Eight Times Eight, an education technology platform that provides best online chess training for kids, students of beginner, intermediate and advanced levels, has raised $5 million in pre-Seed funding in September this year.
The Kerala-based company will use the fresh capital to accelerate product development, scale operations sales, and hire new team members. It also plans to develop the Learning Management System and strengthen the technology stack. Eight Times Eight aims to open physical centres in a calculated move to switch to hybrid mode with the same.
Founded in 2020 by six college students who are international-level chess players, Eight Times Eight currently offers live, interactive chess classes to students in 20+ countries. They will also be launching India’s first-ever chess kit, which consists of a beautifully designed chess board, a chess workbook, and animated chess videos that will make learning the game fun and exciting.
Eight Times Eight is on a mission to popularise chess among children and, thereby, advance their life skills with the game. Chess has an intellectual image in front of people, and there is a myth that only smart people play chess. The startup wants to debunk this myth and prove otherwise.
Talking about the platform, Co-founder & CEO of Eight Times Eight, Abhijith said:
Chess is not just a game, but a key life skill and has the potential to silently transform the lives of individuals. It can create champions both on and off the board. The funds we have received will certainly feed into our dream of popularising chess. We are building a community throughout the world and the domain expertise that we have in this field will surely be beneficial.
The syllabus for the Eight Times Eight workbook has been curated by their ambassador, Grand Master SL Narayanan, a former India No. 4, Commonwealth Silver medallist, and a member of the Indian Olympiad Chess Team. It’s online sessions make the child more productive not just at Chess but in school and in life. The training batches consist of a mix of students from India, USA, Europe, Canada, Singapore, China, Middle East.
The co-founders of Eight Times Eight have represented India at global events. They began working on a full-time basis in September 2021.
