GLOBAL: 10 MINUTES WITH...
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minutes with… MarcoPolo Learning Educational media provider MarcoPolo Learning developed a product that reaches some 500 million households across the world. Patrick Dumas, an investor and the company’s head of business development, sets out its strategy as it looks to cap off a $15 million funding round amid a crisis that catalysed an unprecedented shift to home learning To begin with, give us the elevator pitch for MarcoPolo and run us through the company’s origins MarcoPolo Learning is a rapidly growing educational media company for children aged 0-8. The company was started by two regular dads who realised that there weren’t any interactive tools out there to help their own children to explore the world. So, they brought together a team of PhD early childhood education specialists and children’s media experts to help create these products for families all over the world. Around 90% of the brain develops before the age of seven and there are estimates that some 80% of children entering school today will work in jobs which currently do not exist, so it is super-important to prepare children for the 21st century and give them the necessary skills to succeed whatever the future may hold. MarcoPolo is well on the way to realising its mission of helping provide high-quality, interactive learning content to millions of children at an age when it matters most. The current Covid-19 situation is very supportive for online learning and has expedited the necessity for at home-learning resources. MarcoPolo is exceptionally well positioned to benefit from this surge in home learning demand.
Tell us about your funding rounds to date and what you have accomplished with deployed capital To date, MarcoPolo has raised approximately $26 million, the majority of which has been invested into developing technology, intellectual property (IP) and content. Some accomplishments:
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• 10 million organic downloads in over 100 countries • Reached number one in over 70 countries and won numerous awards • Nominated for an Emmy and also won one of the most prestigious awards in the children’s space – Best Learning App 2019 - Original Preschool – at one of the main events for children’s media globally, Kidscreen, in Miami • Launched 52-episode TV series called ‘The Polos’. This was produced by the anchor investor of our Series A, Boat Rocker Media. Licensing deals closed worldwide, including with Discovery Family (US), Nat Geo (LatAm) and Viacom (India). The show now has a reach to some 500 million households globally, and recently launched at number one in the kids’ section on Alibaba-owned Youku in China.
You’re in the middle of fresh funding round. Can you tell us about that – what you’ve raised so far, how much left to go, what the money will be spent on, and so on? We are currently raising a $15 million round and have already closed approximately $9 million. The lead investor of the round is New Oriental, which is one of the largest education companies in the world, based in China and listed in New York. Now that MarcoPolo has reached a critical mass of IP, our core focus is on distribution and sales, so we plan to use this capital for building the growth, marketing and sales side of the business.
EducationInvestor Global • June 2020
