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Bayern Kapital invests in e‑learning program eKidz.eu

Cate­gory: Venture Capi­tal
11. Septem­ber 2018

Munich — Bayern Kapi­tal invests in the start-up eKidz.eu, which has deve­lo­ped a program for mobile devices to faci­li­tate the acqui­si­tion of language and reading skills for child­ren and pupils. The young Munich-based company has now successfully comple­ted its seed finan­cing round with the support of the BayStartUP inves­tor network, recei­ving a high six-figure sum. In addi­tion to Bayern Kapi­tal, six busi­ness angels parti­ci­pa­ted in the round. With the capi­tal, eKidz.eu wants to finance the deve­lo­p­ment of new features of the app, expand the offer to other opera­ting systems and inte­grate addi­tio­nal content.

The start-up was foun­ded in Janu­ary 2017 by a team of three led by Nata­liya Tetruyeva (photo). eKidz.eu plans to use the funds from the seed round to drive the deve­lo­p­ment of the program and finance the roll­out in various Euro­pean count­ries. An English language version is also to be included in the app.

eKidz.eu has deve­lo­ped the first e‑learning program in Germany for so-called immersive language lear­ning speci­fi­cally for child­ren aged 5–10, where they are immer­sed in the virtual world in a natu­ral way when using the program. The app is also suita­ble for child­ren lear­ning German as a second language. The goal is to improve children’s language and reading skills in a natu­ral way. Speci­fi­cally, digi­tal children’s books can be acces­sed via app on mobile devices such as tablets. The appro­xi­m­ately 50 children’s books curr­ently available are syste­ma­ti­cally divi­ded into nine reading levels. Child­ren can have the texts read aloud at the appro­priate level, read for them­sel­ves, and answer compre­hen­sion ques­ti­ons. After­wards, teachers or parents can view the results of the exer­ci­ses. The app is available on iPad; Windows and Android versi­ons are under deve­lo­p­ment. In the future, the app will be supple­men­ted with audio recor­dings and other func­tions. eKidz.eu’s target groups are schools and families.

Dr. Georg Ried, Mana­ging Direc­tor at Bayern Kapi­tal, says: “So far, there has been no e‑learning appli­ca­tion for children’s language lear­ning in Germany. Howe­ver, the market promi­ses great poten­tial, as it is an excel­lent supple­ment to school educa­tion and is ther­e­fore likely to become incre­asingly popu­lar as society beco­mes more digi­ti­zed. Ther­e­fore, we see eKidz.eu with its sophisti­ca­ted app as an exci­ting invest­ment with excel­lent prospects.”

About eKidz.eu
eKidz.eu is the first digi­tal program in Germany for language lear­ning through reading and writing for child­ren. The app for lear­ning German is suita­ble for child­ren aged 5–10. The digi­tal children’s books are syste­ma­ti­cally struc­tu­red into 9 reading levels, intro­du­cing child­ren to fluent reading. Reading using new exci­ting media on iPad and tablet increa­ses children’s curio­sity and moti­va­tion. eKidz.eu uses new tech­no­lo­gies to make access to language lear­ning easier for child­ren and young adults as well. With eKidz.eu, every child recei­ves a mobile language labo­ra­tory in which indi­vi­dual language skills can be strengthened.

About BayStartUP
BayStartUP’s offe­rings give foun­ders, inves­tors and compa­nies orien­ta­tion in Bavaria’s startup scene. With the Bava­rian Busi­ness Plan Compe­ti­ti­ons, an exten­sive coaching offer and Germany’s largest inves­tor network, BayStartUP supports foun­ders and young compa­nies in opti­mi­zing their stra­tegy, buil­ding their busi­ness and finding start-up or growth capi­tal. Through BayStartUP, start­ups have cont­act oppor­tu­ni­ties with more than 280 listed busi­ness angels, over 100 insti­tu­tio­nal inves­tors, and finan­cing from 50,000 euros to 5 million euros. Each year, BayStartUP’s inves­tor network brokers around 50 million euros to start­ups. So far, more than 1,600 compa­nies have emer­ged from the Bava­rian Busi­ness Plan Compe­ti­ti­ons. Today, they are active on the market with appro­xi­m­ately 11,400 employees and gene­rate sales of around 1 billion euros. They have about 400 parti­ci­pant teams each year. www.baystartup.de

About Bayern Kapital
Bayern Kapi­tal GmbH, based in Lands­hut, was foun­ded in 1995 as a wholly owned subsi­diary of LfA Förder­bank Bayern on the initia­tive of the Bava­rian state govern­ment. As the venture capi­tal company of the Free State of Bava­ria, Bayern Kapi­tal provi­des equity capi­tal to the foun­ders of inno­va­tive high-tech compa­nies and young, inno­va­tive tech­no­logy compa­nies in Bava­ria. Bayern Kapi­tal curr­ently mana­ges eleven invest­ment funds with an invest­ment volume of around 325 million euros. To date, Bayern Kapi­tal has inves­ted around 273 million euros of equity capi­tal in around 260 inno­va­tive tech­­no­­logy-orien­­ted compa­nies from a wide range of sectors, inclu­ding life scien­ces, soft­ware & IT, mate­ri­als & new mate­ri­als, nano­tech­no­logy and envi­ron­men­tal tech­no­logy. As a result, more than 5,000 jobs have been perma­nently crea­ted in Bava­ria in sustainable compa­nies. www.bayernkapital.de

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