City-headquartered start-up firm Flinto Learning Solutions has received funding to the tune of ₹45 crore ($7 million) from Mumbai-based venture capital firm Lightbox.

The start-up, which is popularly called Flintobox, plans to utilise the funds it obtained to capture the pre-school market in India, which is worth over $4.5 billion.

Flinto is also gearing up for global expansion, starting with south-east and middle-east Asia.

Arunprasad Durairaj, chief executive officer and co-founder, Flintobox, said, “In India, pre-school penetration is less than 10% when compared to the developed countries, where it is anywhere between 90-100%. Flinto deep dives to address this major concern.”

The funds will be utilised to further strengthen the firm and expand to every nook and corner of India.

Currently, the start-up has over 4 lakh parents as customers from over 700 cities and towns, including Port Blair and Diu and Daman.

The firm is shipping more than 40,000 boxes per month.

Mr. Arunprasad said, “Flinto is redefining early learning by changing classrooms into big co-operative fun activity spaces where every child explores things that interest them. Flinto is designed in a such a way as to ensure parents/teachers spend time with children in a productive way.”

Lightbox partner Prashant Mehta says, “Flinto is addressing a massive need in early childhood development by delivering a subscription-based product to your doorstep every month.”

Life lessons

Flinto is the brainchild of three young entrepreneurs — Arunprasad Durairaj, Vijay Babu Gandhi and Shreenidhi Srirangam — who personally experienced the lack of quality early learning in India.

These experiences led them to set out to create tools and products that would change the way children learn and play.

In 2013, the founders pooled in ₹10 lakh from their personal savings to start this venture.

The first round of funding was ₹15 lakh raised through GSF accelerator.

They later got funding to the tune of ₹1.8 crore from Globevestor, a U.S.-based investment firm, with participation from Asian E-commerce Alliance (AECAL) and Mauj Mobile Pvt. Ltd.

The third (₹2 crore) and fourth (₹6.2 crore) rounds of funding were led by Ashwin Chadha, an angel investor and globevestor, with participation from existing investors.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Chennai / by Sangeetha Kandavel / Chennai – December 06th, 2017