AI/ML news, top picks, and generated innovation digests.
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European life sciences venture capital firmSofinnova Partners has closed its fourth medtech fund, Sofinnova MD Start IV,at €82 million. The oversubscribed fund will expand Sofinnova’s medtechcompany-c...
AI Edtech startup Arivihan is set to raise Rs 95.86 crore or $10 million in a Series A round co-led by existing investors Accel and Prosus. This will be the second fundraise for the two-year-old firm in the past 15 months. According to its regulatory filings accessed by Entrackr , the company’s board has approved the issuance of 4,648 Series A CCPS at an issue price of Rs 2,06,248.06 per share to raise the aforementioned amount. Accel and Prosus will lead the round with an investment of Rs 47.48 crore each. Angel investors Dinesh Chandra Agrawal, Dinesh Gulati, Rajesh Sawhney (Founder and CEO of GSF Accelerator), and Gaurav Kapur collectively will invest around Rs 91 lakh in the round. As per Entrackr’s estimates, Arivihan’s valuation has surged nearly 3.3X to around Rs 570 crore in its Series A round, compared to Rs 171 crore in the previous pre-Series A round. According to the filings, the company plans to use the fresh capital to meet working capital requirements and support its expansion and growth. The Indore-based company previously raised $4.17 million (around Rs 36 crore) in a pre-Series A round led by Prosus and Accel, with participation from GSF Investors. Founded in 2024 by Ritesh Singh Chandel, Sonu Kumar and Rushabh Kothari, Arivihan offers AI-powered personalised learning for students in tier-II cities and rural areas, with coaching, doubt-solving and study plans for Class 12, CBSE and NEET. A Moneycontrol report had earlier said that Arivihan was in talks to r…
Every AI roadmap review I sit through this year eventually lands on the same question: which technology stack/model should we use? It’s the wrong first question to start with. Gartner projects that by 2027, organizations will deploy small, task-specific AI models at roughly three times the volume of general-purpose large language models . In my experience running agentic pilots across a large enterprise, those specialized models succeed or fail almost entirely on something that has nothing to do with which model you picked: whether your own business actually agrees on what its data means. That’s a harder problem than it sounds, and it’s not the same problem as data quality. My team has spent years measuring data quality the traditional way — is the field populated, is the number accurate, is the record deduplicated. Those checks matter, but they answer a narrower question than the one agentic AI actually depends on. IBM’s own explainer on the topic puts it well: a semantic layer is the piece of enterprise architecture that translates complex, technical data structures into the business terms people actually use day to day. Clean data can still be semantically ambiguous. A field can be perfectly accurate and still mean three different things depending on which team is looking at it. Why accurate and understood are not the same thing I recently worked with a large MedTech firm where I led data and governance strategy to build AI agents; the term “active customer” existed in th…
Two new initiatives involving artificial intelligence in Cornell classrooms will encourage experimental and balanced use, while exploring ways to deploy AI that align with the teaching needs and strategies of individual academic fields. The post AI in education initiatives emphasize experimentation, balanced use appeared first on Cornell AI Initiative .
The post Microsoft’s commitment for AI in education: Protecting students, strengthening learning appeared first on Source .
Injini has opened applications for an eight-month AI venture builder aimed at getting education technology built by people who have worked inside African classrooms — with a team structure designed to make that a requirement rather than an aspiration. Backed by Coefficient Giving, the programme will select 12 pre-formed teams from nine Southern African countries [...]
Voice-first AI tutoring platform YoLearn.ai has raised an undisclosed amount in a seed funding round led by ABP Education, the education arm of ABP Group. Prior to this, the Noida-based startup had raised $500,000 in a pre-seed funding round at a valuation of $5 million. The round was co-led by DataAlpha.ai and White Swan Global, with participation from a group of angel investors. Along with the funding, ABP Education will support YoLearn.ai with content, marketing and distribution as the startup looks to provide personalised AI tutoring to K-12 students in India. As part of the partnership, ABP Group companies Headword Publishing and KIPS Learning will work with YoLearn.ai to convert their school books into content-aligned AI tutors through Headword.ai and kipslearning.ai. The tutors will be accessible through the books students use in classrooms. The partnership covers a combined network of around 25,000 schools, with potential access to nearly 100 million learners. The partners aim to reach 150 million students and train more than 1.5 lakh teachers in AI-enabled classroom instruction, with a longer-term goal of providing personalized AI learning to 250 million K-12 students in India. Founded in January 2025 by Kirti Prakash Mishra, YoLearn.ai allows students to scan a code in a textbook and interact with an AI tutor through voice. The platform supports English, Hindi and other regional languages, covering 22 Indian languages. The AI tutor provides voice-based answers, dia…
It is Q3 of the fiscal year. The VP of sales walks into the revenue forecast meeting confident. The pipeline is strong, conversion rates are up and the sales team has been running at full velocity. The revenue intelligence motion is working. But something is off. The VP of customer success sees it first. Accounts that converted quickly are renewing at lower expansion rates. New customers are hitting support escalations that sales didn’t predict. Churn is accelerating in segments that looked promising three months ago. Meanwhile, marketing has just launched a campaign targeting a specific buyer persona. But Sales has no way to track whether those leads convert differently than other sources. Finance can see the cash collected, but not the relationship between engagement patterns and deal velocity. Support can see the friction, but it doesn’t flow back to sales to suppress outreach until the customer issue is resolved. All the signals exist, but they sit in different systems and tell different stories. By the time anyone assembles the full picture, the moment to act has passed. This is the revenue intelligence gap I’ve seen: when go-to-marketing departments operate in silos and don’t understand (or don’t communicate) trends in their data throughout an organization. This leads to misalignment and a mistaken sense that go-to-market efforts are working, when they may not be. And it can cost enterprises billions in missed growth, wasted motion and lost customer relationships. At e…
Edtech major Unacademy has closed its acquisition by UpGrad for just over $200 million, marking a 94% decline from its peak valuation of around $3.4 billion in 2021. Unacademy co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal confirmed the completion of the deal in a post on Tuesday, acknowledging that the company had raised money at its peak but was now being sold at a fraction of that valuation. Entrackr had exclusively reported earlier that UpGrad was set to close the acquisition of Unacademy in a deal valued at around Rs 1,955 crore. The transaction was structured as an all-stock deal, with Munjal expected to continue leading Unacademy following the combination. Interestingly, Munjal said the deal was not driven by a cash crunch. According to him, Unacademy currently has a topline of around Rs 400 crore, with most of its businesses either profitable or near profitable. The company also has around Rs 900 crore in the bank, he added. According to Munjal, Unacademy had the option to continue independently but chose to combine with UpGrad after discussions with Screwvala and a belief that the merger would create a stronger education ecosystem. The acquisition gives UpGrad an entry into the online test-preparation segment, including categories such as UPSC, JEE, NEET and GATE. It also adds Unacademy’s educator network and other businesses to UpGrad’s existing higher education, upskilling and study-abroad portfolio. Munjal also highlighted Unacademy’s broader impact, saying its educators have…
From humpbacks learning the latest songs to sperm whales’ ‘clan codas’, drones and AI learning are helping reveal another dimension to the concept of culture In 2015, the whale researcher Valeria Vergara pitched a small tent at the icy water’s edge on Somerset Island in the remote Canadian high Arctic, shrouded in a freezing fog so thick she struggled to see her own hands. She trailed a cord out to the coast and plopped a hydrophone into the water to record the calls of belugas. As many as 1,000 of the whales, accompanied by their newborn calves, frequented the surrounding bay. Belugas’ ceaseless chatter, made up of dozens of unique sounds, is crucial to keeping these creatures connected in the dim, turbid waters of the Arctic. Continue reading...
Silicon Valley-based Lightspeed Venture Partners has exited edtech company PhysicsWallah’s shareholding through a Rs 550 crore block deal on the NSE on Wednesday. According to exchange data, Lightspeed, through Lightspeed Opportunity Fund II, sold its entire holding of 4,66,98,120 shares, representing a 1.61% stake, at Rs 117.72 apiece in a block deal worth Rs 549.73 crore. The fund, which held the stake at the end of June 2026, exited its entire holding through the transaction. The shares were picked up by a mix of domestic and global institutional investors, with ICICI Prudential Mutual Fund emerging as the largest buyer. It acquired 2.2 crore shares worth Rs 258.98 crore. Other buyers in the block deal included Citigroup Global Markets Mauritius, Viridian Asia Opportunities Master Fund, multiple Goldman Sachs entities, GS India Equity, JSS Investmentfonds II, Ghisallo Master Fund, Mediolanum India Opportunities, Morgan Stanley Asia Singapore, New York State Teachers Retirement System, OP-India Fund, Societe Generale and Tata AIA Life Insurance. On the financial front, PhysicsWallah reported a 24% year-on-year increase in revenue to Rs 1,054 crore in Q1 FY27, while its consolidated net loss narrowed 31% to Rs 88 crore from Rs 127 crore in the year-ago quarter. Its EBITDA also turned positive at Rs 52 crore, compared with an EBITDA loss of Rs 21 crore in Q1 FY26. The transaction was executed at a discount to PhysicsWallah's previous close of Rs 121.35. Following the deal, t…
Rajasthan HC takes suo motu cognizance of Gen Z, Alpha and Beta welfare, seeking action plans on AI in education, screen-time limits, exam integrity, gig work and food safety. The post Rajasthan HC flags AI impact on children’s learning, orders digital literacy & screen time curbs appeared first on MEDIANAMA .
After flat revenue in FY25, edtech unicorn LEAD Group returned to double-digit growth in FY26, with operating revenue rising 10%. The company also improved its operating EBITDA, which jumped sevenfold, while cutting its losses by 20% year-on-year during the fiscal year. The company’s operating revenue grew to Rs 386.6 crore in the fiscal year ended March 2026 from Rs 351.5 crore in FY25 , its annual financial statements sourced from the Registrar of Companies (RoC) show. Founded in 2012 by Sumeet Mehta and Smita Deorah, LEAD provides integrated curriculum and technology solutions, including books, workbooks, smart classes, teacher training, ERPs, Math-Science kits, teaching aids and devices. The company currently has a presence across more than 9,000 schools in over 400 towns and cities, reaching nearly 41 lakh students and supporting more than 65,000 teachers. Revenue from products such as books, teaching aids and devices accounted for over 71% of the company’s operating income at Rs 275.4 crore, while platform services contributed the remaining Rs 76.5 crore. LEAD’s total income stood at Rs 392 crore in FY26, including Rs 5.4 crore in non-operating income, compared with Rs 367.4 crore in the previous fiscal. For the edtech firm, employee benefit expenses remained the largest cost head, although they declined 6% to Rs 131.2 crore in FY26 from Rs 139.7 crore a year earlier. The cost of materials also fell 5.4% to Rs 104.9 crore, while travel and conveyance expenses increased…
The AI tutor to be launched in next quarter has less than 1% hallucination rate, and is designed for one-on-one teaching, nudging students towards new concepts, said PhysicsWallah in Q1FY27 earnings call. The post PhysicsWallah to launch personal AI tutoring services by next quarter appeared first on MEDIANAMA .
UK edtech startup Medly AI has raised$8 million in seed funding to expand its AI-powered exam preparation platformin the UK and international markets. The round was led by Felix Capital, withparticipa...
Education minister unveils reforms for new term, schools to expand AI learning
Edtech major upGrad crossed the Rs 2,000 crore mark in gross revenue in FY26, while its bottom line improved sharply during the year amid continued cost control measures, as per the company's press release. According to upGrad, gross revenue grew 7% year-on-year to Rs 2,070 crore in FY26, including taxes. Its total income stood at Rs 1,732 crore after Ind-AS accounting. The company also has Rs 530 crore in collected revenue that is yet to be recognised in future years. upGrad’s Ind-AS EBITDA jumped more than eight times to Rs 123 crore from Rs 15 crore in FY25. Its net loss also narrowed 52% to Rs 130 crore during the year. The company said this is the third consecutive year in which its losses have more than halved year-on-year. The loss stood at Rs 1,142 crore in FY23. The company said it had more than 100,000 concurrent learners across its online skilling, degree, study abroad and offline skilling businesses in FY26. Its B2B arm, upGrad Enterprise, also worked with more than 700 enterprises for employee skilling, recruitment and workforce development. AI has also become a major part of the business, with the company saying that more than 80% of its programmes now include AI in their curriculum. It also said marketing and technology costs declined year-on-year despite revenue growth, helped by its use of AI in operations. The improved bottom line comes as upGrad looks to expand its scale through acquisitions. The company said it is closing the acquisition of Unacademy and…
Edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah shares gained momentum on Monday after two brokerages turned more bullish on the edtech company following its Q1 FY27 results. The stock climbed 9.6% to Rs 128.35 on the BSE as JPMorgan and JM Financial upgraded their ratings on the company JPMorgan upgraded PhysicsWallah to ‘Overweight’ from ‘Neutral’ while retaining its Rs 148 target price. It said the Q1 performance beat expectations despite NEET-related disruption and noted the company’s 30% FY27 revenue growth guidance. JM Financial raised its rating to ‘Buy’ from ‘Add’ while retaining its Rs 140 target price. The brokerage cited improving fundamentals and a better risk-reward profile after the stock’s recent correction. PhysicsWallah’s operating revenue rose 24.4% year-on-year to Rs 1,054 crore in Q1 FY27 from Rs 847.1 crore in the year-ago quarter. Its net loss narrowed 30.5% to Rs 88.3 crore, while EBITDA turned positive at Rs 52 crore from an EBITDA loss of Rs 21 crore in Q1 FY26. Adjusted EBITDA jumped more than fivefold to Rs 135 crore, with the adjusted EBITDA margin expanding to 12.9% from 3.1%. The online business remained the company’s main growth driver, with revenue rising 33% year-on-year to Rs 549 crore. K-12 and early-learning revenue also surged 88% to Rs 105 crore. Recently, PhysicsWallah approved a Rs 71.8 crore investment in UPSC coaching platform Sarrthi IAS, raising its stake from 40% to 51% and making it a subsidiary. The acquisition is expected to strengthen its presen…
Hello OpenAI Community, My name is Dhvanit, and I’m a student actively learning AI, prompt engineering, programming, research, and problem-solving with ChatGPT. I’d like to propose a Student AI Learning Program for verified students. The goal would not be to provide unlimited free Plus subscriptions. Instead, OpenAI could offer a controlled, education-focused plan with reasonable usage limits. Possible features: • Verified student eligibility • Monthly educational usage allowance • Access to advanced AI capabilities within reasonable limits • Higher limits for genuine coding and educational projects • Guided learning resources for AI and prompt engineering • Support for programming and project-based learning • Responsible-AI education • Special access or temporary higher limits during major academic projects Why I think this could be valuable: Students are entering a world where AI literacy is becoming increasingly important. ChatGPT can function as a tutor, coding mentor, research assistant, and project partner, but advanced AI access can be difficult for students with limited budgets. A student program could turn that limitation into an opportunity. Instead of simply giving students a premium subscription, OpenAI could help students learn how to use AI effectively, responsibly, and independently. In the long term, students who learn with OpenAI today could become tomorrow’s developers, researchers, entrepreneurs, educators, and AI professionals. I also understand that adva…
Edtech company PhysicsWallah reported a 24.4% year-on-year increase in revenue from operations in Q1 FY27, while its losses narrowed 30.7% during the quarter. PhysicsWallah’s revenue from operations increased to Rs 1,054 crore in Q1 FY27 from Rs 847 crore in Q1 FY26, according to its consolidated financial statement sourced from NSE. The company’s online business contributed Rs 549 crore, up 33.3% year-on-year from Rs 412 crore in Q1 FY26. Offline revenue grew 14.5% to Rs 490 crore, while revenue from other sources more than doubled to Rs 15 crore. PhysicsWallah also earned Rs 108 crore from other income, taking its total income to Rs 1,162 crore in Q1 FY27, compared with Rs 902 crore in Q1 FY26. On the expense side, employee benefits remained the largest cost component at Rs 528 crore, up 15.8% year-on-year from Rs 456 crore. Depreciation increased 12.7% to Rs 110 crore, while finance costs declined 23.1% to Rs 25.5 crore. Overall expenditure rose 18.3% to Rs 1,247 crore in Q1 FY27 from Rs 1,054 crore in Q1 FY26. PhysicsWallah’s net loss decreased 30.7% to Rs 88 crore in Q1 FY27 from Rs 127 crore in Q1 FY26. On a sequential basis, revenue from operations increased 14.7% to Rs 1,054 crore in Q1 FY27 from Rs 918.80 crore in Q4 FY26, while its net loss increased 27.7% from Rs 69.14 crore. At the end of today’s trading session, the Noida-based company’s share price closed at Rs 117.12, giving it a total market capitalization of Rs 34,274 crore ($3.6 billion). Recently, PhysicsW…
Hey @ shekharsahu ! Adjustable speed would make Read Aloud much more flexible, especially for language learning where being able to slow down pronunciation can make it easier to pick out individual words and phrases. We have seen similar requests for playback speed controls before, so the added context around Thai learning, pronunciation practice, and shadowing is really useful. I also like the idea of remembering a preferred speed instead of having to adjust it every time. That would make the feature much more practical for people who regularly listen at a different pace. I cannot promise a timeline for changes like this, but I will pass your feedback along internally. - Sunny
Co-creation HUB (CcHUB) has selected 12 Nigerian startups for the fourth cohort of the Mastercard Foundation EdTech Fellowship.
Digital literacy is as essential for children today as languages and maths, and it’s no secret that AI has changed how students approach their studies. But reliance on AI and other technology can affect the development of crucial soft skills in children. “The skills most under pressure are patience, sustained attention, critical thinking and contemplation,” says Ryan Stevenson, co-founder and director of Bright Heart Education, a UK-based tutoring agency. “These all require time, whereas AI can...
The app is partnering with the edtech app Gauth to create videos that explain concepts in stories. Both Gauth and Seedance are owned by ByteDance.
iHUB and the Mastercard Foundation have selected 12 early-stage Kenyan startups for an 18-month EdTech fellowship offering each company up to $100,000 in equity-free funding — with the cohort weighted toward assistive technologies and AI-supported learning products built for learners the education system has historically failed to reach. The fourth cohort marks a deliberate reversal [...]
South Africa’s conversation around AI in education is loud, contested, and far from settled. But while that debate plays out, students applying to international universities are navigating a more immediate concern. Unlike local applications, which do not require a personal essay, institutions in the United States, United Kingdom, and beyond, place significant weight on a [...]
Imagi announced a $4.5 million seed round, with investors including Brighteye Ventures, Day One Capital, and artist Will.i.am.
Mumbai-based medtech startup Bioscan Research has raised $1 million in a seed funding round led by Unicorn India Ventures. The proceeds will be used for market expansion, securing additional regulatory approvals, upgrading its products and creating new intellectual property. Founded in 2017 by Anupam Lavania and Shilpa Malik, Bioscan Research develops non-invasive medical devices for the early detection of brain injuries. Its flagship product, CEREBO, uses near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) and machine learning to detect intracranial injuries, enabling early diagnosis of traumatic brain injuries even before visible symptoms appear. According to the company, its technology is designed to help healthcare providers identify brain injuries during the critical treatment window and improve patient outcomes. Bioscan Research said it recorded 5x growth over the past 12 months. It aims to grow threefold over the next year by expanding its presence in India and overseas markets. Founded in 2016, Unicorn India Ventures is an early-stage venture capital firm focused on deeptech startups across sectors including semiconductors, spacetech, AI infrastructure and medical diagnostics.
Here are 5 curated resources to help you progress your agentic AI learning for FREE.
EQT Life Sciences’ EQT Health Economics 3 Fund (EQT HE3), a multi-stage life sciences and medtech-dedicated fund has received €25 million from the British Business Bank. EQT Life Sciences backs compa...
Edtech company PhysicsWallah (PW) has approved an investment of Rs 71.8 crore in UPSC coaching platform Sarrthi IAS. The transaction will increase its stake in the company from 40% to 51%, making Sarrthi IAS a subsidiary, according to a stock exchange filing. The investment is part of the second tranche of PW's acquisition of Guiding Light Education Technologies Private Limited , which operates under the Sarrthi IAS brand. The company's board also approved an addendum to the share purchase agreement to revise the valuation methodology and purchase consideration for the second tranche, while leaving the remaining terms of the transaction unchanged. As part of the transaction, PW will acquire 1,100 equity shares , representing an additional 11% stake , for an aggregate consideration of Rs 71.81 crore . Following the completion of the tranche, Sarrthi IAS will become a subsidiary of the listed edtech firm. The latest investment comes around 10 months after Entrackr exclusively reported that PhysicsWallah had acquired a 40% stake in Sarrthi IAS ahead of its public listing. The acquisition was disclosed in the company's IPO prospectus in November 2025, which stated that PW had signed share purchase and shareholders' agreements with Sarrthi IAS and its promoters in September 2025 to acquire up to 85% of the company in six tranches between FY26 and FY31 , with the valuation linked to an EBITDA based mechanism. Founded in 2023, Sarrthi IAS provides online and offline coaching for UP…
Maltese investor SuperCharger Ventures today announced the launch of Fund I with a plan to invest in edtech and Future-of-Work companies worldwide, with a focus on pre-seed and seed-stage startups. In...
Shadow IT has long been a major problem for IT leaders, but the biggest problem may be coming from the executive suite’s hunger for unsanctioned AI. Nearly two-thirds of senior decision-makers admit to using unapproved AI tools , compared to just 31% of lower-level employees, according to a survey by Microsoft solutions partner TrustedTech. The use of shadow AI is prevalent among senior executives even though three in four employees acknowledge security or data privacy risks related to the practice. “Most shadow AI users are not ignorant of the risk,” TrustedTech says in a white paper. “They are deliberately choosing to use these tools anyway. This is not a training issue. It is a culture, incentives, and alternatives issue.” In many cases, the problem is driven by a lack of approved tools, the report adds. “People use shadow AI because what their employer hands them is worse than mainstream AI tools, or because nothing has been approved in the first place,” the report says. “That doesn’t change until the sanctioned tools are genuinely worth using.” A question of authority The use of shadow AI by CEOs and other C-suite executives can create major problems for CIOs, CISOs, and other IT executives because they may not have the authority to put the kibosh on it. It also presents a challenge for IT leaders to provide the AI tools that employees and executives want to use. When executives use shadow AI, CIOs are in a difficult position, because governance only works when it’s mod…
This is definitely feasible with the current API stack, but I’d treat it as an orchestration problem rather than just a model selection problem. I’d keep the LLM focused on reasoning while using RAG for course materials, structured worksheet state, and a separate evaluation pipeline for answer checking. The biggest challenge isn’t generating explanations, it’s providing consistently accurate, pedagogically useful feedback. Strong prompt design, citations back to uploaded content, confidence checks, and human review for edge cases will go a long way. I’d also invest early in observability (logging, evals, and user feedback), since that’s usually what differentiates a demo from a production-ready tutoring assistant.
Czech medtech startup HTG Medical has raised €450,000 from angel and VC backers, and its proprietary device, the HTG Urogram, has successfully cleared the EU's Medical Device Regulation (MDR) certific...
This week, 18 Indian startups raised nearly $70.4 million across 3 growth-stage and 15 early-stage deals. The week also witnessed six acquisitions, three key leadership appointments, two departures, three fund launches, and 2 shutdowns. In contrast, 25 startups had collectively secured about $137 million in the previous week. [ Growth-stage deals ] Growth-stage startups raised a total of $30.7 million across three deals this week, led by edtech platform Elevate Education, which secured $17.7 million in its Series D round led by WestBridge Capital. Physical AI startup HakimoIncuspaze raised $12 million in a growth round from Bharat Value Fund, while workspace provider Stylework secured $1 million in a pre-Series B round led by Auxano Capital. [ Early-stage deals ] Early-stage startups raised $39.75 million across 15 deals this week, led by e-commerce brand Aukera, which secured $10 million in a funding round led by Alteria Capital with participation from InnoVent Capital and Lighthouse Canton. Among the other notable deals, e-commerce startup WizCommerce raised Rs 8.3 million in a Series A round led by Blume Ventures and others. Packaging firm Econovus Packaging secured $4 million in a pre-Series A round led by Rainmatter, while events tech startup thumpN raised $3.75 million in a pre-seed round from actors and singers. [ City and segment-wise deals ] Bengaluru continued to lead the funding charts with 10 startup deals during the week, followed by Pune Delhi-NCR with three de…
Series B focused investment firm The Fundamentum Partnership has launched Fundamentum Fund III with a target corpus of Rs 2,200 crore, including a Rs 400 crore greenshoe option. The firm said cofounder Nandan Nilekani has made his largest investment in any venture capital firm as the fund’s anchor limited partner. Fundamentum, which focuses exclusively on Series B investments in India, is launching its third fund after its 2017 and 2022 vintages. Fund III continues the firm’s thesis driven strategy of investing in early growth stage startups that have achieved product market fit and are preparing to scale. Over the past decade, Fundamentum has backed companies including Kuku, Spinny, PharmEasy, AppsForBharat (Sri Mandir), and Stable Money. Fund III will remain sector agnostic, with consumer technology, fintech, and AI native and AI enabled businesses as its primary focus areas. The fund plans to invest Rs 100 crore to Rs 150 crore per company on average. Within consumer technology, the firm will continue to invest across digital commerce, content, healthcare, edtech, and emerging sectors. In fintech, it will focus on credit, savings, wealth management, insurance, and financial infrastructure. The fund will also evaluate AI native and AI enabled businesses as standalone investment themes as well as capabilities transforming sectors such as financial services and consumer technology. Fund III will be led by Sanjeev Aggarwal, Prateek Jain, Mayank Kachhwaha, and CFO Sanjay Chatu…
We have a respite, so I thought I’d tackle various thoughts on children, phones and screens. GPT-5.6-Sol drops tomorrow, and the Fable agents are hard at work. I’ll start with the other screens, then finish with the phones. Table of Contents EdTech. NonEdTech. Do Not Ban Social Media Outright. Some Modern Kids Media Is Pretty Great. Ban Phones In Schools (1). Your Offer Is Acceptable. Ban Phones In Schools (2). Screen Time. Inappropriate Content. EdTech Increasingly, when you pick a school, you are picking EdTech. The school will put your child on a tablet or computer, and expect them to learn that way. In theory, with sufficient assistance and bespoke design and incentive structures, this is The Way. It sure seems way better than ‘sit and listen to a lecture.’ I am especially excited for Alpha School’s version of this, with its bespoke designs and high level of both expectations and continuous human support. Alas, most people are getting a much worse version, that is much worse than what you could easily improvise at home. I’m less concerned with ‘EdTech provider is bilking the system with its torment nexus’ and more concerned with ‘children assigned to spend their days in the torment nexus.’ Ryan Moulton : When you chose a school for your kids, you probably didn’t realize you were choosing educational software, but that choice of software might be more consequential for your kid than the choice of school. Kelsey Piper : A very well-written, very justifiably angry parental…
Edysor.ai, a voice AI platform that deploys intelligent agents for enterprise lead conversion, has raised Rs 1.2 crore in a pre seed funding round led by angel investor Jasmine Sarupria. The fresh funds will be used to accelerate product development, enhance AI capabilities, expand the customer base, grow the team, and scale operations, Edysor.ai said in a press release. Co-founded in January 2020 by Atishaya Jain, Abhinav Jain, Gunjan Pancholi, and Fivos Radis, Edysor.ai is a voice AI platform that enables businesses to engage, qualify, follow up with, and convert leads through AI powered voice conversations. The Udaipur based startup pivoted to AI in 2024 and now offers voice AI agents to enterprises across sectors such as real estate, BPO, D2C, automotive, edtech, healthcare, and BFSI. The platform follows an outcome based pricing model, charging businesses based on results rather than runtime. According to the company, its voice AI agents are designed to reduce lead response time by calling potential customers within seconds of an inquiry, conducting adaptive conversations, qualifying prospects, handling objections, and moving leads through the sales funnel without human intervention. Edysor.ai said it has added 15 enterprise customers in the two months since launching the platform, with two to three new customers joining every week, and recorded a 300% month on month increase in voice minute consumption. It also claims customers have reported a 15 to 20 times return on…
Ronnie Screwvala-led upGrad has received approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) for its proposed acquisition of edtech unicorn Unacademy. According to a release issued by the competition watchdog on Tuesday, the regulator approved the acquisition of certain shareholding in Sorting Hat Technologies Private Limited and its subsequent merger with and into upGrad Education Private Limited. The approval comes nearly two months after upGrad filed a merger application with the CCI for the proposed transaction. In March this year, the company signed a term sheet to acquire Unacademy in a deal valued at around Rs 2,055 crore (approximately $218 million). In May, upGrad was valued at around $1.73 billion after raising Rs 361 crore (around $38 million) in a funding round led by co-founder and chairman Ronnie Screwvala. Existing investors Temasek, International Finance Corporation (IFC), and 360 ONE Opportunities Fund also participated in the round. upGrad posted a provisional profit after tax of Rs 38.8 crore during the 11 month period ended February 2026, compared to a loss of Rs 273.7 crore in FY25. The company also turned EBITDA positive at Rs 56.9 crore from a negative Rs 65.4 crore in the previous fiscal, while revenue from operations stood at Rs 1,531.7 crore during the period. Founded in 2015, upGrad is a higher education and upskilling platform, while Unacademy is an online learning company focused on test preparation and professional education. The transaction…
Info Edge has approved the acquisition of the remaining 45.36% stake in Coding Ninjas from the edtech platform's founders for about Rs 39.91 crore, a move that will make the company a wholly owned subsidiary. The decision was approved by the board at its meeting held on July 6. The Naukri parent will acquire 74,741 equity shares of Sunrise Mentors Private Limited, which operates Coding Ninjas, at Rs 5,340.23 per share. The transaction is expected to close within 45 days. Info Edge will pay 25% of the consideration, or about Rs 9.98 crore, at the closing of the share purchase agreement, while the remaining Rs 29.93 crore will be paid in three equal tranches on March 31, 2027, March 31, 2028 and March 31, 2029. The company said that the acquisition is aimed at deepening synergies between Naukri and Coding Ninjas, while enabling Naukri to build mini AI course offerings for its users. As part of the arrangement, the founders of Coding Ninjas will join Info Edge and receive salary and performance linked incentives. In October 2022, the company invested Rs 135.4 crore (around $17 million) to increase its stake in the startup from 26% to 51%. It has subsequently raised its ownership through follow on transactions, and the current acquisition will take its holding to 100%. Founded in 2016, Coding Ninjas offers online coding and upskilling courses. The company reported revenue of Rs 97.43 crore in FY26 from Rs 67.15 crore in FY25 and Rs 53.31 crore in FY24. It posted a net loss of Rs…
An 11-year-old used AI to build his own video game. His mother supports AI learning for kids at home and school.
Wealthy US families are increasingly sending their kids to AI schools like Alpha School, which combines two hours of AI tutoring with project-based workshops for up to $75,000 a year in tuition. The trend highlights a growing education gap in the AI era, where traditional schools are struggling to adopt the technology, which may do more harm than good if used without the right skills. The article AI private schools sell wealthy US families on personalized learning over traditional education appeared first on The Decoder .
Twenty startups advanced to the final pitch, where 10 emerged as winners. Data Entry Academy took the top prize, followed by startups from Egypt and Senegal in second and third place, respectively.
The expansion adds Ghana to Craydel's operations in Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Burundi, and Tanzania.
Voice-first AI tutoring platform YoLearn.ai has raised $500,000 in a pre-seed funding round at a valuation of $5 million , co-led by DataAlpha.ai and White Swan Global, with participation from a group of angel investors. The proceeds will be deployed to scale its AI tutoring products, including a voice-first audiovisual tutor with live sketchpad capabilities, and expand distribution across India's school and competitive exam ecosystem, YoLearn said in a press release. Launched in January 2025 by Kirti Prakash Mishra, YoLearn.ai operates a voice-first AI tutoring platform designed around real-time audio conversations and a live interactive sketchpad, allowing the AI tutor to draw diagrams and work through problems visually while explaining concepts aloud, similar to a teacher at a whiteboard. While the platform serves K-12 students across NCERT, CBSE, ICSE, and state board curricula, usage is concentrated among students in Grades 9 through 12, the segment juggling board exam preparation alongside competitive exams including JEE, NEET, and CUET. The company says its content is mapped with 100% syllabus accuracy across board and competitive exam curricula, with the AI tutor adapting explanations to each student's pace, language, and identified knowledge gaps. The platform supports voice interaction in 22 Indian languages, including Hindi and Hinglish, and offers AI tutor personas modelled on the teaching styles of popular educators, alongside "AI Avatar" versions of real school…
The post Microsoft’s New AI in Education Report highlights widespread adoption and increasing demand for support appeared first on Source .
Düsseldorf-basedWakeline, a deeptech startup developing continuously adaptive AI systems, hasraised €2.1 million in pre-seed funding. The round was led by Aachen-basedTechVision Fonds (TVF), with part...
AI is shaping the world young people are growing up in. But how do teachers confidently introduce AI and machine learning in the classroom? Experience AI is a free educational program from Google DeepMind and the Raspberry Pi Foundation that helps teachers introduce school-aged students to AI and machine learning. The program uses research-backed pedagogies to empower teachers to cover foundational AI and responsible, ethical use with their students—supporting learning even for educators without a computer science background. Experience AI provides free lessons, videos, worksheets, and training, designed to give young people the knowledge they need to understand how AI works and how it is changing the world. To date, it has been delivered by educators in over 165+ countries, expanding access to essential AI learning for students worldwide. Find the lessons @ experience-ai.org ___ Subscribe to our channel https://www.youtube.com/@googledeepmind Find us on X https://twitter.com/GoogleDeepMind Follow us on Instagram https://instagram.com/googledeepmind Add us on Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/company/deepmind/
AI Singapore (AISG) and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) today signed a new Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to expand access to AI learning in six pilot countries from...
What must be considered to build a safe but effective future for AI in education, and for children to be safe online?