Participated · Series A · Aug 2024

Kreedo Early Childhood Solutions partners with affordable private schools and preschools to transform early childhood education through a play-based curriculum. Its core product is the 6T learning framework delivered via Kreedo Activity Labs, which integrates toys, technology, theory, teacher training, a timetable and teamwork for children aged 3–8, aligned with NEP 2020. The company also offers Practico, a digital home learning platform, and runs a specialised pre-primary teacher training franchise program. With new funding, Kreedo plans to expand into additional regions across India, extend offerings to Grades 3–5, and enhance Practico. Founded in 2012 by Mridula Shridhar and VK Manikandan and based in Bengaluru, Kreedo focuses on democratising early education through scalable partnerships. Over the past two years the company says it has doubled revenue, grown from 700 to 1,700 schools and preschools, and increased the number of children served from 55,000 to more than 140,000.

Participated · Equity · Apr 2022

iDreamCareer (iDC) offers a personalized, one-stop career navigation and counselling platform aimed at helping students make informed education and career choices. The company targets a large unmet need in India, where the article notes 93% of schools lack counsellors and many students rely on peers and family for guidance. Over the past 10 years iDC says it has partnered with multilateral organizations, government agencies and corporates to deliver counselling to more than 20 million students. The company highlights that 85% of its career counsellors are women and operates a B2C offering intended to improve access for girls and less privileged students. iDC will deploy the new funds to add a one-stop university application capability, scholarship and financing features, expand its leadership team, and implement advanced technology interventions alongside its counselling program. The raise is presented as growth capital to widen and deepen the impact of its services.

Led · Equity · Dec 2021

Shamba Pride operates a merchant network of digitized agro-dealers (digishops) that manage inventory ordering, business management and farmer-facing services including market linkages, BNPL and training via a USSD platform. Since 2016 it has built a network of about 2,700 merchants across 24 Kenyan counties and is expanding its franchise network. The company sources inputs from partners such as Elephant Verve to supply climate‑smart seeds and fertilizers. Shamba Pride plans to scale further within Kenya over the next year and later explore neighboring markets such as Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. Its model targets small-scale farmers by addressing sourcing, price volatility, quality challenges and stockouts at the last mile. The team is led by founder and CEO Samuel Munguti. Shamba Pride operates an all-in-one online-to-offline network that digitalizes last-mile agro dealer businesses through technology-enabled "DigiShops." The platform connects smallholder farmers to high-quality inputs, services, education, financial services, and market linkages. Existing agro dealers can use Shamba Pride to digitize operations and become micro-entrepreneurs serving rural farmers. The company already supports more than 1,000 digitalized shops and aims to scale that network nationwide. With new funding, Shamba Pride plans to reach hundreds of thousands of smallholder farmers and improve rural distribution channels. The recent fundraising will support countrywide expansion and broader distribution of its digital solution.

Led · Equity · Nov 2020

Farmers Pride, founded in 2016 in Kenya, operates an online-to-offline marketplace connecting village-level farmers to quality inputs, services, insurance, financial services, market linkages and mechanization via women-owned DigiShops. The social enterprise focuses on empowering women agro-dealers by digitizing informal stores into micro-franchisees and providing structured education and training under its coLABS gender portfolio. Its platform includes digital trading tools and last-mile solutions such as SMS- and voice-powered farmer education to improve traceability, record-keeping and distribution. Farmers Pride plans to develop and launch 50 tech-powered women- and youth-owned village DigiShops and to create a farmer education programme targeted to assist 30,000 farmers by 2022. The company aims to reach 500,000 mostly female rural farmers to boost incomes through its one-stop eCommerce platform. The startup will use new capital to strengthen its last-mile model and scale its inclusive agritech services.

Led · Equity · Dec 2019

Farmshine operates a mobile-first agriculture operating system and marketplace that connects farmers, buyers and service providers, enabling aggregation, contract agreement, production management, crop aggregation, delivery and payment through its app. The platform pairs this digital product with technical field agents who provide on-the-ground advice and support throughout the growing season, and promotes climate-smart agriculture techniques. Farmshine records farmer activity and trade history (quantity, quality, timeliness, loan repayments, trainings), and women make up about 70% of its farmer users. The startup says the system can be used by NGOs, the UN and commercial organisations to register, train and manage smallholder farmers, monitor crop growth, provide early pest/disease warnings, and supply traceable products to supermarkets. Farmshine is rolling out its operating system to non-profit partners, expanding into higher-value commodities, and plans to expand to Uganda and Ethiopia next year, with a mid-2020 partnership expected in Malawi. The company was founded in 2017 by Luca Alinovi and is using recent funding to hire and train personnel, including field agents, and further develop the platform.