Kiwi Crate Announces $5 Million Series A Funding

    MOUNTAIN VIEW, CA, January 19, 2012 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Kiwi Crate announced it has raised Series A funding of $5 million. The company, which launched and announced their seed financing last October, operates a subscription-based service that produces and delivers hands-on activities for kids. The products are designed to inspire creativity and curiosity in children, as well as offer convenience for busy parents, by providing all the necessary materials, ideas and instructions for a variety of activities, delivered monthly.

Kiwi Crate has been enthusiastically embraced by families nationwide, resulting in impressive subscriber growth. In the few months since launch, the demand for Kiwi Crate from busy parents has already far exceeded expectations. As a testament to its strong traction, the Series A funding came entirely from existing investors. Comcast Ventures led the round, and Managing Director Michael Yang will be joining the Board of Directors. Existing investors First Round Capital, Mayfield Fund, Felicis Ventures, Forerunner Ventures, Consigliere Brand Capital, Uj Ventures and 500 Startups, all participated in the round.

"We are extremely excited about the Kiwi Crate vision, as well as the potential synergy with our media platform," said Michael Yang. "As an investor and as a father, I believe the company is solving a real problem for busy parents. From day one, we've heard from parents and kids on how much they just love Kiwi Crate. We believe this opportunity is even bigger than we initially thought, so we jumped at the opportunity to lead the round."

"We've invested in a lot of ecommerce companies. I am very impressed by Kiwi Crate's traction relative to other companies I've seen," said Josh Kopelman, Managing Director of First Round Capital, who is also on the company's Board of Directors. "We are excited to double down on this opportunity to see Kiwi Crate get to the next level."

The investment will be used to further fuel Kiwi Crate's already impressive growth. Specifically, the funding will be used to scale the company, expand its product offering, and grow the already passionate community.

"We appreciate this vote of confidence from our current investors," said Sandra Oh Lin, CEO and founder of Kiwi Crate. With the new funding, we will be able to accelerate our growth to fulfill our vision of becoming the creativity company for kids growing up in the digital age."

Each Kiwi Crate is designed by parents, reviewed by experts, and tested by kids. The rigorous design process has resulted in projects that not only inspire creativity and curiosity in kids, but also brings hands-on learning in science, art, and more into their homes. Based on early community feedback, Kiwi Crate also began offering crates designed for siblings, which has quickly become one of the company's most popular products.

Kiwi Crate subscriptions are available online at http://www.kiwicrate.com. Monthly subscriptions are $19.95 per month. Gift subscriptions and subscriptions for siblings are also available. Kiwi Crate also acts as a resource for kids' activity ideas: http://blog.kiwicrate.com/.

Founded in 2011 by executives from eBay, PayPal, YouTube, and BabyCenter, Kiwi Crate sparks creativity in kids and saves time for busy parents by providing all of the inspiration and materials necessary for a variety of hands-on activities ranging from art, science, crafts, and imaginative play. With monthly deliveries of activities designed to help kids discover, explore, and create things in the world around them, Kiwi Crate brings hands-on fun right to your door. To learn more, visit Kiwi Crate at kiwicrate.com.

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