How Western ed-tech startup Monkimun raised $1M, and how it plans to take on Asia

Last week, US- and Spain-based mobile startup Monkimun told Tech in Asia that it had raised a US$1M funding round to bolster its language-learning apps. And although you might expect an American startup (and US-based 500 Startups participant) to be raising its funds principally from Silicon Valley, this round includes some interesting Asian investors: Singapore’s Incuvest and Japan’s SHOzemi Innovation Ventures. Why the interest from Asia? Therein lies a tale.

Origins of Monkimun

Monkimun co-founder Cristobal Viedma has been interested in education – and Asia – for a long time. Though originally from Spain, a few years ago Viedma found himself working in Singapore for video startup Viki. Though Viki wasn’t focused on education, Viedma saw how the platform could be educational for many users, who were using it to translate and subtitle videos. “I thought that was a great thing,” he said, “because it bridges communities, it bridges cultures.” Having studied five languages himself, it was easy for Viedma to see the value in using online tools like Viki to bolster language-learning efforts.

After Viki – the company was acquired by Japan’s Rakuten in 2013 – Viedma returned to Madrid, where his sister was working on setting up educational language-learning centers across Madrid. Viedma helped her set up one such center, and it was a success. “How do we scale this?” Viedma wondered. After his experience at Viki, one answer suggested itself: smartphones.

Monkimun’s founders

So in January of 2014, Viedma and his sister/co-founder started work on a small prototype app. The goal: to make language learning fun and immersive for young children. At first it wasn’t that serious – “just a side project,” Videma said – but after a few months and a few apps, it started to take off. Viedma decided it was time to get serious, so he hopped on a plane to Singapore and started talking to investors there. Quickly he got an offer for a seed round and began planning to base the company in Singapore. But then Viedma spoke to 500 Startups head (and Viki investor) Dave McClure, who recommended basing the startup in Silicon Valley to facilitate future fundraising, even though the company’s biggest market was likely to be in Asia. Viedma agreed, and along with his co-founder he traveled to the US to participate in 500 Startups’s summer batch.

Choosing a target

It was in the US that Monkimun finally fixated on a clear target: to create an adaptive mobile language-learning platform that gives kids a fun and immersive learning experience while also tracking their performance and adapting lesson difficulty on the fly. With that goal set, the company started fundraising for real. Monkimun looked in particular to educational institutions, and found Japan’s SHOzemi Innovation Ventures. The venture offshoot of Japan’s largest after-school education chain, SHOzemi Innovation Ventures was looking for ed-tech startups in the region to invest in. Monkimun, though it was legally based in the US, seemed like a good fit.

Viedma’s connections in Asia are part of the reason that Monkimun has been able to attract Asian investors, but another is that the company’s products have been very well-received here. Its adaptive learning platform isn’t finished yet, but the company currently has five apps for learning English, Spanish, and Chinese, and Viedma says the demand in Asia has been impressive. The company has even localized its apps in a number of Asian languages to make life easier for Asia’s young language learners. For example, Viedma says, its Chinese class app has been localized in Bahasa Indonesia and Thai, because the company knows learners in those markets are interested in Chinese.

Monkimun’s apps, up on the wall.

Gearing up for the future