Press Release

Early Learning Edtech startup Creative Galileo raises $7.5 million in Series A funding

India’s leading early learning ed-tech platform Creative Galileo today announced it has raised $7.5 million in a Series A funding round from Kalaari Capital, Affirma Capital, East Ventures, Valiant Employee Investment Fund, and angel investors. This brings Creative Galileo’s total funding to $10 million, including a pre-series A round of $ 2.5 million announced in October last year.

With over 7 million downloads, the company will use the newly infused funds to scale up, accelerate hiring across the teams in multiple geographies, introduce regional languages and further strengthen the research and development of the platform.

Creative Galileo was founded in July 2020 by Prerna A Jhunjhunwala and co-founded by Nikhil Naik, ex Vuclip. As the country’s first-of-its-kind character-based early learning platform for kids aged 3-10, Creative Galileo is the only early learning app to be ranked in the top 20 education apps in Play Store, India. The company has forged over 20 partnerships with the country’s top content studios in just over a year. With extensive plans to expand in Southeast Asia, Creative Galileo recently started its foray with international alliances such as EBS Korea, a leading educational content specialist broadcasting company.

Commenting on the funding, Prerna A Jhunjhunwala, Founder, Creative Galileo, said, “We are excited to bring our new partners on board. In the last year, we have successfully built and provided millions of children access to high-quality content in our Digital and Educational Equality mission. We want to enable bespoke learning for children across the globe through their favourite characters to strengthen their foundation during their early years, which will also help develop and strengthen critical thinking, confidence, cognitive skills, and emotional intelligence.”

“Our soon-to-be ‘multilingual’ platform will become the largest universe of kids’ characters-driven learning platform with a curriculum designed by experts to meet the foundational learning requirements”, Prerna added.

Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital, says, “We are excited to strengthen our partnership with Prerna and Nikhil as they continue their journey of transforming learning experiences for children across the globe. In the last six months, they have achieved strong growth with low marketing spends. Creative Galileo has also consistently ranked among the top #20 educational apps on India’s play store – the only early learning app to achieve this distinction. This is a testament to the founders’ relentless focus and strong execution.”

“We are glad to welcome Creative Galileo into East Ventures’ network and support them in strengthening the education ecosystem in the region. We believe the approach of Creative Galileo will provide fun and exciting learning experiences, and we are looking forward to experiencing more innovation from the team,” said Koh Wai Kit, Managing Partner of East Ventures.

Creative Galileo offers a well-rounded curriculum for children through engaging and compelling narratives, gamified content, interactive learning journeys, and detailed parent updates. HolonIQ recently listed Creative Galileo on their annual list of the 100 most promising EdTech start-ups from India & South Asia.

 

ABOUT CREATIVE GALILEO

Creative Galileo is India’s largest, character-based early learning platform for kids in the ages 3-10, with over 7 million downloads and 7,00,000 monthly active users in just over a year. To emphasize personalized needs, inquiry-based learning methods, and experiential activities, resulting in a fun, interactive curriculum for children globally, the edtech platform has forged over 20 industry-leading partnerships with content studios in various international markets. Aligning itself to the UN’s SDG goal of “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all,” the company is on a mission to bridge the digital and learning divide.

Creative Galileo recently made it to HolonIQ’s annual list of the 100 most promising EdTech start-ups from India & South Asia. Creative Galileo is the only kids learning platform to breach the coveted top 20 apps in the education category across all age groups on the Play Store, India. Its strong, organic growth and user loyalty have led to consistently high ratings. Partnering in Creative Galileo’s high-growth journey are some leading investors like Kalaari Capital, East Ventures, Affirma Capital, and Valiant Employee Investment Fund.

About CXXO:

Launched in 2021, CXXO is a Kalaari Capital backed initiative, to level the playing field for Indian female founder- CEOs. Developed on the three primary pillars of Capital, Community and Coaching, the CXXO community will help female founder-CEOs take India’s startup ecosystem to the next level, as they shape India’s digital charter, creating exponential value in the economy. Kalaari Capital has allocated US $10 million annually to fund 8-10 women entrepreneurs in the first cohort of CXXO.

About Kalaari Capital:

Kalaari Capital is an early-stage, technology-focused venture capital firm based out of Bengaluru, India. Since 2006, Kalaari has empowered visionary entrepreneurs building unique solutions that reshape the way Indians live, work, consume and transact. The firm’s ethos is to partner early with founders and work with them to navigate the inevitable challenges of fostering ideas into successful businesses. At its core, Kalaari believes in building long-term relationships based on trust, transparency, authenticity, and respect.

About East Ventures:

East Ventures is a pioneering and leading sector-agnostic venture capital firm headquartered in Singapore. Founded in 2009, East Ventures has transformed into a holistic platform that provides multi-stage investment, including Seed and Growth for over 200 companies in Southeast Asia. An early believer in the startup ecosystem in Indonesia, East Ventures is the first investor of Indonesia’s unicorn companies, namely Tokopedia and Traveloka. Other notable companies in the portfolio include Ruangguru, SIRCLO, Kudo (acquired by Grab), Loket (acquired by Gojek), Tech in Asia, Xendit, IDN Media, MokaPOS (acquired by Gojek), ShopBack, KoinWorks, Waresix, and Sociolla. East Ventures was named the most consistent top performing VC fund globally by Preqin, and the most active investor in SEA and Indonesia by various media. Moreover, East Ventures is the first venture capital in Indonesia to sign the Principles of Responsible Investment (PRI), supported by the United Nations (UN). East Ventures is committed to achieving sustainable development and bringing positive impacts to society through its initiatives and ESG-embedded practices.

 

Leave a Response