Marwari Catalysts' Portfolio Startup, XOOG Raises USD 150k in their Pre-seed Round

EduSocio tech startup, XOOG has raised USD 150K in their pre-seed round with a series of institutional and individual investors investing in the startup. The strategic investors who participated in this round were Seetharaman Thiruvenkatam, Kavitha Seetharaman, Prasad Prabhakaran and Prashanth Prabhakaran. The round also saw further participation from existing investor Marwari Catalysts, India's fastest growing startup accelerator.

The seed capital will be utilised for improving the value proposition by enhancing the ecosystem for talent showcasing and enrichment, to onboard more users using performance marketing and growth hack, expand their product engineering team and to accelerate its product-led growth in order to expand its footprint in India as well as globally.

Karishma Seetharaman, Co-founder and CTO | Ritvik Raj Prasannakumar, Co-founder and CEO

Founded by Karishma Seetharaman and Ritvik Raj Prasannakumar in 2020, XOOG is building a safe ecosystem for talent showcasing and enrichment. The startup provides a Safe Social platform with skill clubs for students to showcase, compete and earn rewards.

Based in Bangalore, this gamified reward-based platform enables students to be a part of various skill clubs like Rubik's, Art, Music and more, showcase their skills, achievements on a safe feed, get rated by their peers, participate in challenges & competitions and earn real life rewards and scholarships.

In today's date, where students learn various skills from various educators, EdTech organisations or the courses but the hard truth is that the parents are not really aware of their kids interests, progress , or where they stand among their peers.

Also, most of the time students dropout after learning the basics due to lack of a structured roadmap with an end goal, lack of knowing where they stand and lack of a structured approach on how to improve further.

To rectify this situation, XOOG has an innovative ranking mechanism and algorithm for above mentioned skills which makes it a trustable, safe, engaging and fun brand with community focused for parents and students to understand more about their skills, progress and interests and enable them to make better decisions when it comes to their future in education.

Commenting on the fund raise, Karishma Seetharaman, Co-founder & CTO, XOOG says, "We have always wanted to do something in the field of education because it is one area where we can make a huge impact in a lot of lives. On todays date it is painful to see students labelled as failures at the age of 10-12 based on their academic performances but we wanted to make a difference by letting students shine at what they were born for."

She further elaborates, "To make this vision a reality, with XOOG we help students showcase their skills, their daily learnings, achievements and progress to the world, get rated by their peers, enhance their future and earn scholarships and rewards in return. We are hereby delighted to receive this tremendous support from the strategic investors who have not only provided us with their financial support but also understand our business model deeply to support our vision of making talented individuals of tomorrow by giving them the right opportunities today."

Accelerated by Marwari Catalysts, XOOG was selected out of 500 startups in the accelerator's cohort program, 'Thrive'. The EduSocio tech startup gives students the practical, real-life experience needed to gain confidence to pursue their interests and succeed in the longer run.

Commenting on the announcement, Ritvik Raj Prasannakumar, Co-founder & CEO, XOOG says, "As a country, we are blessed with abundant talent and with a structured approach, anyone could build their future around it! Our students keep winning science competitions, spell bees on the international stage but they are extremely good at painting, singing, dancing and other areas too. One of the problems with Indian education is that we only focus on marks and exams. This leaves very little scope for students to realize their potential in other areas. For too long, a student's IQ (intelligence quotient) has been linked to his/her math and verbal skills, which is a skewed and narrow parameter to judge."

He further adds, "But with XOOG, we are providing a platform for students to showcase their talent and also enable parents make better decisions for their childrens education and skills."

Sharing his opinion upon his investment, Seetharaman, MD of Shri Hari Venkateshwara Paper Mills says, "A range of viable career options are coming up in India, beyond the traditional vocations of engineering and medicine. And with the opening of new frontiers in the Indian Education sector that has paved the way for a comprehensive vision on education, XOOG is perfectly positioned in providing a platform for talented students to showcase their skills and as a result giving a new definition to the education system of India."

XOOG has seen aggressive growth in terms of enrolments, since its launch in 2020.

"We believe in XOOG's vision and are positive about the EdTech industry, the model, the product, and most importantly, the executing team to make XOOG a flagship name for talent discovery & enrichment in the times to come," says Sushil Sharma, Founder & CEO, Marwari Catalysts.

Further adding he says, "Being a part of the Edtech industry for the past 10 years, I understand the need of addressing the skills gap and XOOG has created social clubs that match the present and future requirements for students. We are excited to work with the passionate founding team of XOOG that sees this gap clearly and aspires to bridge it."

Sharing his rationale, Devesh Rakhecha, Founder & COO, Marwari Catalysts says, "Over the next 10 years, the EdTech industry will be revolutionised, which direly needs new concepts as well as upgradation. With XOOG, we plan to be pioneers in this upheaval task of talent discovery and enrichment, which our current education system lacks. Together with the founding team, we are looking to create progressive pathways for the students who are in our skill ecosystem, by ensuring they not only get recognised because of their talent, but are hand-held and get rewarded. I am confident that the latest funding will further accelerate their growth trajectory and will help the startup carve a niche for itself."

On a concluding note, XOOG's founding team also comments, "We are thrilled to have Marwari Catalysts as a partner in building XOOG. Their experience of working with entrepreneurs to build strong organisations and brands with rapid scale-up is a very apt fit for us at this stage in our growth journey."

For its future journey, the startup now plans to raise USD 500K in the next 3 months.