Bengaluru-based Kreedo Early Childhood Solutions has raised $2.3 million in pre-Series A funding. The round was led by Switzerland-based UBS Optimus Foundation, Spectrum Impact, Gray Matters Capital, and 1Crowd, with participation from Innospark Ventures, IIM-CAN and The Chennai Angels. The latest round of funding will be used towards accelerating Kreedo’s next phase of growth and expansion.

Founded in 2012 by husband-wife duo Mridula Shridhar and VK Manikandan, both alumni of IIM-Chennai, Kreedo is on a mission to change the way early learning is delivered in budget private schools and preschools, said the company.

Mridula Shridhar, CEO of Kreedo, said, “Our vision is to democratise quality early education. We have an overwhelming response from our partner schools who are looking for the most affordable and simplest way to improve foundational learning. The new round of funding will enable us to take Kreedo to 7000+ schools across multiple cities in India”

India has an estimated 350,000 budget private schools that charge less than Rs 30,000 per year and mostly cater to students from low-income families.

Dhun Davar, Head of Social Finance, UBS Optimus Foundation, said “We see Kreedo’s business model as a unique way to create social change by making quality early education accessible to every child from lower-income communities.”

Girichandra, Partner at 1Crowd added, “In Manikandan and Mridula, we found a team that is passionate about their cause and extremely clear on how to mitigate learning poverty in budget schools”.

Pranay Adhvaryu, Head of Investments, Gray Matters Capital adds, “The pandemic has adversely impacted the already distressed early education sector, and now Kreedo is seeing tremendous traction as they address a massive learning gap which schools need help to fill.”

Mirik Gogri of Spectrum Impact said, “We are excited to be a part of their growth story and support their vision of impacting more than one million children annually in India, especially from lower-income families, by 2025.”