Physical education startup Shape India raises pre-Series A funding

Pune-based Shape (School Health and Physical Education) India has raised $200,000 (Rs 1.28 crore) in pre-Series A round from a group of investors led by Sandeep Mathur, former managing director of business software and hardware firm Oracle India Pvt. Ltd, a media report said.

With this investment, Mathur would join the board of Shape with intent to digitally transform the company and help it reach more children, The Economic Times reported.

E-mail queries sent to Shape went unanswered till the time of publishing this report.

Shape plans to use this investment to expand its reach and take the e-learning modules to a larger audience in cities other than Pune in India, the report said, adding it also intends to use the funds for technological innovation.

Shape was founded in 2015 by Raju Deb and Kurush Sidhwa, with the key objective of developing children in their foundation years and making them physically fit and in-shape.

The company’s aim is to provide an age-customised curriculum for children from kindergarten to class five in schools. The company claims to be currently working with 60 schools, and says has touched the lives of over 100,000 students.

“The real value out of this relationship will come across from the strong technological expertise that Sandeep Mathur has, as we start digitally transforming Shape. By creating e-learning modules we hope to expand Shape nationally, and eventually take our steps globally,” said Raju Deb in the report.

Last week, Chennai-based EZ Vidya Pvt. Ltd, an education services provider that operates under the Chrysalis brand, raised an undisclosed amount of pre-series A funding from impact investor Gray Matters Capital.