A trio of former Google employees is developing an interactive AI-powered learning app called Sparkli, designed to make education engaging and dynamic for children aged 5 to 12. The founders—Lax Poojary, Lucie Marchand, and Myn Kang—were inspired by their own experiences as parents struggling to answer their kids’ endless questions in a way that was both accurate and captivating. While tools like ChatGPT and Gemini could provide explanations, they often delivered information as dense blocks of text, which didn’t hold children’s attention. Poojary and Kang previously co-founded travel tech startup Touring Bird and social commerce app Shoploop at Google’s Area 120 incubator. Marchand, Sparkli’s CTO, was also a co-founder of Shoploop and later worked at Google. Their shared background in product development and user experience helped shape Sparkli’s vision: to transform learning into immersive, interactive adventures. Instead of static content, Sparkli uses generative AI to create dynamic learning experiences on the fly. When a child asks, “What was Mars like 50 years ago?” the app doesn’t just show a picture or video—it creates a personalized journey. Kids can explore, interact, and experience Mars through a mix of audio, video, images, quizzes, games, and choose-your-own-adventure-style paths. The app generates full learning modules in under two minutes and aims to reduce that time further. Sparkli focuses on modern, often overlooked topics like financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and innovation, which are typically absent from standard school curricula. Each day, the app highlights a new topic to encourage daily learning. It also features a teacher module that allows educators to assign lessons, track student progress, and use Sparkli as a springboard for classroom discussions. Safety is a top priority. Sparkli blocks explicit content and handles sensitive topics like self-harm with care. Rather than providing direct answers, the app teaches emotional intelligence and guides children to talk to a trusted adult. The team made a deliberate choice to hire a PhD in educational science and an experienced teacher early on to ensure content aligns with pedagogical principles. The app has been tested in over 20 schools and is currently piloting with a network of institutions serving more than 100,000 students. Teachers report positive results, using Sparkli to launch classroom discussions and assign exploratory homework. The app incorporates gamification elements like streaks, rewards, and personalized quest cards to keep kids motivated and coming back. Sparkli has raised $5 million in pre-seed funding led by Swiss venture firm Founderful, which marked its first pure-play edtech investment. Founderful’s Lukas Wender, a father of two, praised the team’s technical expertise and the app’s potential to shift kids away from passive screen time toward active, meaningful learning. While Sparkli is initially focused on partnerships with schools, the founders plan to launch a consumer version for parents by mid-2026. The goal is to create a learning experience that feels less like school and more like play—helping children explore the world with curiosity, confidence, and joy.