Strive Founders Tamir Shklaz (left) and Pulkit Agarwal (second from right) giving an in person coding lesson in Singapore.
Edutech startup Strive recently raised US$1.3 million in seed funding round from from notable investors such as Goodwater Capital, an early investors in Facebook and Spotify; and angels such as the president of MasterCard Asia and the Founder of Sequoia India.
Started out in Singapore, Strive is an online coding school for kids ages 8-16. It aims to ignite kids’ passion for coding and pave the way for a career in technology. In live 1-on-1 online classes, students work with a passionate teacher to code games and apps in Python.
Coding has become a key skill for businesses across all industries, but Strive sees that there have not been enough resources available for teaching children how to code. Its apps offer a unique approach to teaching kids to code.
“We wanted Strive to be everything the other coding platforms aren’t. We started with a student-centric approach that focuses on active learning. This process involves students engaging with the curriculum through problem-solving, discussion, and applying their skills to visual-coding projects. This was simply because it’s not just what you learn; it’s how you learn. Most coding schools focus on instructing kids to build specific projects they can show their parents and friends, but that approach doesn’t lead to mastery of coding. Kids learn rotely and only develop skills that can be applied in the classroom,” Strive CTO Tamir Shklaz explains in a statement.
He also explains how Strive chooses the teachers for their platform.
“They obviously needed to be coding experts to be credible educators. Still, we know that the most ‘qualified’ educators and not necessarily the most effective. Even for kids who like the idea of coding, it can still be daunting. We wanted to ensure that our teachers had exceptional EQ and understood how to engage with a kid on an emotional level too. It was important that our students loved our teachers because we believed it would be a crucial way to get them to commit to their coding education.”
The company will use the money to:
– Develop a coding editor (IDE) specialised for empowering teachers to teach and students to learn to code.
– Create engaging coding content for kids of different ages, levels, and interests.
– Explore novel ways of assessing kids’ mastery of coding, not just their ability to pass a test.
– Develop its teacher training.
“However, most importantly, our latest funding round gives us the resources to continue our mission. To make education for kids joyful and meaningful.” says Shklaz.
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Image Credit: Strive
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