Sparkli is a new generative-AI app that turns questions into interactive quests, promising to make learning for children more engaging than text-heavy chatbots.
Sparkli was founded last year by former Google employees Lax Poojary, Lucie Marchand, and Myn Kang. The trio built the app after noticing that parents, including Poojary and Kang, struggled to answer their children’s curiosity with anything beyond long paragraphs. The company says it can generate a complete learning experience in under two minutes.
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At a Glance
- Sparkli turns kids’ questions into interactive adventures powered by generative AI.
- The app is targeting 5-12-year-olds and is currently piloting in over 20 schools.
- Sparkli raised $5 million in pre-seed funding from Founderful.
- Why it matters: It could replace traditional textbook-style learning with on-demand, multimedia quests.
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Founders and Vision
Poojary, Marchand, and Kang previously co-founded Touring Bird and Shoploop at Google’s Area 120. Poojary later worked on shopping at YouTube. Marchand, now Sparkli’s CTO, also helped launch Shoploop.
> “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,” Poojary told Olivia Bennett Harris over a call.
The founders’ goal is to let children “interact and experience what Mars is like” instead of just seeing a picture or a video.
Product Features
Sparkli lets kids:
- Explore predefined topics across categories or ask their own questions to create a custom learning path.
- Receive a new topic each day to keep the content fresh.
- Choose how they learn: listen to generated voice or read the text.
- Dive into chapters that mix audio, video, images, quizzes, and games.
- Join choose-as-you-go adventures that avoid pressure from right-or-wrong answers.
The app also:
- Generates all media assets on the fly using generative AI.
- Offers a teacher module for tracking progress and assigning homework.
- Includes streaks, rewards, and quest cards tied to the child’s avatar.
> “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,” Poojary said.
Safety and Pedagogy
Sparkli explicitly bans sexual content. When a child asks about self-harm, the app attempts to teach emotional intelligence and encourages parents to intervene.
To ensure educational quality, the first two hires were a PhD in educational science and AI and a teacher. The founders say this decision keeps pedagogical principles at the forefront.
Pilot Programs and Growth
The startup is piloting its app with an institute that serves a network of schools with over 100,000 students. It has tested the product in more than 20 schools last year.
Sparkli plans to work primarily with schools globally for the next few months but aims to open consumer access by 2026.
Funding and Future Plans
Sparkli raised $5 million in pre-seed funding led by Swiss venture firm Founderful. This is Founderful’s first pure-play edtech investment.
Founderful’s founding partner Lukas Wender explained the motivation:
> “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,” Wender said.
The company’s next steps include expanding its teacher module, refining the AI generation speed, and rolling out the consumer app in the fall of 2026.
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Key Takeaways
- Sparkli uses generative AI to create interactive learning experiences in under two minutes.
- The app is already being tested in over 20 schools and targets children aged 5-12.
- Funding of $5 million signals confidence in the edtech market.
- Safety measures and pedagogical hires aim to keep the content child-friendly and educational.
