Building Real-Time Connections Filo was launched in November 2020, it is a live instant tutoring app that connects students from grades 8th – 12th with tutors in less than 60 seconds across the country

When the world was rocked by COVID-19 and subsequent lockdowns, schools, colleges were shut and academics took a back seat. "Across three COVID-19 waves and multiple lockdowns, students have lost touch with academics and there is a huge gap in learning and understanding of core concepts," said Imbesat Ahmad, co-founder and CEO, Filo.

Filo was launched in November 2020, it is a live instant tutoring app that connects students from grades 8th – 12th with top tutors in less than 60 seconds across the country. In almost a year and a half, the company has grown to more than 1.7 million downloads. The 24X7 live platform is present in more than 15 countries and has over 50,000-plus tutors on the platform. Filo is witnessing 30 per cent growth every week in new users on the platform. There is a 25 per cent uptick in the queries students are asking on the app. Owing to this demand, Filo has recently added 2,500 new tutors to the existing pool of 50,000 tutors on the platform.

"I witnessed that in the classroom, students just note down information whereas the real processing of information happens when students sit for self-study. If the student hasn't completely grasped what was taught in the class, he/she needs a teacher in real time. To bridge this massive white space in learning, I conceptualized the idea of Filo," he added.

The startup follows a subscription-based model where students from grades 8 - 12 can connect with top tutors in the country in just 60 seconds anytime during the day or night.

"We are a tech-driven and not an ops or sales driven company like other Edtechs, due to which our revenues aren't dependent on typical pushy sales. Because of our tech innovation product that is one-of-a-kind in the edtech space, we have the capacity to go beyond education and are not constrained by any curriculum or subject and also are infinitely scalable. We are already in 15-plus countries in less than 24 months and plan to keep growing the same way across borders. We are expecting over one thousand per cent growth in FY 2022-23 in terms of revenue. In terms of tutors we are expecting five times growth and planning to expand into 10 new international markets," he said explaining the sustainable model and future plans.

Factsheet:

● Year of establishment - 2020

● No. of employees - 200

● Amount of external funding and leading investors - We have recently raised USD 23 mn in Series A round led by Anthos Capital. This is the largest Series A round in the Indian edtech space.

● Subscription fee - We have multiple subscription packages from INR 49/day to INR 3599/year

● No. of students taught - More than 1.7 million students on the platform

● Current valuation - NA

● Customer acquisition cost - NA