Illustrating the current traction of Russian edtech startups, online programming school Kodland has raised $1.5 million in its first round of financing. The money was brought in by Russian venture capitalist Alexander Nevinsky (a partner at I2BF) and an unnamed “European fund,” as reported by VC.RU.
The startup will use the fresh funding to test product marketing across Russian-speaking countries — its core market so far — and to develop activities in English-speaking countries, Spain and India.
Founded in 2018, the startup initially worked as an offline school for novice developers in nine Russian cities. VC.RU reports that the founders, Alexander Nosulich and Oleg Heifets, initially put some 2 million rubles ($32,000 at that time) in their business.
After the young company went online in 2019, the number of students jumped from a hundred to some 7,000 while revenue increased 14 times (from November 2019 to November 2020).
Kodland currently offerts seven main courses for different ages. These courses, offered by some 200 teachers, focus on creating websites and games in Unity and advanced Python The price ranges from 2,950 rubles ($40) to 8,800 rubles ($119) per month, depending on the user’s region and language of instruction.
Significant deals involving Russian edtech startups in the past few months included:
- A $50 million round for Uchi Group;
- A $4.25 million round for Novakid;
- A $3 million round for IntellectoKids;
- A large capital injection into Skyeng, one of the most successful Russian startups;
- Investments from Mail.ru Group in Tetrika and Skillbox.
The Russian online education market was estimated at only 45-50 billion rubles in 2019 (nearly $750 million, or 1% of the global edtech market), according to data from Interfax Academy cited by Kommersant.
