Elevation Capital-backed edtech startup Bluelearn shuts down

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Upskilling and job search platform Bluelearn has announced a close of operations after struggling to grow, the latest company forced to shut down due to growth, regulatory or funding challenges.

The three-year-old startup will return 70 percent of the capital it raised to its investors.

“We have made the hard decision to shut down bluelearn and return 70% of the capital we raised back to investors,” Harish Uthayakumar posted on the X platform on July 21.

Founded in 2021 by Uthayakumar and his BITS Pilani fellow alumni Shreyans Sancheti, Bluelearn began as a Telegram group and quickly grew into a large student community with over 250,000 members.

It aimed to level the educational playing field by offering students from tier-2 and 3 colleges the same opportunities as those at top institutions like BITS and Indian Institutes of Technologies.

The Bengaluru-based startup raised about $4 million from notable investors, including 100X, Titan, Elevation, and Lightspeed. Angel investors Vidit Aatrey and Sanjeev Barnwal, Awais Ahmed, Vivek Mohan were also among early backers.

Despite the success, scaling the business proved challenging, founders said. “We realised that building a venture-scale business with Bluelearn was tough. We were very careful with our spending, which allows us to return 70% of the capital to our investors,” Uthayakumar said.

A dozens of startups have shut down in the past 14 months in the wake of either slowdown in business, regulatory challenge or funding scarce, including fellow edtech startup Frontrow.

Recently, social media app Koo announced to close operations, besides neobank Muvin, fintech startup GoldPe, and heathtech firm Nintee.

Gaming apps like Quizy, MPL-backed Striker, Dream Sports's Investro, Investmint and crypto investing platform Pillow are some companies that have shut down, while others such as Fantok halted operations because of regulatory headwinds.