AR-focused edtech start-up Smartivity raises $2mn
Delhi-based Smartivity Labs, an augmented reality (AR)-focused educational technology start-up, has raised $2mn from Ashish Kacholia, a well-known stock market investor who holds shares worth $117mn in several companies. The investment comes at a time when the $100bn Indian education sector is seeing an increasing influence of online education. Here's more on the start-up.
What Smartivity Labs has to offer
Founded in 2015 by IIT-Delhi alumni Apoorv Gupta, Ashwini Kumar, Rajat Jain, and Pixel Juice proprietor Tushar Amin, Smartivity Labs makes educational do-it-yourself toy kits for children aged 3-14, based on the world-class STEM learning system. It also provides AR-enabled activities, robotics-based learning, and app-based engagement, thereby covering the entire spectrum of children's learning.
What is the STEM learning system?
STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math, and STEM education integrates concepts which are normally taught as separate topics in disparate courses. Additionally, it also lays emphasis on the application of knowledge in real-life situations.
Smartivity Labs has already raised over $3mn
Prior to the $2mn Smartivity Labs just raised, the start-up had secured $1mn in 2016 in a pre-Series-A funding round led by Delhi-based publishing company, S Chand Group. Other investors in the start-up include early-stage investment firm AdvantEdge Partners, Singapore-based fund CFG Offshore Holdings, Silicon Valley-based fund Tandem Capital, and a bunch of angel investors.
Smartivity Labs will soon expand to international markets
"We closed 2017-18 at $1.4 Mn (Rs. 10.2cr) at around 2.5x to 3x year-on-year growth. This year, we are projecting around $3.5 Mn (Rs. 24cr). We are also on the verge of finalising newer markets like Japan, China, Russia and Western Europe," said co-founder Tushar Amin, while talking about its future plans. However, several other edtech start-ups are poised to give Smartivity Labs competition.
India's online education market to see a boom
Among other edtech start-ups offering similar products are Chennai-based Flintobox, Bengaluru-based Magiccrate, and Delhi-based Avishkaar Box, all of which are trying to make their mark. Avishkaar Box also recently raised $767,000 in funding. Meanwhile, online education in India is slated to grow at 800% for the next five years, and by 2021, is expected to reach a value of $1.96bn from the current $247mn.
