Kae Capital seeds India language-learning platform
Indian venture capital firm Kae Capital has invested an undisclosed amount for a minority stake in Intap Labs, the start-up behind language-learning platform CultureAlley.com.
Jaipur-based Intap labs was set up a year ago, launching CultureAlley.com last November. The cloud-based platform enables interactive language learning through audio-visual lessons and covers English, Spanish, Mandarin, Hindi, Japanese, Italian, French and Korean. The portal claims to have over 100,000 users across 210 countries.
The funding raised in this round will be used for product development. "There are a lot of tutors but there is a huge lack in quality content for language learning," Pranshu Bhandari, co-founder of CultureAlley.com, told LiveMint. The firm is not yet breaking even and is reaching out to more third-party authors who can use the platform for publishing their content.
Founded by Mumbai Angels co-founder Sasha Mirchandani, Kae is said to be the first early-stage fund in India to have VC backers, with Sequoia Capital, SAIF Partners and Omidyar Network contributing capital, among others.
Since it closed its maiden fund in February 2012, Kae has invested in 20 firms, investing one third of its corpus. Recent investees include ShepHertz Technologies, which provides a cloud-based app development platform for multiplayer gaming.
Increasingly, Indian VCs have used IT and internet-related businesses as a way to gain exposure to the education space. Tech-focused education investments, such as CultureAlley.com, are often more attractive because regulatory restrictions are less relevant and there is a greater potential for overseas expansion. A recent example is Kaizen Private Equity's investment in authorGen, which produces online education platform WizIQ.
"Education businesses that are technology-enabled have got the potential to be a global players so we are looking actively at technology enabled in various forms as it mitigates country risk," Kaizen's Sandeep Aneja told AVCJ last month.
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