EdTech platform Kyt raises USD $5m in a Series A round led by Alpha Wave Incubation

2024-04-22 06:33:44 Business

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Bangalore, 6th January 2021: Educational technology platform Kyt has raised USD $5 million in a Series A funding round. The investment is led by Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI), a venture fund managed by Falcon Edge Capital and saw participation from Sequoia Capital India?s Surge, January Capital, Titan Capital and other angel investors. Kyt is the first Indian company to receive investment from Singapore based January Capital.

As part of this investment from AWI, Kyt will expand its operations to Abu Dhabi and use the Emirate as its regional headquarters for targeting the GCC, MENA and other global markets. Kyt will also build a world-class team of data scientists, product managers and engineers located in Abu Dhabi.

Founded in June 2020, Kyt runs online-only extracurricular courses by combining live classes with video-based revision materials for children from ages 5 to 15 years, in a full-stack model. With flexible private and small group sessions, Kyt offers courses across disciplines such as yoga, dance, music, chess, etc., to students around the world.

The funds raised will be used for deeper investment in technology and product, to enhance the overall experience of the students and to accelerate global expansion. Kyt already has students from India, UAE and Singapore and is looking to scale its footprint to the US, Canada, UK and Australia.

?With Kyt, we are going beyond the conventional academic learning by building an academy that nurtures holistic and all-round development of children. It is essential to foster children?s interests and encourage learning that equips them with creative and real-world skills; thereby molding their individual strengths and making them more confident. This new investment will greatly boost our efforts in providing a well-structured curriculum, designed by pedagogy experts and education consultants to help each child realise their potential,? said Bhavik Rathod, Co-founder & CEO, Kyt.

To inculcate holistic learning among children, the platform allows access to high-quality extracurricular courses with a structured curriculum, designed for online learning. The USP of the platform is that it provides a proper mix of training, assessment, feedback, and encouragement. With animated videos and gamification of lessons, the platform encourages kids to practice more and learn better.

?Extracurricular learning is a critical aspect of a well-rounded education. Kyt has made it possible for students from every corner of the world to access quality learning from best-in-class teachers and practitioners in each field. We are excited to back Bhavik and Tripti in their mission to build a world-class

online-first, global academy for extracurricular learning,? said Utsav Mitra, Investor at Falcon Edge Capital

A few thousand students have already taken a course or attended workshops with Kyt to date and this number is doubling each month. The platform has more than 20 teachers onboard, with plans to increase this to 500 over the next 12 months. Prior to the launch of Kyt, there was no single global platform allowing children quality extracurricular learning in an online-only format. The platform has secured exclusive partnerships with top educators and artists to increase children?s love of learning, including Indian Chess Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi, Mumbai based vocalists Kamakshi & Vishala, Philippines? hip-hop legend Ruel Varindani, and celebrity yoga instructor Sabrina Merchant. Kyt plans to add more courses, including speech and debate, spelling bees, guitar and keyboard among others.

With head offices in India and Singapore, Kyt was founded by husband-wife duo Bhavik Rathod and Tripti Ahuja. Rathod was a founding leader for Uber India and the Head of UberEats in India and South Asia. Tripti has spent 10 years designing customer experiences for major companies around the world, and an additional five years being part of founding teams at early-stage startups in India.

Kyt is also backed by prominent angel investors including Allen Penn, Kunal Bahl, Rohit Bansal, Amrish Rau, Kunal Shah, Jitendra Gupta, Martin Li, Apremeya Radhakrishna, Anand Chandrasekaran and Akhil Paul.

About Kyt

Kyt is an online-first global academy focusing on extracurricular learning for children. The Kyt team believes that supporting a child?s inclination to learn new things aren?t ?additional? or extra ? they are essential to all-round development. Nurturing interests outside the world of academia equips children with essential life skills. In addition, access to reputable institutions and respected teachers paves the way for a life-long love for learning.

About Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI)

Alpha Wave Incubation (AWI) is a $300m venture fund managed by Falcon Edge Capital. AWI has a dedicated team across London, Bangalore and Abu Dhabi.

The fund invests in early-stage tech-enabled, disruptive start-ups in India and South-East Asia. In addition to providing outstanding founders with early-stage capital, AWI offers access to an unrivaled set of support mechanisms for business-building, while also helping companies expand globally and open up new markets in the GCC/MENA region and beyond.

About Falcon Edge Capital

Falcon Edge Capital is a diversified global alternative asset manager co-founded in 2012 by Rick Gerson, Navroz D. Udwadia and Ryan Khoury. Falcon Edge manages approx. $4bn in assets across public and private markets. Falcon Edge has offices in New York, London and Bangalore. The firm offers a variety of investment products and strategies that cover a number of asset classes, themes and geographies.