Major technology firms and emerging startups are aiming to leverage generative AI to develop software and hardware for children. Many of these offerings are confined to text or voice interactions, which may not fully engage young users. To address this, three former Google employees have introduced Sparkli, a generative AI-powered interactive app designed to overcome that limitation. Founded last year by Lax Poojary, Lucie Marchand, and Myn Kang, Sparkli originated from the founders' own experiences as parents. Poojary and Kang found themselves unable to fully satisfy their children's curiosity or provide compelling answers to their questions.

"Children are naturally very curious," Poojary explained. "My son would ask how cars work or how it rains. I tried using ChatGPT or Gemini to explain these concepts to a six-year-old, but the result was still just a wall of text. What kids truly desire is an interactive experience."

Before starting Sparkli, Poojary and Kang co-founded Touring Bird, a travel aggregator, and Shoploop, a video-centric social commerce app, within Google’s internal startup incubator, Area 120. Poojary later contributed to shopping initiatives at Google and YouTube. Marchand, who serves as Sparkli's CTO, was also a co-founder of Shoploop and subsequently worked at Google.

Reflecting on educational evolution, Poojary noted, "If a child asked what Mars looked like fifty years ago, we might have shown them a picture. Ten years ago, we might have shown a video. With Sparkli, we want kids to interact and experience what Mars is like."

The startup observes that education systems frequently lag in teaching contemporary subjects. Sparkli aims to instruct children on modern topics such as skills design, financial literacy, and entrepreneurship through AI-powered learning "expeditions."

Within the app, users can explore predefined topics across various categories or ask their own questions to generate a personalized learning path. A new topic is highlighted daily to encourage consistent discovery. Children can choose to listen to a generated voice narration or read the text. Each topic is broken into chapters that blend audio, video, images, quizzes, and games. The app also features choose-your-own-adventure style activities that remove the pressure of right or wrong answers.

Poojary shared that Sparkli uses generative AI to produce all media assets dynamically. The company can create a complete learning experience within two minutes of a user's query and is working to shorten that time further.

While acknowledging that AI assistants can support learning, the startup emphasizes that its primary focus is not merely educational. To ensure effectiveness, Sparkli's first two hires were a PhD holder in educational science and AI, and a teacher. This deliberate choice was made to ground the content in pedagogical principles and better serve children.

Safety is a paramount concern regarding children's use of AI, especially in light of lawsuits against companies like OpenAI and Character.ai, where parents allege the tools encouraged self-harm. Sparkli stated that while topics like sexual content are entirely banned, if a child inquires about sensitive subjects such as self-harm, the app guides them toward understanding emotional intelligence and encourages speaking with a parent.

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 developed a teacher module that enables educators to track student progress and assign homework. Inspired by Duolingo's engagement model, the app incorporates streaks and rewards for regular lesson completion to encourage consistent return visits. It also provides quest cards, tailored to a child's initial avatar, for exploring different topics.

"We've seen a very positive response from our school pilots," said Poojary. "Teachers often use Sparkli to create expeditions that kids explore at the start of class, leading into a more discussion-based format. Some teachers also use it to assign follow-up activities after explaining a topic, allowing kids to explore further and gauge their understanding."

While Sparkli plans to focus on partnering with schools globally in the coming months, it aims to open consumer access and allow parents to download the app by mid-2026. The company has secured $5 million in pre-seed funding led by the Swiss venture firm Founderful, marking the firm's first pure-play edtech investment.

Lukas Wender, Founderful's founding partner, cited the team's technical skill and market opportunity as key reasons for the investment. "As a father of two school-aged children, I see them learning interesting things, but they aren't taught topics like financial literacy or innovation in technology. From a product perspective, I believe Sparkli offers an engaging alternative to video games, letting them learn in an immersive way," Wender said.