Mumbai-based ed-tech firm WhiteHat Jr has raised Rs 9 crore ($1.3 million) in a seed funding round from venture capital firm Nexus Venture Partners and early-stage investment firm Omidyar Network India Advisors, the startup said in a statement.
The startup will use the money to develop its technology and to build its team, the statement added.
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.
Run by WhiteHat Education Technology Pvt. Ltd, the venture was founded this year by Karan Bajaj, the former chief executive officer of Discovery Networks. Since its beta launch in January 2019, the company has conducted more than 50,000 trials and currently conducts 500 online classes per day. WhiteHat Jr has over 100 teachers on its platform.
“We are scaling up our operations and technology to cater to the massive influx and keep up with the consumer interest while also ensuring great teaching experience with our teachers, selected by a rigorous selection process,” said Bajaj.
WhiteHat Jr currently offers three level of courses – beginner, intermediate and advanced. It claims that its tutored kids use the coding fundamentals to create complex games, animations and apps in the live online classroom.
“WhiteHat Jr is off to an impressive start and has demonstrated great skill in creating a robust tech and operations model,” said Anup Gupta, managing director at Nexus Venture Partners.
Deals in the space
India’s ed-tech sector has seen increased dealmaking activity over the past year, the most notable among them being Byju’s.
In March this year, it raised $31.3 million in a fresh round of funding led by existing investors General Atlantic and Tencent Holdings Ltd.
In the same month this year, Mumbai-based investment firm Mentor Capital invested in eShiksa, a startup which helps educational institutions manage their digital operations, as part of an extended seed round.
Around the same time, quiz-based learning ed-tech startup iChamp secured pre-Series A funding in a round led by Raju Shukla, chief executive officer at Singapore-based Ariana Investment Management.
In February this year, Hyderabad- and US-based Bulbul Inc., which develops learning apps for pre-school kids, raised Rs 3.5 crore ($500,000) in a fresh round of funding.
In the same month, venture debt firm Trifecta Capital struck its first deal in the ed-tech sector by investing in math learning startup Cuemath.