Kreedo Early Childhood Solutions raises $4 million in Series A funding

Kreedo Early Childhood Solutions, a Bengaluru-based startup that provides end-to-end solutions to transform the way early learning is delivered in schools, has raised $4 Million in Series A funding round.

The round was led by Singapore-based Heritas Capital and existing investor, UBS Optimus Foundation, and also saw participation from other existing investors Gray Matters Capital, 1Crowd, The Chennai Angels, The Joka Angel Network and others. 

What does Kreedo do?

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.

The startup partners with affordable private schools and preschools and transforms the way learning is delivered in early years.

Kreedo said that its unique 6T learning framework is an innovative model centred on the Kreedo Activity Labs which offers a structured environment for play-based learning.

6T includes Toys, Technology, Theory (books), Teacher Training, Timetable, and Teamwork (peer learning) that ensures partner schools drive high learning outcomes for children in the foundational years.

Currently, It caters to children in the age group of 3 to 8 years (Nursery to Grade 2), in line with play-based guidelines prescribed in the NEP 2020 for the Foundational Stage of learning.

By establishing activity labs and providing consistent support and training to teachers, Kreedo offers a comprehensive solution that empowers and supports schools to significantly improve learning outcomes.

Kreedo's market presence

Kreedo also claims that over the past two years, it has doubled its revenue while expanding its reach from 700 to 1,700 schools and preschools.

The number of children benefiting from its programs has also grown from 55,000 to over 140,000, the startup said.

Purpose of fundraising

Kreedo plans to use the raised captial to enhance its product offerings and expand into new geographies in India.

“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," said Mridula Shridhar, Co-Founder, Kreedo.

"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," Shridhar added.

Investors comment

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."

Regis and Savoy Pvt Ltd and Zanskar Advisors were the advisors for this round.