EdTech Startup Magic Crate Raises Funding From Mohandas Pai & Aarin Capital

Bangalore-based Magic Crate, an early childhood learning startup, has received an undisclosed amount of seed funding led by Aarin Capital and TV Mohandas Pai in his personal capacity.

The other investors who participated in this round include Narayanan Ramaswamy, head of education practice at a leading consulting firm and Sethuraman, finance expert and practising chartered accountant.

The startup will use the raised funds towards expanding its product portfolio, growing the team and scaling up manufacturing.

The startup was started in 2015 by IIT-IIM alumnus Viswanathan Ramakrishnan along with his friend and ex-McKinsey consultant Karthik Lakshman. It offers an inquiry and play-based programme for the children between the age of 4 to 8 years. It is a subscription-based service that produces and delivers hands-on activities for children. The activities are designed by a team of early childhood experts and product designers to promote 12 essential skills in children, including creativity, problem solving, vocabulary building, and self-expression. For each age group, the company offers 3, 6 and 12-month plans starting from INR 549 per month.

Viswanathan Ramakrishnan, co-founder and CEO of Magic Crate said, “Research shows that about 80 percent of critical brain development happens before the child turns eight. This has a direct correlation with what they are exposed to, during those years. Also, in this age group, they have a phenomenal amount of free time and it becomes a big challenge to engage them at home. Magic Crate is solving this pain point for millions of busy, but well-intentioned parents.”

The startup is expecting the adoption of the concept to increase more with the launch of its digital platform, which is in due in coming days.

Karthik Lakshman, co-founder and COO of Magic Crate, confounded that when Magic Crate was launched, it shipped about 100 crates shipped in the first month. Since then, the startup has been growing 50% month on month basis and currently ships about thousands of crates each month to 1200+ pin codes across the country.

Magic Crate competes with other startups in the same domain like Flinto, which raised INR 1.8 Cr from a group of investors led by GSF. Other startups offering similar services include Canary Crate and Small Brown Box.

Mohandas Pai, former Infosys director and now an active angel investor has been investing in many startups in his personal capacity. He has invested in startups like multilingual test preparation app OnlineTyari, media tech company YourStory, restaurant discounts startup Ressy, online media startup, TheBetterIndia, online tax information platform TaxSutra, peer-to-peer lending platform Faircent among others.

Pai also runs private equity fund Aarin Capital along with Manipal Group scion Ranjan Pai.

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