During Series-B round, PlanetSpark, a platform that aims to improve communication skills in children in K-12 group, raised $13.5 million from Prime Venture Partners and marquee global entrepreneurs including Binny Bansal, MakemyTrip CEO Deep Kalra, and others including Dr Ashish Gupta, Gokul Rajaram and Shirish Nandkarni.
PlanetSpark had raised $3.7 million in previous rounds, from Prime Ventures, FIITJEE and several angel networks. The total amount raised by the edtech firm is $17.2 million, as of the latest round.
PlanetSpark has coached over 1 million students with over 1 million classes across 13 countries and is growing at 30 per cent month-on-month. It grew 45 x over the past year and plans to grow further by 30 x over the next two years to become the top global go-to destination for learning communication skills. The newly infused funds will be used to aggressive business growth, product development and international expansion.
Communication skills are the most important and desirable skill that parents wish to impart to their kids. These skills are rarely taught anywhere. Parents had never thought that a reliable and structured option to improve 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 of PlanetSpark.
The global market for communication skills is over $80 billion and is largely untapped. PlanetSpark is a market leader in the communication skills for kids segment. It has seen incredible growth over the past year from being an Indian company to a global player with presence in the US, Middle East and Europe. The company will use the fresh funds to penetrate deeper into existing markets and expand into new geographies, as per an official handout.
India has a pool of 1.8 million potential and current English teachers who can impart these skills to the whole world. We plan to hire 50,000 teachers on our platform by the end of 2022. This is a golden opportunity to build a world leader in communication skills that didn't exist until now, said Maneesh Dhooper, co-founder of PlanetSpark.
PlanetSpark was founded in 2017 by XLRI graduates and hostel wingmates Kunal Malik and Maneesh Dhooper, who bring together over a decade of experience in the growth and scale-up of ace organisations such as Unilever, UrbanClap and Novartis.
Everyone learns a language but few learn to communicate well. Communication skills are going to be a life-defining skill in the 21st century. Amit Somani, Partner, Prime Venture Partners, said that we were very fortunate to be part of PlanetSpark's journey from the early days.