Kreedo Early Childhood Solutions, an education technology startup that offers end-to-end solutions to transform the way early learning is delivered, has raised $2.3 million in pre-Series A funding.
The round was led by Switzerland-based UBS Optimus Foundation, Spectrum Impact, Gray Matters Capital and 1Crowd, with participation from Innospark Ventures, IIM-CAN and The Chennai Angels.
With the latest round of funding, the Bengaluru-based company plans to expand business and form partnerships with schools across India.
Founded in 2012 by husband-wife duo Mridula Shridhar and VK Manikandan, both alumni of IIM-Chennai, Kreedo facilitates K-12 schools in improving their student enrollments and developing curriculum. It also helps in setting up new pre-schools and transforming day-cares into preschools. In essence, the platform changes the curriculum by employing a 6T learning framework that includes play-based learning at its core and includes toys, technology, theory, teacher training, timetable, and teamwork.
Speaking about the capital raised, Co-founder & CEO of Kreedo, Mridula Shridhar, said:
“Our vision is to democratize quality early education. We have an overwhelming response from our partner schools who are looking for the most affordable and simplest way to improve foundational learning. The new round of funding will enable us to take Kreedo to 7000+ schools across multiple cities in India.”
The startup claims to have partnered with private schools and preschools and transforms the way learning is delivered in their early years. It has also partnered with over 400 schools and more than 1500 preschools to date.
Head of social finance, UBS Optimus Foundation, Dhun Davar, added:
“We see Kreedo’s business model as a unique way to create social change by making quality early education accessible to every child from lower income communities.”
Commenting on the latest development, Sustainability Investor of Spectrum Impact, Mirik Gogri, said:
“We are excited to be a part of their growth story and support their vision of impacting more than one million children annually in India, especially from lower-income families, by 2025.”
India has an estimated 3,50,000+ budget private schools, which charge less than INR 30,000/- per year and mostly cater to students from low-income families. Learning outcomes are quite low in most of these schools with the majority of them still following rote methods and having limited resources to support or train their teachers.
