10 Minute School raises $2m from Sequoia Capital India’s Surge

Bangladesh's app-based learning platform 10 Minute School has raised $2 million in funding from Surge, Sequoia Capital India's rapid scale-up programme, as the first EdTech company in the country to secure funding from Surge.

The tech start-up plans to utilise the funds to invest in enhancing its products and technology, and talent acquisition, according to 10 Minute School.

The year 2021 marked a significant year of growth for 10 Minute School, with more than 9 million new learners joining the platform, 8 million learning hours delivered, and over 17,000 new videos added to its learning ecosystem.

The app – 10ms.app – has recently surpassed three million users, making it the largest learning app in the country.

"We have experienced an unprecedented 12x business growth for our platform in 2021 during the pandemic, and a strong validation from our users who experienced our learning contents. That Sequoia Capital India's Surge is joining us as our first investor is a very humbling experience for the team, and it further validates our vision for democratising access to high-quality education for all in Bangladesh," said Ayman Sadiq, founder and CEO of 10 Minute School.

"We want to double down on our growth trajectory this year while creating an unparalleled learning experience for our students," he added.

The pandemic has turbocharged online education in Bangladesh, with offline institutions and exams being put on hold since early 2020. To ensure that students could continue learning despite the lockdown, the company launched some of its first premium courses and books during this time. 

Today the platform has over 25,000 classes and skill courses prepared by some of Bangladesh's best instructors and professionals. It provides a personalised learning journey for students with the opportunity to test their learning from a bank of more than 50,000 quizzes and additional resources like flashcards, audiobooks, and notes.

In the first quarter of 2022, the company plans to launch live coaching classes for students of classes 5-12, test paper courses for HSC and SSC examinees, complete admission and BCS programmes, a whole series of interactive academic books for classes 3-12, and 25 more sought-after upskilling courses.

10 Minute School sees an immense opportunity to help support the existing education system of the country, which has 43 million students to date. The team also aspires to contribute to the upskilling of its significant youth population of five million, leading to increased employment and demographic dividends for the country.

The company is also looking to hire passionate, mission-driven individuals in Bangladesh, to join them in this journey of transforming the country's education ecosystem.

Founded by Ayman Sadiq and his co-founder Abdullah Abyad Raied in 2015, 10 Minute School is on a mission to democratise education for all in Bangladesh. Access to quality teachers across the country has been one of the longest-standing challenges for students. Much of the development in education is still focused around Dhaka and a few major cities, resulting in poor education infrastructure for the rest of the country. Moreover, the best coaching centres and private tutors are not affordable to the mass student population due to socio-economic barriers.

This is where 10 Minute School comes in. This mobile-first online learning platform bridges the gap between aspiration and opportunities, offering affordable, accessible, and highly relevant educational content to 25 million school and college students, university admission test candidates, job-seekers, and people looking for specialised skills training.

Instead of serving an off-the-shelf product feature, the team constantly interacts with its students to understand their pain points to create tailor-made solutions. Students from classes 1-12 can advance their learning using resources like videos, mock exams, lecture sheets, and notes that have been developed by experts over the years. Those looking to upskill themselves in their careers have access to various courses like Spoken English, Microsoft Excel, Corporate Training, and more.