xQ raises USD 1.4 mn to transform education by teaching video-creation in schools

Mumbai, 19th July: xQ, an edtech start-up which teaches kids the art & science of video creation has raised USD 1.4mn through a Gujarat-based angel syndicate along with a select group of HNI investors which includes senior leadership personnel from Google, Deloitte, Tata 1mg, Axis Capital, and award-winning international photographer Joseph Radhik. The startup was founded by IIM alumni Simon Jacob and Kartik Talwar in 2021 in collaboration with professional filmmakers, educators and advertising professionals. 

A first-of-its-kind Video Creators Academy for children, xQ believes that video is the most effective & powerful medium of communication today and it is therefore an essential 21st century skill for kids. “Video is the language of the future”, says Simon Jacob, CEO & CoFounder at xQ. “It is no longer a good-to-have extracurricular activity and if we want to introduce video-creation as a core skill to children at scale, it needs to be a part of the school curriculum”, he adds

 xQ will be using the funding amount to expand their reach in schools through their flagship offering – the xQ Video Lab. The xQ Video Lab is a space within schools, just like a computer lab or a physics lab, which is dedicated to teaching kids video-creation skills. At an economical cost, xQ offers access to a thoughtfully designed video-creation curriculum, state-of-the-art shooting gear and access to an e-learning platform which allows students to continue learning & practising their video-making skills at home. 

“My favourite part of xQ is the Video Lab. I learned photography and filmmaking entirely by myself on the internet, and I can tell you it wasn’t easy. I’d have loved to know that this is a viable career choice as a kid, and more importantly not have to navigate countless resources on the internet to figure it out on my own. The Video lab is a great way for kids to learn creativity in a structured manner – just like school. Basic skills like problem solving, collaboration, and camera confidence are essential to creating videos, but these skills are often overlooked in our traditional schooling systems and they go way beyond helping creators to contribute to any workplace.” Says photographer Joseph Radhik. 

xQ has built a strong academic team led by an ex-headmistress along with award-winning filmmakers to fine-tune their video-creation curriculum. The team is building a library of over a 1000 video-based curriculum projects where children can integrate video-making techniques like transitions, green screen shooting and stop motion animation into curricular projects for subjects like maths, science, social sciences and English. 

“4 out of the 5 co-founders’ at xQ have teachers as parents and I believe this drives the team to create products & solutions which have been thoughtfully created for the schooling ecosystem. The fact that they have built an entire team dedicated to developing curriculum projects and to working on teacher training shows that they are genuinely invested in making video-creation accessible to students across different categories of schools,” said Anand Taparia, Director- Innovation at Colgate Palmolive India Ltd, who has invested in xQ in his personal capacity. 

To make learning immersive and personalised through video-creation, xQ is also building a digital learning platform which is designed to be a safe space for children to learn video creation techniques, showcase their videos to students across the globe and learn new skills from each other in the process. 

“I am excited about the differentiated approach that xQ has taken in a crowded sector like edtech. Their vision of creating a community where kids learn from each other through video-creation is refreshing and I believe that the e-learning platform they are developing to help students learn video-creation has tremendous potential given the explosive growth of video content in recent years,” said Tanmay Saksena, Chief Operating Officer at Tata 1mg. 

Till date, xQ has educated over 6000 students across eight countries in video-making and they are now on a mission to touch at least 1 million lives by 2025