CuriousJr, an online coding platform for kids, has raised $1 million in its seed round led by WaterBridge Ventures, EnziaVentures, and angel investors. Aditya Shankar, Tanushree Nagori, Abhinav Sinha, Mohd Wassem and Shashank Shekhar have also participated.
According to the Gurugram-based startup, the funds will be used to further refine the product and create an engaging learning ecosystem for the students. Along with this, they will also focus on community development, expanding their team, and creating more engaging content for their users.
CuriousJr is a mobile-first, vernacular-based, online platform focused on students between the ages 8 and 17 years.
Coding for kids on Mobile. Available on Playstore, Download the App Now: https://t.co/e62dG8CE12 pic.twitter.com/2OOQTVORlK
— CuriousJr (@curiousjr_app) September 27, 2020
The platform helps students learn coding with the help of bite-sized content, test their knowledge in a practice arena, and publish their creations on the CuriousJr app store, which they can then share with friends, family and the larger community.
“We started CuriousJr to make coding education accessible to everyone, but we realised that 88 percent of the K-12 users in India do not have access to a PC/laptop. That’s why we focused on building India’s first mobile-based code learning platform for K-12 in vernacular languages. We believe that learning in one’s mother tongue empowers young students to think and harness their coding skills more effectively to become excellent coders for tomorrow,” said Mridul Ranjan Sahu.
Commenting on the investment, Nilesh Balakrishnan, AVP at WaterBridge Ventures, said,
“Coding is quickly evolving into the de facto measure of student success in India. As tech continues to revolutionise the Indian experience, parents have shifted their focus from maths/STEM subjects to computer science focused expertise. We believe CuriousJr’s mobile product innovation and gamified learning outcomes can democratise coding for millions of young coders across the country.”
