Auckland edutech startup Kami raises NZ$1.5 million round led by Right Click Capital

Auckland edutech startup Kami has raised $1.42 million (NZ$1.5 million) in funding led by Australian venture capital firm Right Click Capital.

Founded by Hengjie Wang, Alliv Samson, and Jordan Thoms in 2013, Kami is a document annotation app, allowing teachers and students to annotate, view, edit, and collaborate on PDFs and other digital documents.

With over six million users across more than 130 countries already on board, the funding will go towards helping Kami scale its operations as it looks to focus in particular on growth in North America and Europe.

Wang said he is “thrilled” to have the backing of Right Click Capital, and will be looking to leverage the firm’s place in the global Draper Venture Network to help push further growth.

“Our mission is to transition classrooms to paperless work so that teachers and students can collaborate more efficiently, save time and positively impact the environment,” he said.

“Kami allows teachers and students to participate in a more engaging classroom experience – a shift away from the current one-way dialogue from teachers to students.”

Garry Visontay, partner at Right Click Capital, said the firm is delighted to back Wang and the Kami team.

“Kami has revolutionised how teachers and students interact in the classroom, improving the overall learning experience. There is strong demand for a web application like Kami in the education sector, as evidenced by the significant inroads the Kami team have made in the North American market.”

Elsewhere in Auckland, travel startup Authentic, which trades as MyTours, has been acquired by American company OnCell.

Launched in 2009, MyTours allows customers to turn the likes of museum guides and city tours into their own mobile apps.

Announcing the news in a blog post, Authentic cofounder Glen Barnes explained that with OnCell one of the company’s key competitors, he has been speaking to its CEO Thomas Dunne “on and off for the last couple of years”.

“Thomas and I have been speaking on and off for the last couple of years. We both saw plenty of benefits for our companies to combine, and we have very similar views on where want to take our platforms, but the timing was never quite right. So we are both super excited about this new joint venture,” he said.

In merging with OnCell, Barnes said MyTours will have a “bigger and better global presence”.

“Our combined product suite will allow us to pick the best solution for you backed with a whole lot of expertise,” he explained.