Stones2Milestones, a Gurugram-based edtech startup that enables children learn to read in English, has raised $2.5 million in a funding round led by its existing investor Unreasonable Capital and its limited partner Goldhirsh Foundation.
The round also saw participation from a Singapore-based investment banker along with a few marquee lawyers and three angel platforms – AngelList US Syndicate, LetsVenture, and Faad Network.
Founded in 2008 by Kavish Gadia and Nikhil Saraf, Stones2Milestones enables children develop the will and skill to read in English through its adaptive mobile reading app Freadom and Wing of Words (WoW), a research-based pedagogically unique program with both instructional and inspirational aimed at children aged 3 to grade 3. The company is on a mission to create a nation of readers. It believes that Indian children going to English medium schools fall behind academically because they are expected to learn, read and speak in a language that is alien to them and that an estimated 89% of 260 million children read below grade level.
Stones2Milestones claims to have helped more than 100,000 children from over 200 schools across 20 cities. The startup has more than 1500 teachers on its platform.
Speaking about the company and the latest funding, Kavish Gadia, Co-founder and CEO, Stones2Milestones, said in a statement,
“English is a second language and this segment is growing fast, we are now scaling our solution fast to reach 10 million within the next 12-18 months. With a product that’s working for 200,000 plus users, a profitable business model and a mission-aligned passionate leadership team, this round of capital is well-timed for fueling growth.”
Stones2Milestones’ Freadom, which is designed to help parents get children to fall in love with reading, provides parents with hundreds of curated and levelised stories, activities, quizzes and daily positive news to enjoy with their child. Wing of Words program is integrated within the school time table and mapped to the National Curriculum Framework and delivered on a train the trainer model.
The company said its annual revenue is $1.5 million (about Rs 11 crore) and expects its annual recurring revenue to cross $7.5 million (around Rs 56 crore) by March 2021.
Investors who participated in Stones2Milestones’ past financing rounds include Menterra Venture, Caspian Impact, GodSpeed Ventures, and Astir Ventures. According to Crunchbase, the company had last raised an undisclosed amount in December 2018 in seed round led by Menterra Venture Advisors.
