Edtech startup Wonder Workshop announced it has secured $41 million in Series C financing. Investors who participated in the funding include Tencent Holdings, Madrona Venture Group, and SoftBank Ventures Korea.
Wonder Workshop was founded in 2012 by Vikas Gupta, Saurabh Gupta, and Mikal Greaves, who wanted to encourage children’s interest in STEM learning by making coding fun. The company’s best known products are Dash and Dot, which are robots designed with special lights, sounds, and sensors that kids can manipulate using basic programming and the help of accompanying mobile apps. According to the company, Dash and Dot robots are used in 7,000 elementary school classrooms in more than 37 countries. The toys have also been endorsed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and they won the 2015 Toy of the Year Award by Good Housekeeping magazine.
In its announcement, Wonder Workshop said it plans to use the funds to expand its software platform, while pushing deeper into the consumer market and investing in its bread-and-butter area of selling to schools.