Lightspeed, Elevation Capital lead $3.2m seed round in Indian celebrity-powered learning startup

India’s FrontRow, a learning platform centered on creative arts and sports, said it has raised US$3.2 million in its seed round.

The fundraise was led by VC firms Lightspeed and Elevation Capital (formerly SAIF Partners) and saw participation from the family office of Indian actress Deepika Padukone, according to a statement.

The FrontRow team / Photo credit: FrontRow

Founded earlier this year, FrontRow offers classes taught by local celebrities. The company pairs this with a community platform that gives learners regular activities, competitions, and peer engagement activities.

Its first set of instructors include Indian personalities like Neha Kakkar, Divine and Gully Gang, Suresh Raina, Amit Trivedi, and Biswa Kalyan Rath, among others.

The company said it plans to use the new funds to add more courses and categories, expand its community offering, and go deeper into various course formats. FrontRow claims that it already has tens of thousands of beta users participating in its community groups pre-launch.

“A big part of learning is interacting with peers and mentors as we did in school and college, which is even more important in non-academic fields,” said FrontRow co-founder Shubhadit Sharma.

Prior to helping found FrontRow, Sharma was the vice president of engineering at social commerce startup GlowRoad and held key roles at companies like Oyo, Vahan, and Finomena. He established the startup alongside Mikhil Raj, who previously led consumer products at ZestMoney, and Ishaan Preet Singh, who was was an investor at Lightspeed and a consultant at McKinsey & Company.

The injection follows Elevation Capital’s seed investment in Indian social ecommerce startup Citymall, which was announced just yesterday.