Byju’s-owned Aakash’s former CEO launches new edtech startup Sparkl

Byju’s-owned Aakash’s former CEO Aakash Chaudhry is making a comeback into the Indian edtech landscape with the launch of online learning platform Sparkl.

The new edtech venture has raised seed funding from Rainmatter, the fund led by Nithin Kamath, co-founder and chief executive of Zerodha, and Deepinder Goyal, founder-CEO of Zomato, Chaudhry told Mint without disclosing the size of the investment.

“We will allocate the funds raised into three major areas: hiring top talent, both teaching and non-teaching; investing in technology, especially around AI; and marketing efforts to get the message out,” Chaudhry said.

Chaudhry’s new edtech venture follows his exit from Aakash Educational Services Ltd, a test-preparation platform that Byju’s acquired in 2021.

His return to the segment follows two challenging years for Indian edtech, marked by dwindling investor confidence as post-pandemic demand for online learning faded, mounting losses from aggressive growth strategies, and the downfall of the industry giant Byju’s.

Founded by Chaudhry, and Pavan Chauhan, co-founder of meritnation.com, a subsidiary company of Aakash, Sparkl is an AI-powered online one-on-one tutoring platform focusing on grades 6 to 12 for IGCSE and IB curricula. The International General Certificate of Secondary Education and the International Baccalaureate are both globally recognized.

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From Aakash to Sparkl

Founded in 1989 as a small coaching centre in New Delhi, Aakash provides test preparatory services to students in grades 11 and 12 to prepare for medical and engineering entrance examinations and foundation courses to high school students. 

Byju’s bought Aakash for about $950 million in cash and stocks. Last year, reports suggested that Chaudhry might return as CEO of the company as Byju’s ran into a series of troubles.

However, Chaudhary told Mint that he was not involved in Aakash in any capacity apart from an 11% shareholding in the edtech firm.

“In an Aakash class, there is a completely heterogeneous mix of students coming from different backgrounds, IQ levels, schools, demographics, and aspirations. Teaching them with the same philosophy has always been a challenge for us. That’s where the idea (for Sparkl) came from,” said Chaudhry.

“The only downside we always felt was the high cost, as one-on-one sessions require a different economic model,” Chaudhary said. “That’s why we chose the international market, where paying capacities are higher compared to the Indian board curriculum.”

Also read | Fresh out of Byju’s clutches, Great Learning turns over a new leaf

Chaudhary explained that the cost of a single subject, including the full curriculum spread across a year, typically ranges between ₹2 lakh and ₹2.5 lakh. “Depending on the level of support required, such as additional lectures, this amount can increase to ₹3 lakh,” he added.

The Sparkl model is largely online with intermittent offline seminars. This comes at a time when edtech companies are increasingly moving offline as parents reduce their children’s exposure to online learning post pandemic.

However, Chaudhary disagreed, saying an online model allows greater access to talent and helps keep costs low, as one-on-one sessions online are more affordable than offline ones.

“The international tutoring market currently ranges from ₹1,500-7,000 an hour, and people are already accustomed to paying within this bracket. It’s not just teachers in India—they are also being taught by educators in Australia, Singapore, and the UK,” he said.

The company has already started accepting admissions with a focus on Indian and Asian markets, and plans to gradually expand outside the country.

Also read | Mint Primer | Bankrupt Byju’s : Is the edtech crisis deepening?