Big technology companies and a growing crop of startups are racing to use generative artificial intelligence to build software and hardware for children.
Most of those efforts, however, still lean heavily on text or voice-based interfaces — formats that often struggle to hold a child’s attention. Three former Google employees believe that gap is precisely where their new startup, Sparkli, has an opening, according to TechCrunch.
Founded last year by Lax Poojary, Lucie Marchand, and Myn Kang, Sparkli is an AI-powered interactive learning app designed to turn children’s questions into immersive, multimedia “expeditions.” The founders say the idea emerged from a practical frustration they experienced as parents.
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“Kids, by definition, are very curious,” Poojary said in an interview. “My son would ask me questions about how cars work or how it rains. I would try using tools like ChatGPT or Gemini to explain these concepts to a six-year-old, but that’s still a wall of text. What kids want is an interactive experience.”
The team behind Sparkli brings deep experience inside Google’s ecosystem. Before this venture, Poojary and Kang co-founded Touring Bird, a travel aggregator, and Shoploop, a video-focused social commerce app, both developed within Google’s Area 120 internal incubator. Poojary later worked on shopping products across Google and YouTube. Marchand, now Sparkli’s chief technology officer, also co-founded Shoploop and went on to work at Google.
That background shapes Sparkli’s core pitch: generative AI should not just answer questions, but create experiences. Poojary explains the evolution this way: years ago, a child curious about Mars might have been shown a picture; later, a video. Sparkli aims to let children explore and interact with what Mars might feel like, rather than passively consuming information.
At a time when many education systems struggle to keep pace with rapid technological change, Sparkli is positioning itself as a supplement rather than a replacement for classrooms. The app focuses on topics that are often underrepresented in traditional curricula, including financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and design skills. Each topic becomes an AI-generated learning journey, built on demand.
Children can choose from predefined subjects or ask their own questions, which the system then turns into a structured learning path. Each topic is broken into chapters that combine audio narration, text, images, video clips, quizzes, and games. The app also features daily highlighted topics to encourage regular exploration, as well as “choose-your-own-adventure” style paths that remove the pressure of right-or-wrong answers.
Under the hood, Sparkli relies heavily on generative AI to produce its content in real time. The company says it can generate a complete learning experience within about two minutes of a child asking a question, and that it is working to shorten that turnaround further. This on-the-fly approach allows the app to adapt to a wide range of interests without relying on a fixed content library.
The founders are careful to draw a distinction between Sparkli and general-purpose AI assistants. While chatbots can explain concepts, Poojary argues they are not designed with children’s cognitive development in mind. To address that, Sparkli’s first hires included a PhD-trained specialist in educational science and AI, as well as a classroom teacher. The goal, the company says, is to ensure that pedagogy — not just technology — shapes how content is delivered.
Safety is another central concern, particularly as AI tools for children face growing scrutiny. OpenAI and Character.ai are among the companies facing lawsuits from parents who allege their products encouraged harmful behavior. Sparkli says it has taken a more restrictive approach. Certain topics, such as sexual content, are entirely blocked. When children ask about sensitive issues like self-harm, the app shifts toward teaching emotional intelligence and encourages conversations with parents, rather than attempting to handle the issue autonomously.
So far, Sparkli’s early traction has come through schools. The company is piloting the app with an educational institute that serves a network of schools reaching more than 100,000 students. Its current target audience is children aged five to twelve, and it tested the product in more than 20 schools last year.
To support classroom use, Sparkli has built a teacher module that allows educators to assign content, track progress, and set homework. Teachers can use the app to introduce a topic at the start of a lesson, then transition into discussion, or to extend learning after class. According to Poojary, feedback from these pilots has been encouraging, with teachers using Sparkli both as a teaching aid and as a way to gauge student understanding.
The app borrows engagement mechanics from consumer platforms such as Duolingo, including streaks, rewards, and personalised avatars. Children earn quest cards linked to their avatars as they complete lessons, an approach the company hopes will make learning feel closer to play than to homework.
For now, Sparkli plans to focus on partnerships with schools globally. Consumer access, allowing parents to download the app directly, is expected to follow by mid-2026.
The startup recently raised $5 million in pre-seed funding led by Swiss venture firm Founderful, marking the firm’s first investment focused purely on education technology. Founderful’s founding partner, Lukas Wender, said the decision was driven by both the team’s technical background and the perceived gap in what children are taught.
“As a father of two kids in school, I see them learning interesting things, but not topics like financial literacy or innovation in technology,” Wender said. “From a product point of view, Sparkli gets them away from video games and lets them learn in an immersive way.”
Sparkli’s bet is that the future of learning for children will depend less on answers and more on experiences — and that making AI engaging, safe, and pedagogically sound may be the real challenge ahead.