Helping Children Get Ahead With Kidovo

You might call it making a virtue out of necessity. Most parents are reconciled to their children spending lots of time on digital devices – so why not harness that time for good, by ensuring they’re learning when they’re staring at a screen. Among a growing number of educational apps that aim to help parents do exactly that, Kidovo is today announcing the completion of a $1.2 million seed funding round.

“Parents are looking for platforms that will really engage their kids,” says Sameer Goyal, who co-founded Kidovo with Rahul Bhatnagar, building an interactive experience that introduces children to new topics and stops them being simply passive consumers. “We can have a really positive impact.”

Goyal and Bhatnagar, two technology sector veterans who originally met during stints at Amazon, believe Kidovo has the potential to make a splash in what promises to be a large market. Research published at the end of last year by Technavio predicted the educational apps market would grow at an average rate of 29% a year over five years to 2028. The Covid-19 pandemic increased familiarity with online education, the research points out, with policymakers keen to harness technology on an ongoing basis. “Governments across the world will fuel the growth of the global education apps market,” Technavio predicts.

Perhaps surprisingly, however, market leaders have been relatively slow to emerge, particularly for apps aimed at younger kids – Kidovo is focused on children aged two to eight. The business certainly won’t have the market to itself. Established players such as Khan Academy and ABCmouse.com have already attracted significant numbers of subscribers; other competitors include the likes of Lingokids and Kiddopia. However, no single provider has established a dominant position, and Goyal claimsKidovo has found important points of differentiation.

“Unlike some of our peers, we’re not trying to produce our own content, but licensing high-quality material from other providers,” he says. Deals with creators such as SciShow Kids, Kiboomers, Learning Mole will give kids access to a large and growing range of content, Goyal points out, meaning they won’t get bored and disengaged. He also wants to focus on fun and self-guided learning. “Some platforms are very focused on specific academic outcomes or learning journeys, but we’re keen to give kids more agency.”

In addition, Kidovo’s founders have used their experience working with artificial intelligence tools to build a recommendation engine that analyses what users are enjoying and helps them find similar content to consume next. “It’s a personalised approach to learning,” Goyal adds.

Importantly, Kidovo has secured recognition from organisations such as KidSafe and the Educational App Store, with content curated in line with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (Coppa), the US legislation designed to protect younger children from online harms.

Kidovo soft launched last year, but initially focused on developing and fine-tuning the app with around 60 families; since then, it has attracted around 4,000 registered family users. Goyal and Bhatnagar now plan to move a fully commercial model, introducing a subscription charge of $9.99 a month for the app.

The majority of Kidovo’s existing users are in North America and Europe, with the app restricted for now to an English-speaking audience. The founders hope word-of-mouth will help spread the message and drive growth. “Product quality is the most important thing,” says Goyal. “You’re marketing something to parents, who are rightfully very sceptical, so you have to earn their trust; if they then recommend us to other parents, that’s hugely powerful.”

This is one reason why Kidovo is determined to focus on the parent experience as well as that of their kids. The platform provides parents with key moments from their kids’ activity on the platform that they might otherwise have missed – they can hear their kids speak and see what they drew, for example. Parents also get tips on activities and conversations that will enable them to engage with their kids based on their activity on the platform.

The company’s seed funding will help Kidovo to evolve the offer further as it moves into its commercialisation phase. The $1.2 million round was led by Venture Highway, Amplify PCC and Good Capital, with involvement from a number of business angels.