Trial underpins effectiveness of AI tutoring platform following success of $8m funding round
After securing $8 million in the summer to expand their education platform, Medly AI, OEs Paul Jung and Kavi Samra have now tested its value by commissioning an independent trial.
The randomised controlled trial run by research organisation WhatWorked Education looked at 644 GCSE Science candidates.
In their blog, the Medly AI team wrote: “Every revision app says it works. Very few let someone else check.”
The results provided evidence of the positive effects of using Medly AI. “Attainment rose consistently with use. The more students engaged with Medly, the greater the effect… The effect size did not differ by disadvantage status. Pupil Premium students gained in line with their peers, which is encouraging on equity, and the part of the result we’ll be watching most closely as the work continues.”
Kavi and Paul, who both attended QE from 2008 to 2015, secured the seed investment in a round led by Felix Capital, supported by existing investors Eka Ventures and Ada Ventures.
The pair, who have been friends since Year 7, grew up in low-income households where private tutoring was unaffordable. Paul and Kavi went on to study Medicine at UCL, from which Paul holds a PhD in Psychiatric Neuroscience, while Kavi has worked as a doctor in anaesthetics.
Their childhood experience, combined with their professional expertise acquired at UCL, inspired them to develop an alternative – an affordable, subscription-based AI-native platform offering exam-focused, personalised tutoring. Both left their careers in the NHS to build Medly.
Announcing the successful fundraising in August, Paul said: “Millions of students are using AI to skip thinking. We’re two doctors who left medicine to solve that. AI will reshape what it means to learn, to work, to matter. We’re here to make sure people come out of education stronger.
“With this round, we’ll be building our own education-specific models and scaling globally over the next year.”
In nine months through to this summer, more than 400,000 UK students signed up to Medly AI, with three-quarters of them still using the app three months after they started.
The pair have also been awarded a Department for Education grant for working on the AI Pioneer Programme, which aims to raise the attainment of disadvantaged pupils across England.