Aakash Institute founder Aakash Chaudhry has reportedly garnered the support of consumer tech billionaires—Zomato’s Deepinder Goyal and Zerodha’s Nithin Kamath—for his latest venture, Sparkl Edventure. Citing unnamed sources, an Economic Times report said that Kamath’s Rainmatter fund focused on fintech and sustainability. Goyal is participating in a $4 million seed round, with more marquee investors likely to join.
Chaudhry launched Sparkl in October this year in partnership with Meritnation.com founders Pavan Chauhan and Ritesh Hemrajani. Meritnation, an edtech platform acquired by Chaudhry’s family business, Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL), in 2020, was a pivotal part of this collaboration. This venture follows the landmark $950 million sale of AESL to Byju’s in 2021, one of India’s largest edtech deals. Chaudhry continues to hold an 11% stake in AESL.
What is Sparkl
Sparkl aims to offer one-on-one online tutoring for students in grades 6 to 12, focusing on the International Baccalaureate (IB) and Cambridge curricula. The platform provides personalised instruction in mathematics, science, languages, and business studies. Already operational, Sparkl has enrolled students from Delhi NCR, Bengaluru, Pune, Hyderabad, and Singapore, and it plans to expand further by leveraging its technological capabilities.
“The platform was initially slated for a 2025 launch, but with the product ready ahead of schedule, the timeline was fast-tracked,” said a source. The seed funding is expected to accelerate Sparkl’s rollout.
Unlike AESL’s offline-focused test prep model, Sparkl is a fully digital platform tailored to international curricula and study-abroad aspirations. Spark also integrates mental health support with monthly well-being sessions to address student stress and peer pressure.
