Edtech Startup Uolo Bags USD 7 Mn Funding Led by Five Sigma Existing investors such as Blume Ventures, Morphosis, and Alicorn also participated in the round.

Edtech startup Uolo has raised USD 7 million (about INR 63 crore) in a funding round led by Australian venture capital firm Five Sigma.

Existing investors such as Blume Ventures, Morphosis, and Alicorn also participated in the round.

The Gurugram-based startup plans to use the fresh funds to expand its network of partner schools, develop generative AI-based learning companions, and strengthen its overall offerings.

Uolo was originally founded in 2013 by Pallav Pandey, Ankur Pandey and Badrish Agarwal as a school communication platform, initially working with 150 schools, as per YS media platform.

By 2020 the business was acquired by a new venture, Uolo Edtech, where Pallav Pandey became co-founder and CEO, and shifted the company strategy. In its new avatar, the startup partners with schools to supply textbooks in subjects such as English, mathematics, computer science and general knowledge, along with a home-practice app for students.

At present Uolo claims to serve more than 2,500 schools across India, and has over 1.1 million paying students.

Prior to the current round, Uolo had raised USD 22.5 million in a Series-A round led by UAE-headquartered Winter Capital (along with Blume Ventures and Morphosis) in 2022 as well as an earlier seed round in November 2020.

The funding comes at a time when India's edtech sector is showing renewed signs of recovery. For example Vedantu recently raised USD 11 million in a convertible equity round to support expansion and invest in adaptive-content and AI capabilities.

Meanwhile PhysicsWallah has become the first major Indian edtech firm to successfully list publicly.

Uolo competitors in the domestic school-focused edtech space include firms such as Unacademy, Toppr, Vedantu, and upGrad, all of which are operating in overlapping segments of K–12 learning, test preparation or online schooling.