Bluelearn, one of India’s largest student communities offering a one-stop platform for students to learn new skills, network with peers, and grow as individuals, has raised $3.5 million (INR 28.9 crore) in a seed round co-led by Elevation Capital and Lightspeed. The funding round also witnessed participation from Titan Capital, 2am VC, along with angel investors Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal (Meesho founders), Awais Ahmed (Pixxel founder), Vivek Mohan and others.
With the new fundraising, the Bengaluru-based company plans to strengthen the product and team further and grow their community user base by 10x within the year. BlueLearn is actively hiring across functions such as product, tech, marketing, and operations and plans to almost double the team size by the end of the year.
Founded in 2021 by Harish Uthayakumar and Shreyans Sancheti, Bluelearn helps its members learn new skills, network with like-minded peers and get exposure from industry experts. The platform offers courses on the stock market, game designing, blockchain, front-end development, python, and more. It also provides community-based learning solutions, live classes, and clubs. The startup aims to empower the next generation to discover better ways to learn, earn, and network.
The startup initially started as a telegram channel for students to help each other with common questions. It claims to have a community of over 1,50,000 members from over 5,500 colleges and startups across 20+ countries and is growing 30 per cent from month to month organically.
Speaking about the capital raised, Co-founder of Bluelearn, Shreyans Sancheti, said:
With the new capital, we plan on accelerating our market expansion to newer and previously untapped markets in India and globally. By strengthening our core tech and product teams, we will continue building impactful products that help people grow in their careers and lives.
The startup can get students to access LIVE events that help them explore their favourite fields and grow to the next level. Having a mentor accelerates one’s learning journey, students can find a mentor who guides them at each step in their career and learn by applying skills in the industry. It also helps them access jobs, internships, and real-life projects.
Amit Aggarwal, Principal, Elevation Capital, added:
Bluelearn is uniquely building both a social network and a learning destination by bringing together communities of young learners anchored around shared interest areas. We envision Bluelearn as the social learning destination for networking, upskilling and discovering the first employment opportunity for Gen Z.
Investor of Lightspeed, Rohil Bagga, also commented on the latest development, saying:
Over the last couple of years, the platform has grown to become one of India’s largest digital communities of students, presenting its members with unique opportunities to learn new skills, connect with like-minded folks and participate in the formal workforce via gigs & internships. We feel excited to continue supporting the incredible team at Bluelearn in their mission to redefine the digital learning landscape!
In August 2021, Bluelearn raised $450,000 (INR 3.25 Crore) in its pre-seed round led by US-based Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from 100X.VC, Titan Capital, and 2am VC. Other angel investors, such as Rahul Mathur, Gaurav Mandlecha, and Surabhi Randev, also participated in this round.
