YC-backed Edtech Platform Codingal Raises $1.2 Mn In Seed Round The startup will use funds to further develop its proprietary platform to provide students an improved and more personalized learning experience

Bengaluru-based edtech startup and a coding platform for K-12 students Codingal, on Wednesday, announced that it has raised $1.2 million in its latest Seed funding round, led by Y Combinator (YC), Summer Capital, Day One Syndicate, and Rebright Partners. Prominent angel investors Nate Lipscomb (senior product counsel, YouTube), Ganesh Rengaswamy (managing partner, Quona Capital), and Peter Weck (co-founder, Simply Hired and StoryJumper) also participated in the round.

Other key angel investors in the latest funding round include Ashish Toshniwal (founder, Y Media Labs), Viral Bajaria (co-founder, 6Sense), Shashank Kumar (co-Founder, Razorpay), Karthik Ramakrishnan (senior leader, Alexa), and Hiro Mizhushima (angel investor and Japanese actor).

"Our mission is to inspire school kids to fall in love with coding, and we are building Codingal to deliver high-quality computer science education combined with world-class coding competitions. Codingal plans to build a robust passion economy marketplace for coding education that brings together the best-in-class educators and students who are eager to learn to code. We believe that we are just getting started and this fundraiser will help us realize our true ambitions. We are thankful to our investors for supporting us in our journey," said Vivek Prakash, co-founder, and chief executive officer, Codingal.

The edtech will utilize the latest fundraise to grow, nurture and empower the company's rapidly growing community of K-12 students and coding teachers. The funds will also be used to further develop their proprietary platform for an improved and personalized learning experience.

"Education technology is not only bringing much-needed digitalization to the education sector but it is also facilitating remote learning for thousands of children in nooks and corners of the country. I believe it is the future. Codingal has made an impressive impact in the less than one year since its inception and it is already showing its strong potential to create transformational opportunities for students and teachers across India. I'm excited to support mission-driven startups like them and I look forward to working with them as they grow along their journey," noted Nate Lipscomb, senior product counsel, YouTube.

The startup has said to have grown 30 per cent month-on-month since its launch and currently generates over 20 per cent revenue from international customers.

"In less than a year of its launch, Codingal has offered over 100,000 students from over 5,000 schools a platform to learn coding via community-led coding competitions and live 1-on-1 classes with its highly trained Computer Science teachers. We have also hosted over 100 coding competitions so far and received over 100,000 project and code submissions by students on the Codingal platform. It is heartening to witness the inception and growth of a thriving community of students, parents, and highly trained teachers interested in coding," added Satyam Baranwal, co-founder and chief operating officer, Codingal.

The startup has partnered with reputed educational institutions and technology companies to host coding competitions and promote coding culture among school students. The partners include the likes of Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IIT Roorkee, IIT Guwahati, BITS Pilani, DPS, BGS National Public School, and many more.

Codingal was launched in September 2020 and raised an angel round of $560,000 soon after in November 2020.

The startup now aims to add 500,000 new students to its platform in a year's time.