Catalysing quality and affordable ed-tech for Bharat at scale.
A ₹100 Cr fund backing affordable, accessible and high-quality ed-tech for the bottom three quartiles of India — from early-childhood learning to skilling for first-generation graduates.
The Challenge
A learning divide deepened by school closures
At a time when India's school-education system was already struggling to address a massive learning divide, more than 600 days of school closures during the COVID pandemic only aggravated the crisis. Learning losses cascaded across grade levels — and were felt hardest by children from low-income families with the fewest fallback options at home.
At the same time, the opportunity has rarely been bigger. With rising smartphone penetration and more than 1 billion Indians estimated to be online by 2030, contextualised ed-tech solutions can unlock real potential for Bharat. Adaptive, AI-enabled ed-tech is now the practical lever to address pandemic-era learning losses — and to overcome the constraints of under-resourced classrooms — for the children and employment-ready youth we are most focused on.
80%
Children aged 14–18 report lower levels of learning
74%
Youth aged 18–23 don't have access to higher education and skilling
Our Thesis
Affordable, mobile-first, vernacular ed-tech
Our early insights suggest Bharat needs more ed-tech that is low-cost, mobile-friendly, integrated with WhatsApp, carries vernacular content and is highly personalised — built explicitly for under-served children and youth.
ACT For Education aims to enable the bottom three quartiles of India's population to learn effectively by harnessing the power of affordable, accessible and high-quality ed-tech. The ₹100 Cr fund seeds the capabilities of education-centric and skilling-focused organisations, and accelerates their impact by opening up strategic partnerships and distribution networks.
Provide Catalytic Funding
We fuel the next generation of ed-tech social entrepreneurs through incubators and challenge grants — and accelerate their scale by partnering with other stakeholders across the ecosystem.
Build Capacity
We leverage the ACT collective to support portfolio organisations across the need areas that decide whether a great idea actually scales — product and technology, network access, marketing, talent and organisational development.
Generate Insights
We work closely with the portfolio and independent researchers to generate evidence on what works — building credible proof points on the effectiveness of ed-tech on real learning outcomes.
Our Portfolio
The founders we back in Education
Nineteen organisations across early childhood learning, vernacular AI tutoring, skilling, parental engagement and edtech for state systems.
Adalat AI
An AI-powered platform that automates courtroom transcription, digitises records, streamlines workflows and provides real-time updates — making justice delivery faster and more accessible.
Barabari
A hybrid skilling platform that enables under-served youth to develop practical tech skills while earning through freelance work — creating a pathway to both learning and livelihoods.
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ConveGenius
A free WhatsApp chatbot that focuses on teaching through a remedial-assessment approach — meeting learners where they already are.
Curious Jr
Now acquired by PhysicsWallah — a mobile platform that lets students from low-income backgrounds learn coding in vernacular languages.
Disha
An AI-powered skilling solution tailored to Tier 2 and Tier 3 graduates — building personalised learning journeys mapped to specific tech job roles.
English Quest
An affordable spoken-English solution that supplements teacher capacity through an app — helping classroom teachers deliver high-quality English lessons.
Frontier Markets
A tech-first venture that runs an assisted e-commerce platform — training and equipping a rural all-women salesforce of Sahelis to market and sell products to rural consumers through the Meri Saheli app.
Josh Skills
An affordable, gamified spoken-English course for under-served youth — built around peer-to-peer learning.
LearnTube
A freemium skilling platform powered by a proprietary multi-agent AI model — curating the most relevant content from across the web for a hyper-personalised learning experience.
Karya
A micro-tasking app that enables under-served communities to complete simplified AI/ML data tasks, earn supplementary income and access upskilling opportunities and career guidance.
Kutuki
A self-learning and storytelling-led solution for pre-school children — designed to build foundational literacy and numeracy.
Rocket Learning
A free AI-enabled WhatsApp solution that helps low-income parents and Anganwadi workers focus on early-childhood education at the household level.
Super Nan
A tech-first platform that trains and certifies women as professional nannies — enhancing their livelihoods and connecting them to parents looking for high-quality childcare.
The Apprentice Project
A WhatsApp-based self-learning platform that uses project-based learning to build 21st-century skills in government-school students — combining short videos, real-world tasks and personalised feedback.
Top Parent
A free app designed to empower low-income parents of children aged 3–8 to support their child's learning journey at home.
V-All
A gamified platform that helps users discover volunteering opportunities matched to their skills, interests and availability.
Vidyakul
An affordable app offering both live and recorded classes in vernacular languages for state-board students — with lecture notes and quizzes built in.
VOPA
A free app that lets grades 1–10 students in rural Maharashtra learn at home using high-quality vernacular content.
YuWaah NXT
A WhatsApp chatbot — led by Yuwaah and UNICEF — that aims to develop life skills among children aged 14–18.
What We're Looking For
Building an ed-tech solution for Bharat?
If you're a social entrepreneur building tech-led learning for under-served children and youth — we want to hear from you. Here's a quick checklist for what we evaluate.
Tech First
Solutions should leverage technology to expand reach, enable affordability and improve user experience.
Made For Bharat
Should be specifically designed for the needs of children and young adults from low-income families.
Evidence Of Learning Impact
Must have some demonstrated evidence of positively influencing real learning outcomes.
Potential For Scale
The model should have high potential to scale to millions of users over the next three to five years.
Roadmap To Sustainability
Must have a clear path to grow sustainably beyond ACT's support — through revenue or independent fundraising.
ACT Capital Foundation For Social Impact is a not-for-profit company incorporated and registered under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013 (CIN: U85300KA2021NPL148543). All donations made to ACT Capital Foundation are eligible for income-tax deduction under Section 80G of the Income Tax Act.
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