Edtech platform 'Creative Galileo' raises $7.5 mn at $40 mn valuation

Edtech platform for kids Creative Galileo has raised USD 7.5 million, about Rs 60 crore, in a funding round from a clutch of investors including Kalaari Capital, the company said on Thursday.

Affirma Capital, East Ventures, Valiant Employee Investment Fund, and angel investors also participated in the Series A funding round.

This brings Creative Galileo's total funding to USD 10 million, including a pre-series A round of USD 2.5 million in July last year.

Creating Galileo founder Prerna A Jhunjhunwala said that the company has raised fresh funds at valuation of USD 40 million -- which is over three-fold higher compared to its around USD 12.5 million valuation in July last year.

Founded in July 2020, the company claims to have over 7 million downloads and it 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.

"Subscriber acquisition cost for more edtech companies is at a very high rate but for us it continues to be Rs 1.5 because of which our growth has been very organic. We have enough capital in the bank now to focus on regionalisation of our product and launch in regional languages and also to launch in the international market," Jhunjhunwala said.

She said that the edtech firm will launch new products to make the learning journey for children more personalised.

Creative Galileo is a character-based early learning platform for kids aged 3-10 years.

The company plans to double its team from 30 to over 60 in a year.

"We are planning to launch in South East Asia. Our next go to market is Indonesia and Vietnam. We are mostly present in India but we have 10 per cent of our viewership coming from foreign markets as well like US, middle east and Singapore. We have started building up a partnership in Korea with EBS Korea," Jhunjhunwala said.

The company uses famous local superhero cartoon characters and has signed EBS Korea to get access to their content.

"We are also signing up some more Korean and Japanese characters because they have widespread usage in South East Asia," Jhunjhunwala said.

In India, the company plans to start providing content in Marathi, Tamil and Telugu within six months apart from Hindi.

"In the last six months, Creative Galileo has 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," Kalaari Capital managing director Vani Kola said.