Udayy

About Udayy

Udayy Technologies operated in the Indian ed-tech market as a live learning platform targeting children from kindergarten to eighth grade. The Gurugram-based company was founded in 2019 by Saumya Yadav, Mahak Garg, and Karan Varshney, who are alumni of institutions like IIT Delhi and Stanford University. Yadav served as the CEO, Garg as the COO, and Varshney as the CTO. The founders' backgrounds in premier technical and business schools informed their approach to building an educational product.

The core of Udayy's business was offering after-school, live online classes in mathematics and English for children aged 6 to 11. Its business model revolved around paid courses delivered in small, interactive groups of three to five students to ensure personalized attention. The platform was designed to make learning engaging through a 'learning by doing' methodology, which incorporated games, activities, and role-playing. A key differentiator was its focus on a flipped classroom approach, where students could drive their own learning path. At its peak, the company ran over 400 classrooms daily, serving users from more than 45 cities across India. Udayy also launched a free app that provided daily worksheets to supplement its main paid offerings.

The company's journey began with an angel funding round in June 2019. A significant milestone was securing a $2.5 million seed round in January 2021, led by Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI) and InfoEdge Ventures, with participation from Better Capital and CRED's Kunal Shah. The startup later raised an additional $10 million in a round reportedly led by Norwest Venture Partners in February 2022. However, Udayy's growth, which surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, faced significant headwinds as schools began to reopen. The return to offline schooling led to a drop in demand, low retention, and a sharp increase in customer acquisition costs. After exploring pivots, including creating a free app and evaluating partnerships with schools, the founders concluded the business was no longer viable. In April 2022, Udayy ceased all operations, laid off its entire workforce of over 100 employees, and proceeded to return approximately $8.5 million of its remaining capital to investors.