Major technology companies and emerging startups are increasingly focused on using generative AI to develop software and hardware for children. However, many of these experiences are confined to text or voice interactions, which may not fully capture a child’s attention. To overcome this limitation, three former Google employees have launched Sparkli, a generative AI-powered interactive app.
Sparkli was founded last year by Lax Poojary, Lucie Marchand, and Myn Kang. As parents, Poojary and Kang found themselves unable to fully satisfy their children’s curiosity or provide engaging answers to their questions. Poojary explained that while he would use tools like ChatGPT to explain concepts to his six-year-old son, the result was still just a wall of text. He noted that children crave an interactive experience, which became the core inspiration for Sparkli.
Prior to Sparkli, Poojary and Kang co-founded a travel aggregator called Touring Bird and a video-focused social commerce app named Shoploop through Google’s internal startup incubator, Area 120. Poojary later worked on shopping initiatives at Google and YouTube. CTO Lucie Marchand was also a co-founder of Shoploop and worked at Google.
Poojary described the evolution of learning tools, stating that fifty years ago a child asking about Mars might have been shown a picture, and ten years ago a video. With Sparkli, the goal is to let children interact with and experience what Mars is like.
The startup believes traditional education systems often lag in teaching modern concepts. Sparkli aims to teach children about topics like design skills, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship through AI-powered learning “expeditions.” The app allows users to explore predefined topics or ask their own questions to generate a personalized learning path. It highlights a new topic daily and presents content through generated voice or text. Each topic includes a mix of audio, video, images, quizzes, and games. The app also features choose-your-own-adventure style journeys that remove the pressure of right or wrong answers.
Poojary mentioned that Sparkli uses generative AI to create all media assets dynamically. The company can produce a complete learning experience within two minutes of a user asking a question and is working to reduce this time further.
While AI assistants can aid learning, Sparkli notes their primary focus isn’t education. To ensure effectiveness, the startup’s first two hires were a PhD in educational science and AI, and a teacher. This decision was made to ground the content in pedagogical principles.
Safety is a paramount concern, especially following lawsuits against other AI companies alleging their tools encouraged harmful behavior in children. Sparkli stated that topics like sexual content are completely banned. If a child asks about sensitive subjects like self-harm, the app is designed to teach emotional intelligence and encourage conversations with parents.
The company is currently piloting its app with an institute connected to a network of schools encompassing over 100,000 students. Its target audience is children aged 5 to 12, and the product was tested in more than 20 schools last year.
Sparkli has also built a teacher module that allows educators to track student progress and assign homework. Inspired by platforms like Duolingo, the app incorporates streaks, rewards, and quest cards to encourage regular engagement and return usage.
The school pilots have received a very positive response. Teachers use Sparkli to create introductory expeditions that lead into class discussions, or to assign exploratory homework that measures student understanding.
While Sparkli plans to primarily partner with schools globally in the coming months, it aims to open consumer access for parents to download the app by mid-2026.
The company has raised $5 million in pre-seed funding led by the Swiss venture firm Founderful. This marks Founderful’s first pure-play edtech investment. The firm’s founding partner, Lukas Wender, cited the team’s technical skill and the market opportunity as key reasons for the investment. As a father, Wender observed that his own children learn interesting things in school but miss topics like financial literacy. He believes Sparkli offers an immersive learning alternative that can engage children away from video games.