Sparkmind.vc leads €1.5m seed round for Kide Science
HELSINKI, 28 May 2020
Sparkmind.vc leads €1.5m seed round for Kide Science
Learning sector focused venture capital company, Sparkmind.vc, has led a €1.5m seed funding round for Kide Science, a Finnish provider of early childhood science learning. Selected existing investors including Zanichelli Venture also participated.
Sparkmind.vc’s support is focused on accelerating Kide Science’s commercial growth. It will enable the business to pursue new opportunities in Asia and across key international homeschooling markets. The investment will also allow rapid expansion of the company’s existing parent product as well as funding key hires in global business development and marketing.
This investment is the third from Sparkmind.vc’s €40m learning-focused venture capital fund. It follows recent backing announced for Fuzu and School Day.
Kai Talas of Sparkmind.vc commented: “We see early childhood education as a highly attractive market segment with significant growth prospects and lucrative opportunities for scalable solution providers like Kide Science. For Sparkmind, Kide Science stands out because of its very strong pedagogical proposition and outstanding multidisciplinary team. We’re excited to lead this seed round and to build on the significant momentum the company has already generated.
Kide Science has created a playful STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths) pedagogical model, following rigorous research by one of the company’s Founders at the University of Helsinki. Their approach puts young learners into imaginary science scenarios, empowering them to solve real problems through story-telling and play-based activities. Teachers and parents can easily deliver these in formal/informal learning settings, including at home, to support children’s curiosity and scientific thinking.
Sari Hurme-Mehtälä, Kide Science’s CEO added: “We’re excited that this new investment allows us to rapidly accelerate our global sales and marketing activities. This will help us teach key science skills to even more children globally, enabling them to better understand their world. Being purely learning sector focused Sparkmind.vc is an ideal partner for us and we look forward to working with them.”
Kide Science’s research-led pedagogy has helped them to win customers in 14 global markets. In Finland, the business has a rapidly growing customer base, including the nation’s largest private kindergarten chain (200 locations and 10,000 children). It also produces a TV show on YLE, Finland’s national public service broadcaster. In addition, Kide Science has signed deals in MENA, the Far East and with a large chain of learning centres in China. The latter will see the company’s programmes delivered in 70 locations across 30 provinces.
About Kide Science
Kide Science develops young children’s scientific thinking skills through engaging hands-on experiments that solve real science problems. A proven pedagogical method delivers better learning outcomes in school and is based on years of rigorous academic research conducted by Founder Jenni Vartiainen, PhD. Its scalable online platform provides teachers and parents with training and lesson materials to lead hands-on, playful STEAM education for 3–8-year-olds.
Sari Hurme-Mehtälä, CEO & Co-Founder, sari@kidescience.com, +358 44 531 5134
About Sparkmind.vc
Sparkmind.vc is the first Nordic venture capital company exclusively focused on the learning sector. The company invests from Seed to Series B stages in teams transforming how the world learns. Its investments are focused on solutions that improve learning outcomes, increase access and efficiency of learning or use data insight to better support educators and learners.
Kai Talas, Partner, kai@sparkmind.vc, +358 40 179 20 44