Co-founder of the project Natalya Limonova and the UVO Ventures team announced this to AIN.UA.
Smart investments mean that 85% of the amount the startup will receive in money, and the rest - in the services of programmers, lawyers, and other specialists.
When certain indicators are achieved, the company's assessment and the amount of investment will increase. Thus, GIOS can receive more than the initially announced amount within the round.
What is GIOS
GIOS is a service for blended learning of mathematics and critical thinking. The business model of GIOS is the sale of animated interactive courses in mathematics and critical thinking, which in simple language, in a game format, explain complex topics to children. There are two target audiences: B2B - math teachers and B2C - parents. The startup is also developing a STEM tutoring platform.
According to Forbes, today the platform has more than 100,000 registered users, of which about 7,500 are paying. Limonova invested in GIOS about $350,000 of her own funds and investments from a business angel, she also attracted a $50,000 grant from the Ukrainian Startup Fund. In 2020, GIOS received $84,000 in revenue. By March 2022, due to scaling in Ukraine and a full-fledged launch in the United States, Limonova plans to increase it seven times.
Investments from UVO are planned to be spent on finalizing the platform, expanding the team and entering foreign markets.
According to Forbes.ua, UVO Ventures was created at the end of 2020 by the Ukrainian IT grocery company Uvoteam. He invests in startups in the early stages, the average check is $100,000-200,000.
Managing partners: Alexey Kozenko, a native of Uvoteam, and CEX.IO executive director Vitaly Kedik, who is responsible for the strategy of the Currency.com crypto exchange.
The shareholders are Evgeny Yanovsky, Nikita Osaulenko and Olga Andrusenko. The fund's portfolio also includes the GoIT IT school and the Liki24 service.
“GIOS is in its early stages of development and is testing several business models. We were pleasantly impressed by the depth of the team's domain expertise and by the fervor with which the founders speak about school education. We believe that the company and the products it works on will change the perception of school education not only in the CIS, where children are already showing strong growth but also in other markets. This deal will help the company scale to the US market and adapt products to local needs,” Vitaliy Kedik, managing partner of UVO Ventures, commented to AIN.UA.
UVO Ventures focuses primarily on edtech. According to Kedik, thanks to the quarantine, the already dynamically developing industry has received a strong impetus - this can be seen both in the indicators of projects and in the rounds in the industry over the past year.
