Global Accelerator ‘Y Combinator’ Backs Bengaluru-based EdTech Startup Codingal
Bengaluru: Bengaluru-based Codingal, an online coding platform for K-12 (school) kids, today said it has been selected in US-based Y Combinator’s W21 cohort.
Launched in September 2020, Codingal delivers high-quality coding education with all-star teachers selected only from Computer Science background. Y Combinator is a Silicon Valley-based startup incubator that has invested in 3,000+ startups since 2005 and boasts of a portfolio of well-known startups like Airbnb, Reddit, Quora, Dropbox, as well as Indian startups like RazorPay, Helloverify, and Khatabook among others.
Codingal has registered 40,000+ students and motivated them to start learning coding via competitions and live 1:1 classes. The founding team of IIT-Roorkee alumnus Vivek Prakash and IIT-Dhanbad alumnus Satyam Baranwal have strong expertise in teaching coding and building communities around students interested in computer programming.
Vivek had earlier co-founded HackerEarth, which is today one of the largest platforms for college students and software engineers for coding challenges and online hackathons. Satyam had previously founded Skillovate Learning, a government-recognised platform to teach coding and robotics skills to school students in the 6-16 years age group.
Vivek Prakash, Co-founder and CEO at Codingal said, “Our mission is to inspire school kids to fall in love with coding, and we are building Codingal to achieve this mission by delivering high-quality Computer Science education combined with world-class coding competitions. Codingal’s selection by Y Combinator is, therefore, an exciting development for us and we count upon their support in building Codingal as a global online school in the K-12 segment. We envision a future where Codingal is the default playground for every child interested in learning Computer Science by building apps, games, and websites in a fun & engaging way.”
Y Combinator selects a group of early-stage startups twice a year for its intensive three-month bootcamp, and also invests USD 125,000 in all participating startups. Codingal said that it will use the investment to enhance the teachers’ base, curriculum, and integrated product to realise its goal of building a 1 million strong community of school students interested in learning coding.
Codingal has developed the world’s first coding curriculum based on the K-12 Computer Science framework with the BIDE Model (Broad, inspiring, Deep, Efficient), integrated with Bloom’s Taxonomy and a dedicated focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Maths) learning methodology. The learning path is customized for every child depending on their interest and abilities. School kids love the Codingal platform for its teachers, curriculum, and competitions. Teachers and Curriculum are rated above 4.5 across all the classes. The NPS reported is 70+, the highest in this segment. Codingal stands out in a cluttered “coding for kids” segment by providing extremely high-quality Computer Science education along with coding competitions and is loved by kids and parents.
In December 2020, Codingal announced that it has raised a US$560K seed round led by Rebright Partners, Java Capital, and GSF Accelerator. It has also partnered with IIT Roorkee, IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, BITS Pilani, and many more schools to run nation-wide coding competitions for school kids. The company has registered rapid growth in student registration and revenue since the launch in September 2020.