Felix Capital led the seed round as Paul Jung and Kavi Samra expand Medly in the UK, launch US SAT prep and study learning outcomes.
By RuntimeWire Staff · Published
Primary source: Tech.eu
Why it matters #
Medly is turning the most repeatable parts of private tutoring - practice, marking and feedback - into a subscription. The $8M round funds its US push and a needed test of whether claimed engagement produces measurable academic gains. (tech.eu)
Dr Paul Jung (@paulljung) and Dr Kavi Samra have raised an $8 million seed round for Medly AI, the exam-preparation startup they built after leaving careers in Britain's National Health Service. The financing, reported by Tech.eu on August 19th, will fund Medly's UK growth, US expansion and research into whether its AI tutor improves academic attainment. (tech.eu)
Felix Capital led the round. Existing investors Eka Ventures and Ada Ventures participated alongside InvestEngine CEO Andrey Dobrynin, Creator Fund venture partner Al Giles, LearnLaunch Accelerator general partner Jean Hammond and Episode 1 Ventures general partner Hector Mason. (tech.eu)
Medly previously announced a £1.7 million round led by Eka in February 2025, with Ada participating. UCL supported the founders through its Hatchery incubator at BaseKX. (ucl.ac.uk)
Two doctors who had worked both sides of tutoring
Jung and Samra have been friends since Year 7, according to Medly's account of its founding. Jung grew up in Northolt in a first-generation immigrant family, while Samra grew up on a council estate in Slough and attended grammar school after passing the 11-plus examination. Both tutored students to cover living costs during medical school. (medlyai.com)
The pair later studied medicine at UCL and worked as NHS doctors. Jung also completed a PhD in psychiatric neuroscience in 2023 before receiving his medical degree in 2024; Samra received his medical degree in 2021. Their experience tutoring gave them the product idea. Jung and Samra's medical work also shaped Medly's argument about unequal access to private tutoring and its effect on educational opportunity. (medlyai.com)
"Almost a third of 11-16-year-olds receive some form of private tutoring," Jung told Tech.eu. Families that can pay gain a recurring academic advantage, he said. Medly's founders are trying to package much of that repetition, marking and individual feedback into software that is cheaper and available on demand. (tech.eu)
Medly's wedge is marking, including handwriting
Medly's product goes beyond a general chatbot answering homework questions. Its UK exam tutor is aligned with specific qualifications and exam boards, including GCSE, A-Level, IGCSE and IB. Students submit typed responses, write directly on a tablet or upload handwritten work. Medly marks the answer, identifies where marks were lost and recommends what to study next. (tech.eu)
The system uses seven large language models, according to Tech.eu, combined with methods drawn from neuroscience and teaching theory. Medly says each completed question updates its view of a student's strengths and gaps. The paid plan costs £24.99 per month for unlimited use and AI marking, while a free tier is also available. (tech.eu)
That exam-board specificity is the commercial wedge. General AI assistants can explain algebra or photosynthesis, but Medly is designed around the mark scheme that decides whether a particular answer receives three points or six. Handwriting recognition also lets it handle equations and working steps, where a text-only interface is a poor fit.
The US expansion brings Medly into a market where Khan Academy's Khanmigo already provides conversational SAT support. In Britain, Third Space Learning raised £4.4 million in April 2026 to expand Skye, its spoken AI mathematics tutor for schools in the UK and US.
The outcome claim still needs a stronger test
Medly says more than 400,000 UK students have used the product and that students spend about an hour a day on it. An earlier company disclosure reported 30,000 monthly active users, but the figures use different definitions and dates, so they do not establish how many users remain active or pay. (tech.eu)
Medly reported on its website that 74% of surveyed students improved their grades while using the platform. The figure is a company-reported survey result, rather than an independent assessment, so it does not by itself show how much Medly contributed to the improvement. (medlyai.com)
Medly is running a trial involving more than 1,000 students to assess attainment, according to Tech.eu. (tech.eu)
Accuracy also remains central to the product risk. Medly's terms of use warn that AI outputs can contain errors and may not perfectly match an examination board's requirements. For work assigned through its teacher dashboard, AI-generated marks are preliminary and teachers are responsible for reviewing them before publication. (medlyai.com)
The next exam is international expansion
Tech.eu reported on August 19 that Medly had recently launched SAT preparation in the US and planned to add AP and ACT support by the end of 2026. Jung and Samra also intend to build proprietary models for marking and pedagogy, rather than relying entirely on general-purpose language models. (tech.eu)
The $8 million round gives the founders room to localize Medly for additional curricula and gather stronger evidence on learning outcomes. It also raises the standard investors will apply to the next set of numbers. In February 2026, Medly said more than 300,000 students had used the platform and that 90,000 were active monthly. Durable retention, reliable marking and measurable grade improvement will determine whether two former doctors have built a tutor students can trust.