KOOH Sports, a Mumbai-based sports education startup, has today announced that it has raised around $2.2 million in a follow-on funding round from its existing investors. The investors who participated in this round include HDFC, Elevate Sports and the promoter group.
With the funding amount raised by the company, it will spend money for its mission to inculcate sports education at the grass root level. It will also employ funds to expand into international markets, enhance product innovations and also increase its working capital to meet high growth needs.
KOOH, which stands for kids-out-of-home, was started by Susir Kumar and Prabhu Srinivasan in 2010. The company is aiming to get students become more active through in-school and professional sports training programmes.
As per the company, it is a new-age sports education, training & technology company, started with a passion to get kids of today to embrace sport and more importantly a healthier lifestyle. It aims to be present throughout the journey of a kid from early stage movement to being active for life and for a persistent few even turning professional at a sport of their choice.
Chirag Patel, CEO of KOOH Sports, said,
We are currently evaluating to buy one or more assets from a carefully curated list in geographies like UK, Australia and Middle East and are also pursuing international partnerships particularly in UK and Australia.
He believes that the newly raised fund will hellp the company gain greater access to world-class facilities and programmes in developed markets like UK, Australia and Dubai in a way that is cost-effective.
One of the investor, who participated in this round, said,
They are very cautious with how much capital they want to raise and it’s always only exactly what they require for the business. When promoters value their equity and don’t want to dilute more than necessary at an earlier stage, that’s always good.
The curriculum of each programme is comprehensive and emphasizes on the importance of outdoor activity. It integrates international standards in the current elementary PE Classes — making the activities more interactive and interesting for the kids to take home a fitter body and a sharper mind.
Prior to this funding round, the company had raised around $2 million from TCS, HDFC, and PE fund Faering Capital. The funding was raised to expand their operations to Tier 3 and 4 cities and include more sports in their current training programs.
