The smart investment means that the startup Gios will receive 85 percent of the funds in cash and the rest — in the services of programmers, lawyers, and other professionals.
If the company reaches certain figures, its valuation and the size of the investment will increase. Thus, GIOS may receive more than originally announced during the round.
GIOS is a service for blended learning of maths and critical thinking. The GIOS business model works by selling animated, interactive maths and critical thinking courses that explain complex topics to children in simple language and a playful format. There are two target audiences: B2B — mathematics teachers and B2C – parents. The startup is also developing a platform for STEM tutors.
According to Forbes, the platform currently has over 100,000 registered users, with about 7,500 paying ones. Nataliya Limonova has invested about $350,000 of her own money and investments from business angels in GIOS. She also secured a $50,000 grant from the Ukrainian Startup Fund. In 2020, GIOS generated $84,000 in revenue. By March 2022, Limonova plans to grow it sevenfold by scaling the service up in Ukraine and launching it in the US.
The company plans to spend the fresh funding from UVO to fine-tune the platform, expand the team, and enter foreign markets.
UVO Ventures was established in late 2020 by Ukrainian product IT company Uvoteam. It invests in early-stage startups, and its average ticket size is $100,000-200,000. Managing partners: ex-Uvoteam’s employee Alex Kozenko and former Executive Director of CEX.IO Vitalii Kedik, who is responsible for the strategy of crypto exchange Currency.com. The shareholders are Eugene Yanovsky, Nikita Osaulenko, and Olga Andrusenko. The UVO Ventures portfolio also includes the GoIT IT school and Liki24.
“GIOS is in the early stages of development right now and is testing several business models. We have been pleasantly impressed by the depth of the team’s domain expertise and the fervor with which the founders talk about school education. We believe that the company and the products they are working on will change the perception of school education not only in the former CIS countries, where the guys are already showing strong growth but in other markets as well. This deal will help the company scale up to the US market and adapt the products to local needs,” Vitaly Kedik, managing partner of UVO Ventures, commented.
UVO Ventures focuses primarily on edtech projects. According to Kedik, thanks to the lockdown, the already dynamic industry has received a strong boost — this can be seen both in the project figures and in rounds in the industry over the past year.
