Stem toy maker PlayShifu has raised $17 Mn or INR 124 crore in a Series B round, valuing the Bengaluru based startup at around Rs 480-500 crore valuation. Inventus Capital spearheaded the round while other high-profile investors like Inflexor Ventures, Chiratae Ventures and Bharat innovation Fund also took part in the round.
The company will leverage the latest fund infusion for product as well as geographical expansion.
Please note that Inventus Capital and Chiratae Ventures (earlier known as IDG Ventures) had also participated in the Series A funding round.
Although the Bengaluru headquartered firm did not share any concrete figures, it claims to be growing at 150% on y-o-y basis for third straight year.
Founded in 2016 by IIT graduates Vivek Goyal and Dinesh Advani, PlayShifu competes in the niche space of stem education. It essentially makes educational toys by leveraging the augmented reality technology to create an immersive physical and digital learning experience for the kids.
What is Stem education?
Stem education takes a unique learning approach by laying great emphasis on critical areas of science, technology, engineering & mathematics, collectively known as Stem. By laying great emphasis on these subjects, it aims to enhance student’s problem solving and analytical skills.
PlayShifu claims that it has grown considerably through its aggressive omnichannel strategy, with the brand now available across 35 countries – a rapid growth from barely 15 countries in 2019.
Apart from Indian players, PlayShifu competes with many global players as well. This includes London based Kano, California based Wonder Workshop as well as Colorado based Sphero.
Techpluto recently conducted an exclusively interview with Charu Noheria, co-founder of Practically, one of the leading Stem startups of India.
India’s top stem startups
- Smartivity Labs
- StemRobo
- Avishkaar Box
- Practically
- Evive