Y Combinator leads $1.3m seed round of SG kids coding firm

Strive co-founders Tamir Shklaz (far left) and Pulkit Agarwal (second from right) with participating children in the program / Photo credit: Strive

Strive‘s co-founders referred to their personal experiences attending after-school coding class in the past as “subpar on every front.”

“The learning method was usually dull and unengaging. Ultimately coding was not being taught joyfully,” co-founder Tamir Shklaz said in a blog post.

Shklaz founded Strive in 2020 with Pulkit Agarwal to create engaging coding programs for children. The startup has closed its US$1.3 million seed funding round led by Y Combinator, with Goodwater Capital, Mastercard Asia, and Soma Capital participating.

Strive offers one-on-one classes focusing on topics such as app development, machine learning, blockchain, and data science to children aged eight to 16. The startup said it has taught over 1,000 children and trained 60 teachers.

The firm will be using the funds to develop its teacher training, create coding content, find new ways of testing user abilities, and further build on its coding editor.

Strive has a vision to redefine how kids learn STEM globally by creating the go-to platform and content to teach math, science, and other subjects through coding.

The startup believes that its vision has become even more critical with the growing obsession with AI technology.

“In light of AI, if we fail to teach students how to think for themselves and instead focus on teaching them concepts that are trivial for computers, they will be deemed redundant in the 21st-century economy,” Shklaz notes.

Other investors in this round include:

• Sequoia India co-founder KP Balaraj
• Crimson Education CEO Jamie Beaton
• Segment co-founder Calvin French-Owen

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