Big Tech companies and startups are increasingly building generative AI tools for children, but many products rely heavily on text or voice, which may not keep kids engaged. Three former Google employees are aiming to address that gap with Sparkli, a generative AI-powered interactive learning app.
Sparkli was founded last year by Lax Poojary, Lucie Marchand and Myn Kang. Poojary and Kang said they struggled to satisfy their children’s curiosity with existing AI tools, which often return long text responses that are not designed for young learners.
“Kids, by definition, are very curious,” Poojary told TechCrunch. “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.”
Before launching Sparkli, Poojary and Kang co-founded Touring Bird and Shoploop at Google’s Area 120 startup incubator. Marchand, Sparkli’s chief technology officer, also co-founded Shoploop and later worked at Google.
Sparkli is designed to help children explore topics through what the company calls AI-powered learning “expeditions.” The app allows users to select predefined topics or ask their own questions to generate a learning path. It also highlights a new daily topic to encourage continued learning.
Content is delivered through a mix of audio, video, images, quizzes, and games, and the app includes interactive adventures that do not emphasize right or wrong answers. Sparkli said it can generate a full learning experience within two minutes of a child asking a question, and it is working to shorten that time.
The company said its first hires included a PhD holder in educational science and AI and a teacher, aiming to ensure the content is grounded in pedagogy rather than built purely as an AI assistant.
Sparkli also said safety is a key focus. It bans certain topics, including sexual content, and said that if a child asks about self-harm, the app encourages emotional intelligence and prompts them to speak with their parents.
The startup is piloting its app with an institute that has a network of schools serving more than 100,000 students. It is targeting children ages 5 to 12 and tested its product in more than 20 schools last year.
Sparkli has also developed a teacher module that allows educators to assign homework and track student progress. The app includes streaks, rewards and quest cards to keep children engaged.
The company plans to focus on schools globally in the near term and expects to open consumer access for parents by mid-2026.
Sparkli has raised $5 million in pre-seed funding led by Swiss venture firm Founderful.
