Edtech startup Creative Galileo raises $2.5 million in seed funding from Kalaari Capital and others

Creative Galileo becomes First Portfolio Company under Kalaari’s CXXO initiative 

October 12, 2021: EdTech start-up Creative Galileo today announced it has raised $2.5 million. The round was led by Kalaari Capital with an investment of $2.1 Mn and remaining from well-known angels, such as Harish Bahl, Shashin Shah, Jinesh Patel, Atul Nishar, Ashwin Puri and Giridhar Malpani.

The capital will be used for scaling, product development and enhancement, creating new engaging content, forging partnerships with leading animation houses, and hiring talent.

Creative Galileo is one of the fastest growing early learning apps in India with record breaking 4 million+ downloads in the first 12 months of its launch. With a monthly active user base of over half a million, the App has become popular among kids and parents for its innovative approach. The App weaves together the best of education and entertainment to create personalized, integrated learning experiences for young minds. It accelerates a child’s development through narrative videos, gamification and personalized learning journeys.

Apart from the Indian subcontinent, the App is also gaining traction in international markets, with 10% downloads recorded from Nepal, Bangladesh, UAE, USA and other countries.

Announcing the funding, Prerna A Jhunjhunwala, Founder, Creative Galileo, said, " We are excited to partner with Kalaari Capital, the CXXO initiative, and angel investors on our growth journey ahead. Our vision is to provide millions of children with access to high-quality content for learning in the early years for a solid foundation while keeping the process fun. The funding will help us add more famous Indian and International characters and languages, hire talent, scale-up and forge new alliances. This will further fuel our efforts in creating more personalized, inclusive and relatable content helpful in a child's development in the early years."

According to a recently published report by UNESCO, over 800 million learners from around the world do not have access to quality education. Creative Galileo’s ‘Kids Early Learning App’ was launched to make learning accessible especially for the early learning segment which represents an under-penetrated and under-invested sector.

"At Kalaari we believe that technology in learning can bring unmatched access and affordability and improve literacy for a much larger target segment. Technology as a means of transformation led by passionate founders designed for the next generation of young digitally native learners is what Creative Galileo stands for,” said Vani Kola, Managing Director, Kalaari Capital. “When we met Prerna and Nikhil, we truly saw them as shapers of a digital tomorrow building the EdTech solutions for global learners of the future. We are also proud that Creative Galileo is our first investee from our flagship CXXO Program that we launched earlier this year. "

CXXO is a Kalaari Capital initiative that seeks to level the playing field for female founders in India’s start-up ecosystem. The initiative focusses on access to capital and brings together a community of women achievers across different sectors to provide mentorship to future leaders.

Creative Galileo is co-founded by Prerna A Jhunjhunwala, and Nikhil Naik, ex Vuclip. The edtech company currently has tie-ups with Big Animation, Amar Chitra Katha, Periwinkle, Shermaroo, Toonz Animation and many industry leaders providing quality content, gamification and interactive learning journeys for children.

About Creative Galileo 

Creative Galileo is a new-age Ed-Tech startup transforming early learning globally for children from three to ten years. Our 'Kids Early Learn App' is the first-of-its-kind Indian character-based app that aims to leverage technology to emphasize personalized needs, inquiry-based learning methods, and experiential activities, resulting in a fun, interactive curriculum. It focuses on six learning domains – numeracy, language, arts and aesthetics, social and emotional learning, motor skills, and discovery of the world through narrative videos, gamification, and personalized learning journeys. Since its inception in July 2020, the e-learning app has recorded over 4 million downloads and over 5,00,000 Monthly active users.  

About CXXO:  

Launched in 2021, CXXO is a Kalaari Capital backed initiative, to level the playing field for Indian female founder-CEOs.   Developed on the three primary pillars of Capital, Community and Coaching, the CXXO community will help female founder-CEOs take India’s startup ecosystem to the next level, as they shape India’s digital charter, creating exponential value in the economy.   Kalaari Capital has allocated US $10 million annually to fund 8-10 women entrepreneurs in the first cohort of CXXO.  

About Kalaari Capital

Kalaari Capital is an early-stage, technology-focused venture capital firm based out of Bengaluru, India. Since 2006, Kalaari has empowered visionary entrepreneurs building unique solutions that reshape the way Indians live, work, consume and transact. The firm's ethos is to partner early with founders and work with them to navigate the inevitable challenges of fostering ideas into successful businesses. At its core, Kalaari believes in building long-term relationships based on trust, transparency, authenticity, and respect.