Ed-tech startup IMAX Program raises $13.5M from MSDF and others

IMAX Program, a personalized education start-up that serves 800+ schools and 300,000 students across India, has raised $13.5 million from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, LGT Impact Ventures, and existing investor Aspada. This is the largest investment in ed-tech space focused on providing curriculum services to K-12 schools in India.

The new funds will be used to further innovate the product, enhance in-school service experience and expand the customer base through multiple distribution channels. IMAX will also explore working with K12 publishers internationally, to deliver high quality in-school remedial programs to a global student base.

The IMAX Program includes textbooks, workbooks, school exams, feedback reports and individualized remedial worksheets along with teacher manuals and teacher training modules. "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. We will also be selectively looking at prospective markets abroad. We aim to impact 2 million students by 2020,” said Varun Kumar, Co-founder, IMAX Program.

“Education in India is waiting for its data revolution. We need models that leverage technology for applying data and analytics to improve learning outcomes for every student... IMAX Program’s full-stack learning system has demonstrated that it can achieve scale and be adopted successfully in schools with monthly school fees as low as $10 per student. We are excited to support the talented team at IMAX Program in their journey to impact student learning outcomes,” said Prachi Windlass, Director, India Programs, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.

IMAX conducted more than 500,000 assessments across 11 states in India, developing a deep understanding of classroom transactions and student learning. This helped them conceptualise and build an innovative curriculum program leveraging internal school exams in the process. In 2015, Aspada invested $1.8M to help IMAX implement affordable technology to the classrooms to enhance school’s ability to measure and impact learning outcomes effectively.