.”

21K School claims to be a category creator for K-12 education with personalized, affordable, and flexible schooling for students regardless of their location or time zone. It has over 2,750 students enrolled from over 400 cities across India and 23 countries, so far.

Ronnie Screwvala, Chairman and Co-founder of upGrad, said,

“The future of education is here, and it’s changing the way we think about schooling. 21K School will offer great value to students while disrupting traditional schools in its own space with interactive technologies that engage learners on every level of development. I am excited to support Santosh and Yeshwanth as they aim to expand within India and internationally.”

21K School is committed to making the 16 years of education meaningful, igniting the joy of learning amongst students. With a data-driven and transparent quality of education, the school provides a deeply engaging teacher-student ratio of 1:10 for pre-primary classes and 1:15 for primary classes.

Adding on how the investment will help the company, Yeshwanth Raj Parasmal, COO of 21K School, said,

“The investment will help us strengthen our flexible, personalized, and transparent education model, ensuring that students get the best possible learning experience. The 21K crew joins me in thanking Ronnie for their belief in our vision.”

According to a press statement, the EdTech firm plans to scale 10X to over 25,000 to 30,000 admissions in the next academic year.

Earlier this year, 21K School had announced a partnership with Stride Inc USA (formerly K12 Inc), the world’s online school offering high-quality personalized learning programs for students.

About the Author

Author: Shalini Pathak

Shalini Pathak is a Staff Writer at EdTechReview (ETR) – India’s leading edtech media & community. She has over four years of experience in media, covering different beats. Like all writers she’s an enthusiastic reader first with a passion to create out of the box content, and an ability to write about any topic. As a part of the ETR team, she will cover the latest in the edtech industry with a focus on edtech startup stories and their funding.

Like what we do?

The Latest EdTech News To Your Inbox

Follow us: