Edutainment startup ConveGenius raises $300K in pre-Series A funding

ConveGenius, a Noida- and Singapore-based edutainment venture, has raised $300,000 (Rs 2 crore) in pre-Series A funding from unnamed investors based in India and Southeast Asia. The transaction has been facilitated through Enablers, a web-based platform that connects investors and startups for funding purposes, ConveGenius said in a press statement.

Convegenius Edusolutions Pvt Ltd will used the money to enhance its products and expand technology/content aggregation teams.

Founded in 2013 by Jairaj Bhattacharya and Shashank Pandey, the company brings in elements of entertainment and associated rewards on its apps and mobile games. It claims that over 6,000 students use its tablet based-edutainment solution CG-Slate for an average of 15 minutes per day. ConveGenius aims to have three million kids on its platform by FY17, Shashank Pandey, co-founder of the company had told Techcircle.in in an earlier interaction.

The CG-Slate interface provides independence from the use of internet connection while enabling easy distribution of content using SD cards, customised regional language integration, simple analytic report collection and teacher-student communication. It gives the option of smart scribbles to maintain hand-written notes.

The startup recently launched an app called Battle of Minds that aims to achieve assessment-based skill improvements in students.

The edu-tech space has been generating considerable interest among investors. Recently, MockBank, a startup that provides online mock tests for government jobs, raised about $400,000 (Rs 2.6 crore) in seed funding from Blume Ventures and others.

Dave Richards, managing partner of Unitus Seed Fund, recently told Techcircle.in that gaming and edu-tech domains could produce the next unicorn from India.

"You can get a smartphone in India for Rs 2,500 and it's getting cheaper every week. This is a platform that even kids in rural areas are comfortable with. Even those who do not own smartphones today will own one in the future as prices will fall further. All this augurs well for two major industries—gaming and edu-tech," he said.

Last week, US-based Udacity raised $105 million (around Rs 695.1 crore) in Series D funding that valued the massive open online courses (MOOC) startup at $1 billion.