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Edtech startup Freadom on January 12 said that it has raised $ 2.5 million in a funding round led by Capital A and a clutch of marquee investors.
The investors include Bollywood actor Tiger Shroff, BharatPe Founder Ashneer Grover, VMart Retail Founder Lalit Agarwal, and Global PayU CFO Aakash Moondhara.
Several existing investors, including Unreasonable Capital, Quantiphi founding team, and Singapore Angels group, also participated in the round.
The funding will be invested in product, distribution and to further strengthen Freadom’s vertical presence across stakeholders for English as a second language, the company said in a statement.
“Learning a language like English should be fun and engaging and we prioritise this at Freadom. The success of Freadom lies at the intersection of our innovative pedagogical approach and advanced AI technology that makes language learning accessible to every child between the ages 3 and 12. The goal is to create impact at scale and prioritise long-term learning outcomes over short-term gains,” said Nikhil Saraf, Founder of Freadom, who was part of the Forbes Asia Under 30 list in 2021.
“Capital A has been backing startups with great potential in different sectors. This investment in the edtech domain is our first one and we are extremely upbeat about the potential of this segment in the years ahead – a growth that has also been induced by the pandemic,” Ankit Kedia, angel-investor-turned-VC and CEO of Capital A, said.
“Freadom has been focused on solving for age and learning outcomes with the deepest impact and hence effectively capturing maximum value. Having solved for distribution without spending on digital marketing, it is a definite edge for them in India to retain their pole position. I can see blitz scale as the next stage excited with seat belts on,” he said.
Actor Tiger Shroff is upbeat about youths. “The youths of a nation are its future and a stepping stone for economic growth. Being well-versed in a language like English can give them immense confidence, personally and in all walks of life, especially in this fast-changing global village. In this regard, Freadom is doing great work and I look forward to their growth trajectory and outcomes in the times to come.”
Launched in 2016, Freadom equips children to learn to read in English in any country where it is an aspirational second language through its recommendation engine, built in collaboration with Stanford University. The company aims to reach 50 million users worldwide by 2023.
