Tinkerly raises Rs 6.5 cr from Navneet Education, others

Jaipur-based edtech startup Tinkerly on Thursday said it has raised Rs 6.5 crore from Navneet Tech Ventures — a subsidiary of Navneet Education Ltd. The round also witnessed participation from existing investors, SucSEED Angel Network, Keiretsu Forum, Divyashish Jindal (Doubtnut Head of Academics), Chand Das (former CEO of ITC Education), Saurabh Aggarwal (Fitso co-founder), Marwari Catalysts and others, a statement said.

The company has raised a total of Rs 10 crore, it added. Founded by Sharad Bansal, OP Godara, Kapil Arya and Vivek Pathak, Tinkerly’s blend of toys and vernacular content enables students to design robots, make smart AI gadgets, and write lines of code alongside the live guidance from teachers.

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The funds will be used in product development, increasing consumer awareness, and expanding in new geographies with vernacular content as the company aims to create a strong global (with localised enhancements) brand, it said. The edtech space has seen strong growth globally, including in India, with the COVID-19 pandemic serving as an inflection point. Many offline classes went online to ensure continuity of education while adhering to social distancing norms.

A number of players have raised fresh funding from investors, along with consolidation.

“The fresh capital will multiply our efforts to rapidly grow the online user base and invest in technology. Tinkerly’s unique (Kit + Live Class) courses combined with Navneet, India’s most loved education brand that carries a 6-decade old legacy, will set new benchmarks of learning outcomes and spark the joy of making among students across the globe,” Tinkerly co-founder and CEO Sharad Bansal said.

Tinkerly said its monthly revenues have grown 8x in the past three months since the launch of the new version of its learning platform, Let’s Tinker, in April of this year. The platform has over 50,000 online learners, who have consumed over 3 lakh hours of learning. The company’s existing reach in more than 6,000 schools and over 100 learning centres allows it to acquire 60 per cent of its users from organic channels at near-zero customer acquisition cost, it added.

“Tinkerly’s child-oriented approach towards coding harnesses this enthusiasm and successfully channels it towards a productive learning experience. Programs like these assist in the development of reasoning and analytical skills. Tinkerly’s approach is in the right direction and ensures that our children are future-ready, and as a Company, they are taking a leap in the right direction as well,” Ketan Gala, Director at Navneet Tech Ventures, said. Skwerup Capital Partners advised the company in this transaction.