Edtech startup Camp K12 raises seed round from Matrix, SAIF Partners

Gurugram headquartered K 12 Innovations, which owns online technology learning platform Camp K12, has raised $4 million in a seed funding round from San Francisco-based venture capital firm Matrix Partners India and multi-stage investor SAIF Partners.

Founded in 2010, Camp K12 offers live coding courses to kids from grade 1 to 12. The courses include game development, artificial intelligence, machine learning and web development for students. The company claims to have trained over 50,000 K12 students and partnered with several schools in India.

The company will use the capital to hire new teachers and operators, Sandeep Bhagi, co-founder of Camp K12 said in a statement.

Camp K12 was founded by Anshul Bhagi, Harvard Business School and MIT alumni, and Sandeep Bhagi, former country manager in India for smartphone maker Apple. While studying at MIT, Anshul was involved in developing MIT AppInventor, a coding platform for children and also developed curricula for several schools and universities across the globe. After graduation, he worked with companies including McKinsey & Company, Google,  Apple, and Microsoft. 

“We are re-defining what we teach, and how we teach, taking inspiration from gig economy plays that efficiently match supply with demand and from large online, social, multiplayer gaming experiences that kids love to spend time on,” Anshul Bhagi said.

Matrix Partners has assets under management worth $1 billion in India with investments in 60 companies with a focus on consumer technology, business-to-business (B2B), enterprise and fintech. Shared mobility platform Ola, online classifieds Quikr, digital hotel chain Treebo, digital payments platform Razorpay, lending startup OfBusiness, and scooter sharing platform Vogo are some of the investments of the venture capital firm.

Founded in 2002, Mumbai-based SAIF Partners has assets under management worth $4 billion and has investments in fintech major Paytm, online food delivery startup Swiggy, logistics firm Rivigo, social ecommerce platform Meesho, and online vehicle insurance aggregator Acko.

Startups in the edtech sector seem to have gained investor interest lately. Last week, online classroom platform Lido Learning raised $3 million in a funding round from Madhur Deora, president of digital payments firm Paytm, and Picus Capital, a German venture capital fund launched by Rocket Internet co-founder Alexander Samwer.

Hyderabad-based International Education Gateway, which owns education courses aggregator Univariety, raised $1.1 million in an ongoing Series A round from Info Edge India. 

Facebook-backed Unacademy recently acquired engineering exams preparatory portal Kreatryx in a cash and stock deal.