India edtech player Filo gets $23m Series A
Filos, an India-based instant live-tutoring platform, has raised USD 23m in Series A funding led by US investor Anthos Capital. It is said to be the largest-ever Series A in India’s education technology space.
Additional commitments came from Better Capital, GSV, Sapling Capital, and a string of individual investors, including founders of co-founders of US financial technology platform Kabbage, Brazilian online home improvement retailer Loft, and US cannabis dispensing business Dutchie.
Filo was founded in November 2020 by Imbesat Ahmad, Shadman Anwar, and Rohit Kumar. While operating in stealth mode, it received a pre-seed round and a USD 2m seed round from Better.
The company aims to connect students with tutors for live one-to-one interactive video or audio sessions within 60 seconds of requests being made. It is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The company claims to have facilitated the delivery of more than 18m minutes of sessions to over 1.2m students in 15 countries by 40,000 tutors.
Over the next 12 months, it wants to reach 10m students, grow the tutor network to 200,000, and conduct 2m live classes every day. The Series A proceeds will be used to support the pursuit of these goals, as well as develop the product portfolio and expand the internal team.
"Filo solves the most crucial "understanding problem" in education with a unique product experience where students are matched with qualified tutors for personalised learning sessions in minutes," Vaibhav Domkundwar, founder and CEO of Better, said in a statement.
India's edtech thesis essentially aims to reconcile a strong cultural prioritization of education with poor infrastructure and educational resources in rural areas. Investment has boomed since the start of the pandemic with increasing interest in remote services.
Byju's most recently raised funding at a valuation of USD 16.5bn, while Uncademy and Eruditus Executive Education are worth USD 3.4bn and USD 3.5bn, respectively. Their services have evolved from packaged tuition videos to live-streamed classes, but these tend to be large format.
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