Vedantu acquires doubt-solving app Instasolv

The deal value was not disclosed.

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The acquisition will strengthen focus in the instant doubt-solving space, where problems are solved by teachers in a chat format, Vedantu said on Monday. It will also help the startup’s growing focus on smaller towns where the access to good teachers is a growing challenge and doubt solving is a key imperative for students.

Last year, Vedantu had invested $2 million in Instasolv, as part of its pre-series A funding round.

Vedantu offers live interactive classes to students in the K-12 (Kindergarten to class 12) learning space, for all major boards and competitive exams like the Joint Entrance Examination and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test. During the pandemic, it had entered the early learner segment with the launch of its coding program for 6-12 years called Vedantu SuperKids and a reading programme.

Last year, Vedantu raised $100 million, as part of its Series D round, which doubled its valuation to $600 million. The fund-raise was led by New York-based hedge fund Coatue, that has backed Uber, Spotify, Bytedance globally, and has invested in Swiggy and Rebel Foods in India. It is the third most valued edtech startup after Byju’s and Unacademy.

"Last year, we took a strategic decision to invest in Instasolv to strengthen our play in doubt-solving, which is one of the key aspects of learning online. We have seen tremendous potential in Instasolv and share the same mission to democratize education in the country," said Vamsi Krishna, chief executive and co-founder, Vedantu.

In 2020, Vedantu delivered 75 million hours of classes across its platform, with 6.3 million students attending live classes.

Edtech platforms hugely benefited from the covid-led lockdown last year, which forced suspension of classroom teaching. These startups had then stepped in to fill the gap and to further student engagement. Increased investor interest is also a result of the rise in digitisation of education amid the pandemic.

“We are excited to extend this strategic investment from Vedantu to a full acquisition. Instasolv has been at the forefront in offering doubt-solving solutions and its partnership with Vedantu will only strengthen Vedantu’s Live Class platform and help achieving quality learning outcomes to millions of students," said Aditya Singhal, CEO and co-founder, Instasolv.

With this acquisition, Instasolv will bring in close to one million of its potential active learners to Vedantu's platform.

Last week, Mint reported that Byju’s is in advanced talks to acquire smaller rival online learning startup Toppr for $150 million to $160 million, a deal that could lead to further consolidation in the sector.

Byju’s is also closing another transaction to buy offline test preparation firm Aakash Educational Services for $1 billion.

Edtech unicorn Unacademy also acquired TapChief for a valuation of ₹100 crore earlier this month in its sixth acquisition.