Trip Hawkins’s new startup venture, US-based If You Can Company, has secured $6.5m series A funding. The startup is Trip Hawkins’s third large-scale gaming venture. His previous ventures include Electronic Arts and Digital Chocolate.
The round was led by Greylock Partners and was joined by Almaz Capital among other investors. The company had previously succeeded in raising seed funding amounting to $2.8m from Andreessen Horowitz, Founder’s Fund, Maveron and several others. The recently procured funding would raise If You Can Company’s total funding to $9.3m. David Sze, partner at Greylock Partners is joining the Board of Directors at If You Can Company.
“We always look to invest in companies with a strong team and an innovative product that is solving a real problem; Trip Hawkins and the rest of the company have this in spades,” said Sze. “We are proud to be a part of the If You Can journey as they pioneer a new learning model for apps and education.”
If You Can Company’s technology uses gameplay to teach children social and emotional learning (SEL) skills aimed at improving the lives of children in school and outside. It equips children with key skills to tackle life challenges such as handling bullying, managing difficult emotions and confronting academic challenges. Additionally, its app helps parents provide essential support to their children.
“Almost every school-aged kid plays games and research shows that playing video games opens the ‘learning centers’ in children’s brains,” said Trip Hawkins, founder and CEO at If You Can, “We have brought together some of the most successful video game creators in history with national experts in SEL to harness this potential and use a game to teach children life skills to thrive both in school and out of school.”
The company also announced that the newest addition to its franchise, an iPad game “IF…”, which is now available to download for free in the App Store on iTunes.
A chapter-based adventure game, “IF…” draws from several academic and research publications as well as school-based SEL programs. The game helps its young users to learn and develop social and emotional skills (SEL) with the help of interaction and popular game-play mechanisms.
“Although our team includes some of the most renowned game creators in history, leaders of national educational organizations and experts in the field of Social and Emotional Learning, we’re also moms, dads, aunts and uncles; we’re teachers, volunteers and concerned citizens,” said Jessica Berlinski, co-founder of If You Can Company, “We all share one common goal: we want to make this world a better place, and we believe that empowering and supporting children with these skills are a big part of how to do that.”