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Edsoma, a startup that developed an AI-powered reading, education and communication platform for children, raised $2.5 million in a seed round led by Shaquille O’Neal. The trick? Founder and CEO Kyle Wallgren did not ask the NBA superstar and philanthropist for money.
“He didn’t ask me for money; what he asked was basically, “I’d like you to help me get this out,” O’Neal said moments after stepping off stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2023.
Edsoma raised the $2.5 million from more than a dozen individual investors – or family and friends as Wallgren put it – with a post-funding value of $14 million. This is O’Neal’s first edtech investment. He did not disclose the amount.
O’Neal said Wallgren understood his passion for helping children and his influence. But it was trying the product that convinced him.
‘When he talked about it, I didn’t believe it. And when he showed it to me, I believed it, O’Neal said.
Wallgren agreed, noting, “I’ve learned that it’s better to show someone what you can do first and then place value on it.”
Edsoma is an app that uses an AI reading assistant to help people learn or improve their reading and communication. The app, which is available on the Google Play Store and Apple App Store, has a free version that allows one child user and up to three books. A $9.99 monthly version expands it to four users, unlimited books, group video calls, and peer reading sessions. The startup also offers a $99.99 annual membership that offers the same features as the monthly subscription.
Edsoma started with just 300 paid users, grew to 1,000, and by the second month had grown to 9,000 users, Wallgren said.
And he already wants to scale up, raise a Series A and even expand to other languages one day. Wallgren said he plans to start a Series A round in a few months and expects to raise between $10 million and $15 million.
“What he (O’Neal) said at the end of the meeting was, ‘Do you think this can help us learn Spanish? And the data showed that we had been downloaded in 11 countries,” Wallgren said. “So when we started looking at it, we thought, yes, this can be used as an ESL tool.”
Wallgren added that Edsoma could eventually expand into reading instruction in other languages, such as Spanish. For now, the company is targeting users in kindergarten through fourth grade, based on the content it has today. Wallgren noted that Edsoma’s technology will ripple through the university and that he has ambitions to become the No. 1 source of literacy in the United States.
“I think I think we can overtake our competitors this year – I really believe that,” Wallgren said. “And I think we can lead the way in that space next year.”