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  • Fri
    07
    Feb
    2014

    Inventus Capital leads $3.25M in Series A in developer of children's digital book app FarFaria

    California-based Intuary Inc, which provides FarFaria, an iPad app for digital books for kids, has closed $3.25 million in a Series A round of funding led by Inventus Capital Partners to grow its library and also to add more devices.

    As part of the deal, Manu Rekhi from Inventus Capital has joined Intuary's board.

    Intuary was co-founded by Ajay Godhwani (CEO), an alumnus of University of Illinois, and Gennady Borukhovich (CTO) who studied engineering at Rutgers University.

    Its flagship product FarFaria is an iPad digital books app targeted at children aged two-nine. This app gives kids unlimited access to over 600 illustrated children's books, with five new stories added each week, for $3.99 a month. The firm claims its engaging story-discovery features make it easy for kids to find new stories and fuel their love for reading. It provides an interactive book-finding experience for kids and stories can be read aloud with its Read-to-Me feature.

    "Getting kids excited about reading is the best way to set them up for a successful education and a bright future. We are on a mission to make reading more accessible and more fun for children. We see this mission as a global one that can have a massive impact, and we're thrilled to have Inventus behind us," said Godhwani.

    Intuary had previously also developed Verbally, a free augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) aid for people with a speech disability caused by apraxia, ALS, stroke, traumatic brain injury, Parkinson's, cerebral palsy, autism spectrum disorder, muscular dystrophy, etc.

    Inventus is an India-focused early-stage investment firm, which recently raised its second VC fund at $106 million. The new fund, which was originally targeting $100 million, will invest in 20-25 companies operating in the digital services sector, particularly in consumer & business software and technology-enabled services. Although it chases Indian startups, it invests in cross-over firms with Indo-US link.

    The firm has already invested in a few firms from its new fund, including Unbxd (a product recommendation platform for e-commerce companies), Espresso Logic (a database backend services provider for mobile and web developers), PolicyBazaar (online insurance policy aggregator) and eDreams (a startup focused on the education industry), in India.

    "With 40 per cent of children between the ages of two and nine owning their own tablets in the US, companies like FarFaria have an incredible growth potential," said Manu Rekhi.

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