Sri Lankan STEM Education Startup Magicbit Raises $120K from Angel Fund

Magicbit, an easy-to-use STEM education platform, has raised $120,000 in its pre-seed financing round led by Sri Lanka’s Angel Fund.

The round also saw participation from Hyperion Ventures and Avarna Ventures along with five angel investors including Devaka Randeniya (Chief Revenue Officer, WSO2), Hasith Yaggahavita (CTO, 99x), Mano Sekaram (Founder/CEO, 99x), Dr. Romesh Ranawana (Founder/CEO, Enterprise Machine Learning Ltd), and Roshan Rajappa (Head of Operations, Siden).

Magicbit allows students as young as 10 years to build inventions using technologies like the Internet of Things (IoT), robotics, programming, electronics, and artificial intelligence. 

Speaking about the company, Migara Amithodhana, Co-Founder and CEO of Magicbit, said,

“Magicbit’s purpose is to make STEM education easy, accessible, and affordable to kids around the world. We aim to fill the gap created by BBC micro:bit and Raspberry Pi. We have created the hardware, software, mobile app, and free content forming an innovative ecosystem. Furthermore, we have built a community of over 5,000 STEM enthusiasts. With Magicbit, a 10-year-old can create an IoT project in under 10 minutes.”

With the support of the Angel Fund and the funding raised, the Magicbit team plans to take their award-winning platform to global markets. The platform recently concluded a successful Kickstarter campaign that reached customers in more than 30 countries.

Commenting on the investment, Chandi Dharmaratne, Chairperson of Lanka Angel Network, said,

“We are delighted to lead this round of investment into Magicbit. As our second investment this year, we are truly excited by the promise we see in Magicbit’s business model and see tremendous opportunity for the company to reach global markets. As we go forward, we are looking to ramp up our investments in more Sri Lankan startups who show great potential to scale globally.”

The Angel Fund was established by the Lanka Angel Network (LAN), with the support of ecosystem development partner Ford Foundation, with the goal of fast-tracking growth in Sri Lanka’s startup sector.

Roshan Rajappa, Head of Operations at Siden, also commented,

“I’m extremely excited to partner with Magicbit’s founding team to expand exponentially and bring this innovative tool to more users globally. I would like to see Magicbit play an important role in the world stage of STEM. Having been part of Blackberry and Sonos from the time they were startups, I have seen first-hand the importance of providing leadership and mentorship for startups to scale to reach new markets. With these experiences, I hope I can provide my perspective to the future of Magicbit.”

Magicbit was one of three local startups that were awarded with a sponsored 8-week programme to explore European markets from Berlin at the AsiaBerlin Summit 2021. Additionally, the company is set to represent Sri Lanka at the Entrepreneurship World Cup (EWC) 2021, where they will compete against other national winners from 200 countries.

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About the Author

Author: Stephen Soulunii

No more a student, but love to learn. Not a teacher, but care about how students are taught. Not an educator, but want everyone to be educated. Not a social worker, but desire to see change. Not a reformer, but always want to see a better world. The author believes that only sound education can bring a better future, better world and technology can help achieve a lot in this field.

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