Kidaptive, an edtech startup based in Palo Alto, has raised a $10.1m series B led by venture firm Formation 8 and including the participation of animation studio Prana Studios.
Other backers include the Stanford-StartX Fund, set up earlier in the year to invest in Stanford-incubated startups, venture firms Menlo Ventures and NewSchools Venture Fund, and animation studio Prana Studios.
The firm plans to use the latest round of funding, which follows a seed round of undisclosed size in 2012, to continue developing and growing its curriculum-based learning platform. The company plans to develop 25 animated ‘appisodes’ of its preschool iPad-based learning series, Leo’s Pad.
P.J. Gunsagar, co-founder and chief executive of Kidaptive, said: “Kids are increasingly spending more minutes on screen time each day, but parents don’t yet have a great readout on what they’re learning from these activities or even what’s capturing their imagination. We can do so much more with tablet time for our kids than use it as a digital babysitter. We’re excited about the value we can create for parents by helping them to become informed participants during a critical time in their children’s early education.”
Kidaptive is building on research into educational games originating from Stanford.
This article first appeared in Global University Venturing.