Zerodha-backed start-up incubator and fund Rainmatter Capital has led an angel investing of Rs 2.7 crore in Walnut Knowledge Solutions’ QShala, an online out-of-school learning solution for children. Along with the participation of other groups of angels including Kalyan Banerjee, Co-Founder of Mindtree and Preeti Sawhney, The Former Director of Lowe Lintas.

Walnut Knowledge Solutions calls QShala a curiosity-based learning platform, which was started back in 2014 as an online space for hosting quizzes and events in partnership with schools and students. In 2019, the company shifted towards providing online services to build a more scalable business.

Nithin Kamath, CEO of Zerodha, said, “Even with Zerodha, we’ve tried to teach people on how to trade rather than giving just stock tips. While this investment in QShala is outside whatever we do as a business, we thought that one of the best ways to enable curiosity building was when someone is a kid”.

The company said that it is actively looking to hire in the technology and marketing domain for expanding its Ed-Tech platform, with the education and curriculum side of the business which it has built over the last six years. It also added that a sizeable chunk of its userbase is from outside large metros and even some from outside the country.

During the Covid-19 pandemic, QShala’s move towards providing online quizzes has been accelerating; it’s family quiz participants has grown to 8,500 families who were over 50 families in March. The company said that it had noted a sixfold growth on its platform during the past few months as children and their parents were restricted to being indoors due to the nationwide lockdown.