Kreedo Early Childhood Solutions raises $4 Million in Series A Funding
Bengaluru : Kreedo Early Childhood Solutions, a Bengaluru based company that provides end-to-end solutions to transform the way early learning is delivered in schools, has raised $4 Million in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Singapore-based Heritas Capital and existing investor UBS Optimus Foundation.
The round also saw participation from other existing investors Gray Matters Capital, 1Crowd, The Chennai Angels, The Joka Angel Network and others. The funding will be used to enhance Kreedo’s product offerings and expand into new geographies in India.
Kreedo was founded in 2012 by husband-wife duo Mridula Shridhar and VK Manikandan, both alumni of IIM-C, to change the quality of education delivered in affordable private schools and preschools in early years. More than 3,50,000 affordable private schools exist in India that charge less than Rs 30,000 (USD 356) per year and primarily serve low-income families. Learning outcomes in most of these schools need significant improvement as the majority of them rely on rote learning and lack resources to train their teachers effectively.
The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), published in January 2023, indicates that only 25% of all children in Grade III were at ‘grade level’ in math and about 20% in reading. These alarming findings highlight the urgent need for quality early education that can tackle this problem at its roots. One of the primary reasons for drop-outs and struggles in primary and higher education in the country is the lack of good quality foundational learning.
Kreedo is solving this massive problem at scale by integrating play as the primary form of learning in their partner schools in the foundation years. Over the last two years, Kreedo has seen significant growth, doubling its revenue, expanding its reach from 700 to 1700 schools / preschools and increased the number of children benefiting from its programs from 55,000 to more than 1,40,000. With visible improvements in learning outcomes that provide significant differentiation for its partner schools, Kreedo is seeing strong demand for its product and impressive adoption of its affordable business model among affordable private schools in India
Commenting on the fundraise, Mridula Shridhar, Co-Founder, Kreedo, said, “With the current round, we will take Kreedo to more geographies in India. With incoming demand from our school partners, we also plan to extend our product offerings moving upwards to Grades 3-5, and enhance Practico, our digital home learning platform. We will also be scaling our specialised pre-primary teacher training franchise program that will create a pool of job-ready qualified teachers for Kreedo partner schools as well as the early education market in general. All these initiatives align with our overarching goal of democratizing and changing the landscape of early education in India”.
Dhun Davar, Head of Social Finance, UBS Optimus Foundation and Head of Social Impact & Philanthropy, India and Middle East, UBS, said: “UBS Optimus Foundation aims to drive transformative, scalable impact for marginalized communities globally and locally. Our partner, Kreedo, has helped us achieve this in India by improving access to quality early learning and primary education, and with our support, aims to assist over a million Indian children in the coming years.”
Mr. Chik Wai Chiew, CEO and Executive Director, Heritas Capital, said, “We are pleased to make our first investment in India out of Heritas’ Asia Impact First Fund (AIFF) into Kreedo given its strong alignment with our objective of providing growth capital to social enterprises that addresses critical societal gaps. With the new funding, we look forward to supporting the founders alongside other like-minded impact investors in empowering affordable private schools and training teachers to implement activity-based learning and better classroom management for enhanced learning outcomes. We believe Kreedo’s track record and innovative growth plans will catalyze wider community efforts to enhance the future lives and livelihoods of generations of children across India.”
Regis and Savoy Pvt Ltd and Zanskar Advisors were the advisors for this round.