Former Googlers have released a really cool educational app for kids between the ages of 5-12 called Sparkli. This new interactive app, completely shaped by generative artificial intelligence, aims to deliver exciting and impactful learning experiences that cater to a young audience. Founders Lax Poojary, Lucie Marchand, and Myn Kang are leveraging their tech and education backgrounds. They’re doing an incredible job at making concepts such as Mars exploration fun and approachable for children!
Sparkli has been in development and in beta testing over the past year in more than 20 schools. The game has proven to be a huge success in the hands of educators and students alike. The app’s artificial intelligence technology creates a real-time, dynamic learning experience only two minutes after a user asks a question. This design creates an experience where kids are empowered to ask questions and learn more about everything. Every day, Sparkli brings a new topic to explore, inviting children to learn something new and fostering their built-in curiosity.
The company officially launched in January, recently closing a $5 million round of pre-seed financing. This investment, led by Founderful, is their first pure-play edtech venture. This funding will help Sparkli accelerate its mission to mainly work with schools all over the world in the upcoming months. The founders are deeply committed to achieving transformational educational outcomes even within the constraints of formal school settings. They have committed to doing this before providing consumers wider access. Parents looking to make the trip with their children will find the app available for download by then mid-2026.
Poojary told us that his experiences as a parent inspired him to create Sparkli. These first-person perspectives were instrumental in informing the app’s development from the start.
“Kids, by definition, are very curious, and my son would ask me questions about how cars work or how it rains. My approach was to use ChatGPT or Gemini to explain these concepts to a six-year-old, but that is still a wall of text. What kids want is an interactive experience. This was our core process behind founding Sparkli,” – Lax Poojary.
Sparkli’s design draws inspiration from popular applications like Duolingo, aiming to create an engaging user experience that captivates young learners. This app goes beyond being simply interactive. It pushes kids to critically think and interact with the ideas they’re learning about. The moment a child asks, “What does Mars look like?” Boom. Sparkli to the rescue! Rather than simply displaying a series of static images, it transforms them into an immersive environment to better deliver the message.
The pilot phase of Sparkli included collaborations with an educational institution that manages a network of schools catering to over 100,000 students. This formative testing ground was imperative to understanding how teachers can realistically implement the app into their daily lesson plans.
Sparkli’s first employees were a PhD in educational science and AI, and a veteran teacher. This approach helps maximize the app’s educational value by prioritizing research-based best practices in learning techniques. This unique combination of talents has paved the way for Sparkli to create content that’s both enjoyable and educationally appropriate.
“We have seen a very positive response from our school pilots. Teachers often use Sparkli to create expeditions that kids can explore at the start of the class and lead them into a more discussion-based format. Some teachers also used it to create homework after they explain a topic to let kids explore further and get a measure of their understanding,” – Lax Poojary.
Lukas Weder, another founder, emphasized the gaps in traditional education that Sparkli aims to fill:
Balancing interactivity with educational robustness, Sparkli chases a vision of creating smarter and more engaged learners by improving the way children learn at home. By providing immediate answers and encouraging exploration of diverse topics, the app promises to foster a love for learning in young users.
“As a father of two kids who are in school now, I see them learning interesting stuff, but they don’t learn topics like financial literacy or innovation in technology. I thought from a product point of view, Sparkli gets them away from video games and lets them learn stuff in an immersive way,” – Lukas Weder.
With the dual focus on interactivity and educational depth, Sparkli aims to redefine how children engage with learning materials. By providing immediate answers and encouraging exploration of diverse topics, the app promises to foster a love for learning in young users.