Hodoo Labs raises 10.5 billion won in Series A funding

Edtech startup Hodoo Labs, which offers the game-based English learning service Hodoo English, announced on the 5th that it had raised 10.5 billion won in a Series A round led by a consortium including NPX Capital, Dawon Asset Management, the Small and Medium Business Corporation, POSCO Technology Investment, and AlpenRoute.

Hodoo Labs was founded in late 2018 by professionals from gaming and tech companies such as Samsung SDS, Gravity, and NCSoft, along with experts from leading education companies including Woongjin Thinkbig, ST Unitas, and Pagoda. The company received a 5 billion won seed investment from Core Asset Management last year and has continued to expand its business. It is accelerating membership growth with the launch of the mobile version of Hodoo English in July. In June, it was recognized for its technology as the only edtech company among 40 firms selected for the “Baby Unicorn” program run by the Ministry of SMEs and Startups and the Korea Institute of Startup & Entrepreneurship Development.

Hodoo Labs’ proprietary speech recognition engine, developed using technology from the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI), is continually improving through machine learning on an average of 600,000 voice recordings from children each day, optimizing it for children’s speech. In 2019, the company’s technology and Hodoo English content helped it secure an IP export deal worth approximately $1.5 million with a Japanese company. It is also in discussions with local companies in Vietnam and Malaysia. In the first half of 2020, as online classes and remote learning became essential for households due to COVID-19, the service has become an alternative for many parents seeking English-speaking instruction. The company is also fulfilling its social responsibility during the pandemic by donating educational services to local elementary schools and centers for people with disabilities.

Jung Min-joong, CEO of NPX Capital, which led the investment, said, “We expect the edtech market to continue growing. We decided to invest in Hodoo Labs because we believe it has the technology and expertise to successfully bring the engaging and motivating aspects of games into education.”

With the investment, Hodoo Labs plans to build on its flagship content, Hodoo English, by incorporating AI-based learning analytics. It aims to become a global platform company offering personalized lifelong learning services, and will focus on establishing the business foundation for global expansion and recruiting talent across fields including digital platforms, speech recognition, VR, big data, and educational psychology.

Hodoo Labs founder and CEO Kim Min-woo said, “Our mission is to use the latest technology to provide high-quality education at a reasonable cost, help close the education gap, and support children in becoming lifelong learners. We will continue investing in the latest technology to deliver on this mission. We will expand overseas with Hodoo English, analyze the data generated there, and use those insights to develop a platform offering personalized lifelong learning services. We aim to grow the company into one that helps countless learners become lifelong learners, regardless of age or ability to pay.”

Hodoo Labs: https://www.hodooenglish.com/