San Francisco, California – Monkimun, an award-winning educational technology company that makes language learning for toddlers and kids fun, today announced it landed $1M in seed funding to expand its adaptive learning platform and apps portfolio. Monkimun’s technology uniquely targets children ages two to six, during the time when their brains are at their most flexible stage and cognitively suited to learning a second language.
Monkimun participated in 500 Startups’ accelerator program (batch 10) last year. Now they’ve raised capital from a global set of investors to help with international expansion. Some of the investors in this round include 500 Startups, Singapore based Incuvest, Japanese based SHOzemi Innovation Ventures CVC arm of one of the biggest after-school chains in the country, Spanish based Lanzame Capital and angel investors Ian Noel, Iaki Arrola and Carina Szpilka ex-CEO of ING direct Bank France-Spain.
Out of beta just six months, the San Francisco-Madrid based startup is challenging market incumbents by delivering language learning to a younger audience at a time when it is easier for them to become multilingual. Rather than gamifying education Monkimun focuses on edufying games, a new paradigm in the edutainment space. This approach has earned Monkimun rapid, consistent 15 percent month-over-month growth and more than 1,000,000 downloads in six months, as parents clearly recognize that children who become multilingual reap lifelong advantages, including better test scores (especially in math, reading, and vocabulary), and enhanced memory, planning and multi-tasking skills.
“Currently more than 20,000 kids across the world are learning languages with Monkimun on a daily basis, the equivalent of 1,000 classrooms filled with students every day. Even better, we have hundreds of thousands monthly active learners, making us the leading language learning company for preschoolers,” said Cristobal Viedma, CEO and co-founder. “There is great demand for digital language learning for this age group, as they have been underserved by current offerings and parents worldwide want to give their children the very best foundation for future success and recognize that helping them become multilingual helps. Our apps facilitate language learning for that age range in the easiest possible way.”
Monkimun now offers five apps in English, Spanish and Chinese, which have won awards including Best Android App of 2014 by Google. The company will soon release a subscription platform that integrates all lessons and content to offer a one stop shop for parents looking to raise multilingual kids. According to market research firm Ambient Insight, well-known competitive intelligence experts in the global learning technology industry, the worldwide market just for digital English language learning products revenue is projected to surge to $3.1 billion by 2018.
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Monkimun, a San Francisco based startup founded in 2014, is an award-winning company that makes Language Learning for Kids(TM) fun. We create a safe environment for children 2-6 years old where learning just happens. All Material and Software (C) Copyright 2015 Monkimun. All Rights Reserved. Apple, the Apple logo, iPhone, iPod and iPad are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other trademarks and registered trademarks may be the property of their respective owners.