Cristobal Viedma, CEO & Founder | Image credit: Lingokids
Lingokids, an edtech startup that focuses on the idea of learning through playing, has raised $40M (nearly €33.3M) in Series C funding. An undisclosed investor along with London-based VC GP Bullhound and existing investors HV Capital and game and toy company Ravensburger took part in the funding round.
With the raised capital, the edtech startup plans to increase its presence in other countries and further develop new and engaging forms of content for kids. Besides that, Lingokids will also spend the capital in global hiring for the engineering and development teams. To date, Lingokids has raised $65M (approx €54.1M) reaching EBITDA positive in 2020.
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The Beginnings
Launched in 2016, Madrid-based Lingokids is a “playlearning” app for children aged between 2 and 8 years, that claims to help them develop vocabulary, literacy, STEM skills, social and emotional skills with fun. Apart from the involvement of children, even their parents can also take part in the exciting play-together activities.
The app also allows parents to review their children’s progress via a dedicated parents portal featuring weekly reports, curriculum overviews, and activity timeline. It also offers advice and tips for parents’ everyday lives through its Parents Community.
“This is the next important step in our mission of helping parents and caretakers raise amazing kids and break down educational barriers to create equal opportunities for children across the world,” said Cristóbal Viedma, CEO and founder of Lingokids.
The pandemic has certainly led to the surge in online learning across the globe, across all ages. According to a recent report by Lingokids, 68 per cent of parents said they now rely on early learning apps to supplement their children’s education.
The app includes interesting and unique characters which are made by Guillermo García-Carsí (creator of the famous cartoon Pocoyó) and his team. The app further features both original and Oxford University Press content and the curriculum of Lingokids curriculum has been made by the company’s educational board with experts in early language learning from companies like LeapFrog, Hasbro, Disney, and Nickelodeon.
Expansion Plans
With this fundraise, Lingokids has its eyes on international expansion as it looks to go beyond the US and UK. In addition to that, the startup plans to make the platform content rich by focusing on new offerings on science technology engineering and maths (STEM) and also impart skills that many kids missed out on during the 2020/2021 school year such as emotional intelligence, empathy and critical thinking.
Lingokids will also develop new audio content in audiobooks and audio-exercises, focusing on topics related to mental health, mindfulness and meditation.
Specifically, LingoKids plans to hire an additional 60 people around the world this year, adding to its team of more than 100. The latest additions to Lingokids include Vladimir Klimov as Director of Content Strategy, with experience strategically scaling international companies such as Deezer; and Tiago Pregueiro, former Product Director at Cabify, as VP of Product.
New Partners
With its previous investment last year, Lingokids also joined forces with the internationally known toy and puzzles company, Ravensburger. Lingokids and Ravensburger will develop merchandising and new games and toys offline to complement Lingokids’ online activities.
The edtech startup has partners like Save The Children, UNICEF, UNHCR and American Red Cross.
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