Kiddom, which offers a digital curriculum that meets the state core standards, today announced that it raised a $35 million Series C round. Altos Ventures led the round, along with Owl Ventures Khosla Ventures, Outcomes Collective, and Owl Ventures. This financing comes nearly three years after Kiddoms Series B round, which was led by Owl and valued at $15 million.The startup did more than raise money. It also learned how to make it. Kiddom, which was founded in 2012, raised millions of dollars without a clear business plan or revenue. Ahsan Rizvi (CEO and cofounder of Kiddom) and Abbas Manjee (chief academic officer and cofounder of Kiddom), believe that a focus early on adoption was more important than monetization.Manjee stated that we weren't making any money at our Series B. We have a free product that students and teachers use and we wanted to create an enterprise product. This is a common strategy with top down sales. ClassDojo, for example, emphasized adoption for many years before it introduced a paid version of its classroom socialization program.Kiddom invested most of its capital in research and development for its enterprise product. It has two parts. It offers a platform to help schools integrate their various platforms into an interface that tracks student usage and achievement. It also offers a platform that allows schools to integrate all of the products they have built over years. Second, it provides a digital curriculum that aligns with Common Core. This is a set math and English academic standards that students must learn at a grade-by-grade level. This is the most difficult to sell for Kiddom but also the most lucrative.Manjee said that approvals for vendors in the States can be slow and difficult. The stakes are high as decision-makers only have access to a few vendors to meet core standards.Kiddoms success is dependent on the ability of traditional curriculum providers like McGraw-Hills and Pearsons to keep up with the digitization of education. Rizvi stated that the market share of older companies is rapidly declining right now. Cengage and McGraw-Hill ended a merger proposal last year that would have added new competition to the curriculum industry.Some users have found the product to be a hit. Kiddom did not give any details, but it stated that ARR growth increased 2,525% in its first year. ARR growth is expected to reach 300% between 2020 and 2021. According to the company, at least one teacher uses its product within 70% of American schools. This metric has been consistent since 2018.Kiddom's new funding and revenue show that years of product development have made it competitive with investors, synergistic unicorns, and the most stingy enterprise customer, school districts.
