IMAX Program, a Bengaluru-based personal education startup, has won $13.5 million from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation to expand its customer base throughout India.
The company, which currently serves over 800 schools and 300,000 students in its home nation, offers textbooks, exams, feedback and remedial services for students. It also provides manuals and training modules for teachers. The Michael and Susan Dell Foundation has been joined by Swiss venture firm LGT Impact and fellow Bengaluru investor Aspada.
“With this round, we will now further deliver a better experience for our customers and partners, and accelerate the expansion of our commercial operations in India,” said IMAX Program co-founder Varun Kumar. “We will also be selectively looking at prospective markets abroad.”
IMAX Program, founded in 2009, aims to serve two million Indian students by 2020. India has enjoyed a state-sponsored explosion in school attendance since the Right of Education Act, implemented when IMAX was founded, guaranteed universal education for 6-14-year-olds.
However a World Bank survey found average school attendance to be 15-30% lower than enrollments across India. And a number of teacher and exam scandals have placed greater scrutiny on education in the 1.33bn-population democracy.
Ed-tech companies like IMAX have, therefore, flourished, as India’s powerful tech sector looks to solve some of its nation’s biggest social problems. Red Herring has covered firms aimed at medicine, manual labor and even mental health, while experts have praised India’s ability to foster quick startup scale.