Flinto Learning Solutions, an education technology platform that focuses on early childhood education, announced it has raised $7.2 million (about Rs 54 crore) in a Pre-series B funding round led by Lightbox Ventures.
The Chennai-based startup plans to use the fresh capital to support its rapid growth in the early learning space and to expand its newly-launched pre-school solution during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to its press release.
Founded in September 2013 by Arunprasad Durairaj, Vijay Babu Gandhi and Shreenidhi Srirangam, Flinto aims to transform the way children across the world learn and play by offering activity-based learning kits for children.
Flinto’s flagship product is Flintobox, a subscription service of toys and materials that help children learn. The startup also offers another known as Flintoclass, which is aimed at preschools. Flintobox has been used by over one million families and Flintoclass in more than 700 pre-schools across 8 countries.
Commenting on the development, Arunprasad Durairaj, Co-founder and CEO of Flinto, said in a statement,
“We don’t want COVID-19 to come in the way of a child’s learning. For children below 6 years of age, monotonous online classes can’t be a substitute for the multi-sensory experiences that they deserve. We wanted to ensure that children continue receiving structured hands-on learning without compromising on their safety. We will be using the funds to create, expand and distribute this product across the world so that no child’s learning stops due to COVID-19.”
Flinto has recently launched a new service known as Flintoclass@Home aimed at parents of pre-school going children. It is an education kit for 1.5 to 5.5-year-old kids with pre-recorded interactive sessions and hands-on activities. As part of this service, every month parents receive at their doorstep an easy-to-use pre-school kit with daily hands-on activities for their children.
The startup claims this pre-school model is set to become a game-changer amid the COVID-19 crisis as it delivers hybrid pre-school education to the doorstep, allowing children to learn from the safety of their homes.
Prashant Mehta, partner at Lightbox Ventures, also commented on the funding saying,
“At Flinto, we see an opportunity to build a global leader in addressing the unique needs of early learning by co-creating products with children, parents and educators. We are excited to see that Flinto is becoming more relevant especially during the COVID-19 crisis when the primary place of learning and development us turning out to be home.”
While the company did not disclose valuation details of the current round, it is said that the Chennai-based firm has raised about Rs 115 crore till date from investors such as Lightbox, Globevestor, InnoVen Capital and venture capitalist Ashwin Chadha among others.