Explico, an online assessment-based learning platform using AI and machine learning that helps students to measure their learning outcomes and identify their strengths and weaknesses, announced that it has raised $1.4 million in its pre-Series A funding. The round was led by Astonic Ventures Singapore, MAVIS TUTORIAL CENTRE, one of the largest local tuition centres and Singapore Asia Publishers, the well-known publishing house and a few angel investors.
The Singaporean startup plans to utilize the fresh capital to create a more comprehensive learning platform for students and commence growth expansion starting with SouthEast Asia, specifically Vietnam and Philippines, and Africa.
Founded by Ashutosh Shukla in 2020, Explico measures students’ learning outcomes based on subject, topic, concepts and sub-concepts. The platform conducts regular live sessions by experienced teachers with decades of experience. It can generate assessment tasks, find appropriate peers for study groups, and provide transparent adaptive feedback using artificial intelligence (AI) technology. The startup uses these AI techniques that adjust the task to the student’s abilities, giving them tailored assessment experiences and producing a learning method suitable for their capabilities.
Speaking about the platform, the Founder & CEO of Explico, Ashutosh Shukla, said:
We aspire to introduce and implement the most robust assessment-based educational system in Singapore. Our sessions are customized to suit the needs of individual students as we have a team of experienced tutors and educators in their respective fields who would be able to properly guide, mentor and educate the students and create a module that is suitable based on their assessment needs for them to excel.
Explico is also part of Microsoft for Startup Founders Hub, which enables them to connect to education sectors across the globe through their networking channels. The company’s advisory team includes former Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Education, Er Kwong Wah and the Founder of AsknLearn, Yee Jenn Jong.
Commenting on the fundraising, Co-founder & COO of Explico, Sandesh Shetty, said:
The value of the global Edtech market was $106.46 billion in 2021 and projected to grow annually by 16.5 per cent, up to $404 billion in 2025. With English as one of the primary languages spoken in Southeast Asia and Africa, we look forward to scaling Explico in those regions, beginning with growth expansion plans to Vietnam and the Philippines in the first quarter of 2023.
The firm is fully equipped with an academic faculty of experienced educators and mentors in English, Science and Mathematics and collaborates with various institutions in Singapore and internationally, which allows students to have the opportunity to access worldwide education from a young age. It offers regular online classes/events, challenging sessions and assessments, formative student analysis, and insightful institution analysis with the vision of shifting traditional learning towards a more blended learning educational platform. Explico also has a subsidized bursary program for children from low-income families, currently only available for Singaporean citizens.