[Funding alert] PlayShifu raises $17M in Series B led by Inventus Capital India

Augmented reality technology startup Play Shifu on Tuesday raised Series B funding of $17 million from Inventus Capital India with Inflexor Ventures joining as a new investor. Existing investors Chiratae Ventures and Bharat Innovation Fund also participated in this round.

The announcement preceded the launch plan of eight new products in 2021, the company stated.

Founded in 2016 by Vivek Goyal and Dinesh Advani, graduates of Stanford GSB and IIT Kharagpur, PlayShifu creates engaging and immersive AR experiences for children that encourage early STEM 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 percent, it stated.

Speaking about the new development, Vivek Goyal, CEO and Co-founder, PlayShifu stated,

“We are proud of our team for their incredible achievements during the pandemic while working remotely for an entire year. The effort translated into a successful Series B to help take the brand to new heights in 2021 and beyond"

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“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 10 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,” Vivek added.

Due to several new global brick-and-mortar and ecommerce partnerships, the brand is now available in 35 countries, a rapid expansion from just 15 countries in 2019. The company claims to have witnessed 150 percent year-over-year growth in revenue for the third consecutive year.

The US and Bengaluru-based startup has also doubled its team size from 60 members in 2019 to 115 members in 2020 and continues to grow further.

Further adding, Dinesh Advani, Co-founder and COO, PlayShifu, said,

“As we continue to introduce new products to further the development of early-learning skills in Generation Alpha, we’ve partnered with several reputable retailers around the world to diversify our reach.”

“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.”