xQ scores $1.4M to teach video creation in schools 

xQ, an edutech startup that teaches kids the art and science of video creation, has raised $1.4 million from a Gujarat-based angel syndicate.

A select group of HNIs, including senior leadership personnel from Google, Deloitte, Tata 1mg, Axis Capital, and international photographer Joseph Radhik, also participated.

 xQ will use the capital to expand its reach in schools through its flagship offering – the xQ Video Lab. It is a space within schools, like a computer lab or a physics lab, dedicated to teaching kids video creation skills.

The startup was founded by IIM alumni Simon Jacob and Kartik Talwar in 2021 in collaboration with professional filmmakers, educators and advertising professionals. 

xQ offers access to a video creation curriculum, state-of-the-art shooting gear and access to an e-learning platform. This allows students to continue learning and practising their video-making skills at home. 

“Video is the language of the future”, said CEO Simon Jacob. “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.”

xQ has built a strong academic team led by an ex-headmistress and award-winning filmmakers to fine-tune their video-creation curriculum. The team is building a library of over 1,000 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. 

To make learning immersive and personalised through video-creation, xQ is also building a digital learning platform 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. 

To date, xQ has educated over 6,000 students across eight countries in video-making, and it is now on a mission to touch at least one million lives by 2025.