[Funding alert] Former Uber chief’s edtech startup Kyt raises $2.5M led by Sequoia’s Surge

India and Singapore headquartered educational technology platform Kyt has raised funding of $2.5 million led by Sequoia Capital India’s Surge to expand its online-first, global academy for extracurricular learning.

Kyt is part of the fourth cohort of Surge, a bi-annual rapid scale-up programme run by Sequoia Capital India for startups across Southeast Asia and India. 

The round also saw participation from Titan Capital, along with other angel investors including Kunal Shah, Amrish Rau, Jitender Gupta, Allen Penn, and Martin Li.

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Founded by husband-wife duo Bhavik Rathod and Tripti Ahuja in June 2020, Kyt leverages technology to provide online-only, live lessons to children aged between five and 15 years old. To date, more than a thousand students have taken courses or attended workshops with Kyt, and the platform has more than 20 teachers onboard, with plans to increase this number to 500 over the next 12 months. Kyt plans to add more courses, including chess, various musical instruments, public speaking, creative writing, and how to be a content creator.

"Tripti and I started Kyt to build something for our daughter. After speaking to several parents, we realised that there is a much larger need to provide high quality courses that focus on the holistic and all-round development of the child, beyond just academics. With a strong team of curriculum designers, pedagogy experts, and education consultants, we embarked on this vision to build an online-first, global academy for extracurricular learning for kids," said Bhavik Rathod, Co-founder and CEO, Kyt.

The startup offers two learning approaches with its exclusive content: Kyt Academy and Kyt Workshops. Kyt Academy courses span up to 12 weeks and are designed for children who are passionate about specific areas of knowledge, outside of traditional curriculums — such as yoga, language, reading, and dance — and want to expand their skills. Kyt Workshops are one-time classes, ideal for children who would like to explore different interests and try multiple classes, including cooking, magic classes, animation, rap, and poetry. All courses cater to both private and small groups. 

“The future of education is a hybrid of online and offline learning, and the market size for primary and secondary extracurricular learning is estimated to be $10 billion in India alone, and around $200 billion globally. While most learning used to happen in physical spaces, there will be rapid adoption of online learning even beyond COVID-19, as these well-structured curriculums will build strong global communities, encouraging children to remain engaged over time,” Rathod added.