Aakash Chaudhry Sparkl: Zomato and Zerodha founders back Aakash Chaudhry’s edtech comeback

Two months into his entrepreneurial comeback, Aakash Chaudhry, one of India’s most successful education entrepreneurs, has secured backing from two of the country’s most prominent consumer tech billionaires–Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal and Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath–for his new venture, Sparkl Edventure, said people in the know. Kamath’s Rainmatter, a fintech and sustainability-focused fund, along with Goyal, is participating in a $4 million seed round. The round is expected to attract a few more marquee investors.

In October, Chaudhry joined forces with Pavan Chauhan and Ritesh Hemrajani, founders of Meritnation.com, an edtech company acquired by his family business Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) in 2020, to launch Sparkl. This comes three years after the $950 million cash-and-stock sale of AESL to Byju’s in one of India’s largest edtech deals till date. Despite the sale, Chaudhry retains an 11% stake in AESL.

Sparkl aims to provide bespoke one-on-one online tutoring for students in grades 6 to 12, specialising in International Baccalaureate (IB) and Cambridge curricula. The platform offers personalised classes across subjects such as mathematics, science, languages, business studies etc. With teachers already on board, Sparkl has begun enrolling students from major Indian cities such as Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Pune and Hyderabad, as well as Singapore and plans to grow the platform leveraging its tech interventions.

“The initial plan was to launch in the new year, but with the product being ready ahead of schedule, the timeline was advanced,” said a source familiar with the developments. “The seed round will further accelerate the rollout.”

Chaudhry declined to comment. Goyal and Kamath weren’t immediately available for comment.

India’s $900 million IB/Cambridge K6-K12 market is highly competitive, with numerous players vying for dominance. Globally, however, this segment represents a $2 billion opportunity, further complemented by the booming SAT/ACT admission counselling market, which is significantly larger with major players like Ascent Now and Crimson Education.

Unlike AESL, which was an offline-first test prep giant with over 215 centres nationwide, Sparkl will operate as a fully digital platform delivering curated, personalised content. While AESL focuses on classroom-based preparation for engineering and medical entrance exams, Sparkl is designed to cater to students pursuing international curricula or aspiring to study abroad.Beyond academics, Sparkl also aims to address students’ emotional and social well-being. “Stress and peer pressure are significant challenges for today’s students. To combat this, Sparkl will integrate monthly interactions with well-being coaches, focusing on mental health and overall growth,” said a person with knowledge of the matter. These insights will further refine the platform’s personalized teaching methodologies.

Aakash Chaudhry’s father, JC Chaudhry, founded AESL in 1988 with a single centre in Delhi’s Janakpuri area. Over three decades, the family transformed it into India’s leading test prep provider, serving over 250,000 students annually. In 2019, private equity giant Blackstone acquired a 37.5% stake in AESL, valuing it at $500 million.