Owl Ventures, which invested in Indian ed-tech unicorn Byju's earlier this year, has made its second bet on the segment with an investment in WhiteHat Jr.
Mumbai-based WhiteHat Jr has raised $10 million (Rs 71.5 crore) in its Series A round of funding led by existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network.
The company will use the funds to upgrade its technology platform, and expand its course curriculum and marketing, WhiteHat said in a statement. Owl Ventures also participated in the funding round, it added.
The Series A funding comes just within months after the company raised Rs 9 crore ($1.3 million) in a seed funding round from Nexus and Omidyar.
WhiteHat, which is operated by WhiteHat Education Technology Pvt. Ltd, was founded in November 2018 by Karan Bajaj, the former chief executive officer of Discovery Networks. The startup teaches coding to students between the ages of 6 and 14 via a live online one-to-one platform. Children are taught the principles of coding—sequence, structure, logic, commands and algorithmic thinking.
The firm’s online platform has seen over 150,000 student trials, over 500 teachers onboarded and 100% month-on-month student and revenue growth.
Namita Dalmia, principal investments at Omidyar Network India, said the firm invested in WhiteHat Jr with an aim to improving cognitive skills. “We are heartened to see the impact of its curriculum on kids through improvements in creativity, concentration and logical thinking including teachers,” she said.
Amit A. Patel, managing director, Owl Ventures, said that WhiteHat has created a platform that is scalable and very relevant, not only in India but across other markets.
Earlier in July, it participated in Byju’s $150 million fundraising.
The ed-tech segment has attracted significant investor interest of late.
Earlier this month, 3RDFlix Visual Effects Pvt. Ltd has raised pre-Series A funding from three early-stage investment firms including Exfinity Venture Partners.
Last month, Vedantu Innovations Pvt. Ltd raised $42 million (Rs 300 crore) in a Series C funding round led by US-based investment firm Tiger Global and private equity firm WestBridge Capital.
In March, the valuation of ed-tech firm Byju’s crossed $5 billion after it raised $31.3 million in a funding round led by existing investors General Atlantic and Tencent Holdings Ltd.
