Edtech PlanetSpark raises $13.5 million in Series-B round

Edtech platform for kids, PlanetSpark has raised $13.5 million from Prime Venture Partners, as it looks to double down on growth.

Marquee global entrepreneurs including Flipkart’s Binny Bansal, MakeMyTrip’s Deep Kalra, Helion Advisors’ Dr Ashish Gupta, DoorDash’s Gokul Rajaram, and angel investor Shirish Nandkarni also participated in the current fundraising.

The latest round takes the total amount raised by PlanetSpark to $17.2 million, to date.

PlanetSpark, which provides public speaking lessons to kids between 4-16 years of age, is expected to use the fresh funds towards aggressive business growth, product development and international expansion.

“Communication skills are the most fundamental and desirable skills that parents wish to impart in their kids. However, these skills are rarely taught anywhere. Till now, parents never thought that a reliable and structured option to develop the communication skills of their children existed. With live learning coming of age in the past two years, we are the first global company to structure a program on new-age communication skills, for kids,” said Kunal Malik, co-founder, PlanetSpark.

The five-year-old startup has clocked over 1 million classes from students across 13 countries to date.

“Everyone learns a language but few learn to communicate well. Communication skills are going to be a life-defining skill in the 21st century. We have been very fortunate to be a part of PlanetSpark’s journey from the early days. We have witnessed their explosive growth and their metamorphosis,” said Amit Somani, partner, Prime Venture Partners.

PlanetSpark, at present, has a presence across the US, Middle East and Europe.

“India offers a pool of 1.8 million potential and current English teachers who can impart these skills to the entire globe. We plan to hire 50,000 teachers on our platform by the end of 2022. Overall, this is a golden opportunity to build the world leader in communication skills that didn't exist till now,” said Maneesh Dhooper, Co-founder, PlanetSpark.