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PlayShifu, the early-learning toy company helping children develop a complete spectrum of foundational skills through physical and digital play, announced a Series B fundraise of $17 million on Tuesday. The announcement preceded the launch plan of eight new products in 2021. Inventus Capital India led the round with Inflexor Ventures joining as a new investor. Chiratae Ventures and Bharat Innovation Fund also participated again.
‘Successful year’
The fundraise follows the most successful year to date in the tech start-up’s four-year history. Last year PlayShifu registered 150 per cent YoY growth in revenue for the third consecutive year, doubled its team to 115 members, more than doubled its user base to 6 lakh, launched five new products and launched Parent Hub, a one-stop skill set and development tracking app for parents.
Also read: PlayShifu raises $7 million in Series A funding
PlayShifu was founded to help parents convert their children’s screen time into meaningful phygital play – the interaction of tactile toys with a digital device – combined with gamifying early learning skills. Its three series of products, Orboot, Plugo, and Tacto, have established PlayShifu as a top-recommended brand by parents, as justified by a repeat purchase rate of more than 43 per cent. As per data intelligence firm, Morning Consult, the pandemic has also led a majority of parents (62 per cent) to look at devices and technology as educational tools.
Expanding products
“With screen time for children ages 4 to 9 averaging as high as five hours per day, we have a responsibility to help kids develop their early-learning skills in this digital age. Our products offer rich and variable content that engages children ten times better than the top 25 apps worldwide. We plan to expand our product range from 12 to 30 products to cover over 20 early-learning skills by 2022,” said co-founder and CEO Vivek Goyal in a statement.
PlayShifu has also grown its online and retail presence immensely. Due to several new global brick-and-mortar and e-commerce partnerships, the brand is now available in 35 countries, a rapid expansion from just 15 countries in 2019.
“We have partnered with several reputable retailers around the world to diversify our reach,” said PlayShifu co-founder Dinesh Advani. “Following our extremely successful partnerships with Walmart’s Sam’s Club, Toys‘R’Us, Hamleys, and many more, we’re excited to team up with more retailers worldwide in 2021 and beyond to help kids build foundational, STEAM skills through our fun toys.”
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