Bangladeshi edtech firm raises $2m from Sequoia’s Surge

Bangladesh-based 10 Minute School has raised US$2 million in seed funding from Surge, the accelerator program of VC firm Sequoia India.

10 Minute School founders Ayman Sadiq (left) and Abdullah Abyad Raied / Photo credit: 10 Minute School

According to 10 Minute School, it is the first edtech firm in the country to receive funding from Surge. The startup is also part of the accelerator’s sixth cohort, which was announced in January.

Through its mobile-focused online learning platform, 10 Minute School looking to bridge the digital divide in the education space. Students from class 1 to class 12 can access materials such as videos, mock exams, lecture sheets, and notes. It also offers upskilling materials such as Spoken English and Microsoft Excel.

The startup said that more than 9 million new learners had joined its platform in 2021. It also facilitated up to 8 million hours of learning and added over 17,000 videos.

Ayman Sadiq launched the 10 Minute School in 2015. He was joined by Abdullah Raied – also a co-founder of agritech startup Khamar-e – in 2021.

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10 Minute School plans to use the fresh funds to hire across Bangladesh and India. It also aims to launch live coaching classes for students from class 5 to class 12, interactive academic books for class 3 to class 12, and 25 more upskilling courses in the first quarter of 2022.

“We have experienced an unprecedented 12x business growth in our platform in 2021 during the pandemic, and our users have also commended the app and its learning content,” said Sadiq in a statement.