Codingal, a Bengaluru-based edtech startup that provides coding education to K-12 students, has raised $560,000 in a seed funding round from Rebright Partners, GSF Accelerator, and Java Capital.
Founded by Vivek Prakash and Satyam Baranwal in 2020, Codingal is on a mission to inspire kids to fall in love with coding. The platform fosters community-building activities within school kids with engaging coding competitions and hackathons that help children learn and showcase their projects from the get-go.
Codingal’s vision is to empower every child with the knowledge of coding, so that they can build anything they imagine. Since founding, the platform has inspired over 40,000 kids globally to fall in love with coding.
Explaining the importance of teaching coding to kids, Vivek Prakash, Co-founder and CEO, Condingal, said,
“Teaching coding to kids becomes a necessity as the technology around us keeps evolving at a rapid pace. Coding just becomes any other language that a child needs to be fluent in, to keep up with changing landscapes and better understand the world of technology all around us.”
The startup plans to use the seed fund to build a one million strong coding community of school kids by introducing STEM-related courses, competitions, and hackathons in the K-12 segment, according to a statement.
Commenting on the funding, Brij Bhasin, General Partner at Rebright Partners, said,
“Coding education should evolve into a collaborative environment where community-based peer-to-peer learning provides a more holistic space to students. We are excited to back Codingal to build on this vision.”
Codingal has recently partnered with IIT Roorkee’s E-Summit ’21 App Innovation Challenge for School Kids to run a nation-wide hackathon to shift kids from being a consumer to the creator of technology and develop the acumen with which they can create products for the larger good.
Rajesh Sawhney, Founder and CEO of GSF Accelerator, who is also the advisor of Codingal, said,
“I was fortunate to find Vivek when he was still in college at IIT Roorkee when GSF Accelerator incubated HackerEarth (one of the largest community of developers in the world). Over the years, Vivek has flowered as a leader and innovator. With Codingal, he is renewing his mission to bring the joy of coding and building products for young children. This mission is the common bond between Vivek and GSF Accelerator.”
Karteek Pulapaka, Co-founder and Partner at Java Capital, also commented,
“Students thrive when learning is experiential and when it engages peer-community. Vivek and Satyam have deep expertise in building cutting-edge computer science curriculum and proven ability in building massive community-driven platforms. Codingal’s community engagement through gamification, quizzes, and hackathons will be crucial not only in imparting up-to-date coding skills but also in making learning fun and exciting again.”
According to Crunchbase, Bengaluru-headquartered Codingal had raised an undisclosed amount in pre-seed funding from Pras Hanuma in July 2020.
