AI Tutor that beat 1.3M students on India’s toughest exam lands $9.5M to scale globally
Startup aims to offer elite-level, personalized education at computation cost rather than hourly rates
Berkeley-based startup SigIQ.ai, which develops AI-powered learning platforms, has emerged from stealth with $9.5 million in seed funding to expand its technology globally.
The company builds scalable tutoring systems designed to replicate one-on-one instruction through artificial intelligence.
Founded in 2023 by Dr. Karttikeya Mangalam and Professor Kurt Keutzer, SigIQ.ai’s core focus is on addressing disparities in educational access by shifting the cost of personalized learning from human labor to AI infrastructure. The company operates out of California and Gurgaon, India.
The funding round was co-led by House Fund and GSV Ventures, with additional participation from Duolingo, Peak XV Partners, Calibrate Ventures, and angel investors from academia and AI startups.
Technology tested on high-stakes exams
SigIQ.ai’s platform was publicly demonstrated during India’s UPSC civil service exam in June 2024, where the company’s AI tutor completed the 2-hour prelims paper in under seven minutes, scoring 175 out of 200. This is the highest score recorded in the exam’s history, which typically sees over 1.3 million human participants annually. The performance was broadcast live at an event in Delhi and received widespread coverage in the Indian press.
The company claims the tool was designed to first master the exam itself before attempting to tutor students on how to pass it.
Dr. Karttikeya Mangalam said: “We’re at a pivotal moment in education where modern GenAI can provide a personal 1:1 tutor to every student and reduce the cost of one-on-one learning from hundreds of dollars an hour to the cost of computation. We’ve started by first creating a tutor that itself can ace the very exam students are preparing for.
“This is a necessary step to ensure accuracy and quality in teaching delivered. And will set a new benchmark in personalized education, making the highest-quality education accessible to everyone, regardless of geography or socioeconomic status, at a fraction of the traditional cost.”
Commercial rollout and product traction
Since its founding, SigIQ.ai has launched two products. The first, PadhAI, focuses on UPSC preparation and has reached over 200,000 users within six months of launch. The second, EverTutor.ai, serves the U.S. GRE test prep market and has gained more than 10,000 users in its first three months.
The platform’s design emphasizes interaction, real-time feedback, and responsiveness to follow-up questions. According to the company, students report a 30-40% increase in study time effectiveness and an 18% improvement in test performance within the first month of use. Over 75% of users reportedly noted increased confidence in tackling difficult topics.
SigIQ.ai says its approach is distinct from scripted or static chatbot-style tutoring systems. It positions its tools as digital tutors rather than digital assistants.
Jeremy Fiance, Managing Director of The House Fund, said:
“SigIQ.ai isn’t just a regular EdTech startup — they’ve built an AI system that publicly demonstrated its ability to outperform both humans and leading commercial AI models on one of the world’s most challenging exams. This redefines what’s possible in personalized education.”
Expansion plans and future applications
SigIQ.ai plans to expand EverTutor’s U.S. presence to support GRE candidates through upcoming academic cycles. The company is also set to showcase its technology at ASU+GSV, a key education and technology conference.
While initial use cases focus on standardized exams, SigIQ.ai says its long-term goal is to support personalized learning across subjects and age groups, including in regions with limited access to traditional education infrastructure.
Mangalam founded the company after his own experience growing up in Bihar, India, where access to elite instruction was limited. After completing degrees at IIT Kanpur and UC Berkeley, he launched SigIQ.ai to make advanced tutoring universally available.
