[Funding Alert] DoubtNut raises Rs 23 Cr from Sequoia India's Surge, existing investors, and new investor AET Japan

Edtech startup DoubtNut has raised funding of Rs 23 crore ($3.3 million) in the round led by Surge, an early-stage startup accelerator program by Sequoia India, with participation from existing investors WaterBridge Ventures & Omidyar Network India and new investor, AET, Japan.

WaterBridge Ventures and Omidyar Network India were the first institutional investors in the company.

Launched in October 2017 by IIT-Delhi alumni, Tanushree Nagori and Aditya Shankar, who are also serial entrepreneurs in the education space, DoubtNut is an instant doubt clearing app leveraging AI. 

It helps students (Classes 6-12 + IIT JEE) get answers to math problems in an easy-to-use format – the student takes a picture of the problem and gets a video explaining the solution. 

The videos are prepared by experts from IIT/other leading institutions and are a valuable tool for students and can also act as an aid to teachers. There are over 100,000 videos in their library and thousands more are being added each month, the company said in a statement.

The startup will use the freshly infused capital to deepen and widen its product offerings in terms of subjects, languages and classes and expand its team.

Namita Dalmia, Principal, Investments, Omidyar Network India said that Tanushree and Aditya’s insights came from their own experience where despite the high quality of teaching, they were not able to cater to individual doubt resolutions of students without turning to technology.

Their passion led them to launch the app in 12 vernacular languages in a really short time and create relevant learning journeys for the next half-billion users,” she added.

Tanushree, co-founder, DoubtNut said,

"According to two different studies, doubt clearance and homework help are the biggest student needs and 62 percent of Indian parents spend 12 hours per week on that. We are using technology to solve for the students’ biggest pain point and aim to provide a comprehensive education solution to all students in the language and in the manner that they understand the best.”

The company said in a statement that DoubtNut users study in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, and much of the growth continues to come from outside India’s larger metropolitan centres. The app is currently ranked among the top 10 free education apps on the Google Play Store in India, it added.