[Funding alert] AI parent-tech startup Parentof raises $1M in seed funding

Bengaluru-based parent-tech startup Parentof raised $1 million as a part of seed funding, led by angel investors V Srinivas and other existing investors. With this, the total funding raised by the startup stands at $2 million.

The company plans to use the recent round of funding to evolving its technology and expand its partner network.

Founded by Swaroop Madhavan, Dr Manohar Chikkanna, and Dhananjay Prabhu in August 2015, Parentof is a decision sciences organisation that provides insights into child growth and decision analytics.

The artificial intelligence (AI) powered ARC Engine (analysis, recommendation, and curation) platform has impacted over two lakh children and is supported by 500+ schools to date.

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The ARC Engine uses AI, machine learning (ML), and child specialists’ knowledge to identify and assess each child’s unique growth and developmental journey. With this insight, the ARC Engine then recommends methods to improve the child’s skills and abilities.

Co-founder Swaroop Madhavan said,

 “With the new funding in place, we are piloting a system, which can help parents discover and engage with experts and services (paediatricians, psychologists, hobby classes, sports coaching, etc.) based on the unique growth needs of their child. This, paired with our recent acquisition of Pupilpod - an education management platform from Value Point Group, will help in enhancing the ARC engine’s capabilities and make AI personalised for every child.” 

According to Parentof, it acquired Pupilpod last August. With multiple patents pending, the startup, in a statement, said that it is aiming to help a million parents across India by 2020 through its platform.

Swaroop added, “We are working towards increasing our partner base to over 1,000 in the next 12 months. Interestingly, we have been able to run successful O2O models building a great experience for partners and parents alike. Especially considering how parenting decision are being fuelled extensively by online reviews and expert opinions, we are one of the few startups focussed on creating a new system to sustain healthy parenting e-habits.”

The startup is also looking to make revenue from premium features it has created and content that parents would pay to use.

Investor V. Srinivas said,

“More and more parents are adopting online systems to educate and assist in child growth and development. With the likes of edtech and commerce going mainstream for child-related consumption (BYJU’s and FirstCry entering the Unicorn markets), acceptance by parents to e-related habits is growing at a tremendous pace. The work Parentof is doing is already being applauded in the US and India. I’ve chosen to stand in support because of its vision and divergent insights.”

With a current revenue of $0.5 million, Parentof is aiming to make $1.5 million by 2020.

(Edited by Saheli Sen Gupta)

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