Flintobox
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| Industry | Education Toys |
|---|---|
| Founded | September 2013 |
| Founders | Arunprasad Durairaj, Vijaybabu Gandhi, Shreenidhi Srirangam |
| Headquarters | Chennai , India |
Area served | India |
| Products | Activity Boxes for Children |
| Services | E-commerce Subscription Boxes |
| Website | flintobox.com |
Flintobox is an India-based company that produces STEAM-based educational activity boxes for children. Based on a new theme every month, Flintobox designs resources for Early Child Development. The company follows a subscription operational model and delivers the boxes straight to the child's doorstep.
History
[edit]Flintobox was founded by Arunprasad Durairaj,[1] Vijaybabu Gandhi, and Shreenidhi Srirangam. They are also the co-founders of Flintoclass.[2] As young parents, they realised the growing trend of screen addiction in children [3] and the urgent requirement for activities to get their children engaged with. The idea of Flintobox was then born. After a few test runs,[4] they invested their savings of close to Rs. 10 lakh to establish the business in September 2013.
In October 2014, they raised US$300,000 [5] from leading angels GSF Global, Globevestor (USA),[6] AECAL (Germany), and Mauj Mobile. Mauj Mobile already owns three app platforms, namely, AppyStore, Gamesbond and Mobango.[7] The investment primarily went into scaling marketing, operations, and product development capabilities. The company began operations with designing products for 4-8 year olds and is currently catering to 2-12 year olds.
The third and fourth round of funding was for Rs.2cr in 2015 and Rs.6.2cr in 2016 respectively, and was led by Ashwin Chadha - a leading Angel Investor, and Globevestor with participation from existing investors. In 2017, Series-A funding was done by Lightbox and they invested Rs.45cr along with existing investors. InnoVen Capital, Asia's leading venture debt and specialty lending firm, made a debt investment of INR 60 million in 2018. In 2020, Pre-Series B funding of $7.2 million, was led by Lightbox Ventures.
The name Flintobox originates from flint, a sedimentary rock, which can generate sparks when struck against steel.[6]
Membership
[edit]Flintobox offers three subscription plans, which customers can upgrade or cancel at any point of time.[8] There are 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month subscriptions available. The company looks at teaching children several age-appropriate concepts and build 16 developmental skills over the period of their subscription. Currently, Flintobox has more than 10 lakh subscribers.
Subscribers of Flintobox also receive a digital feed of parenting tips, engaging activity ideas and downloadable worksheets to do with children through the Free Flintobox App.[9]
Product
[edit]Flintobox started off in 2013 with products for 4-8 year olds. Each box contains 3-4 play based activities [10] that bring about overall development of the child. It is educational and is designed by child development experts to make learning more engaging and healthy for kids. Each month has a new theme based on which all the activities are designed.[11] Flintobox has a tie-up with International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad to design developmental games that can help with a child's motor skills, creative thought process, and overall psychological development.[12]
Flintobox targets at getting four main activities inside every box that makes a child create, explore, play, read, and sometimes a bonus activity is included.[13]
In December 2015, Flintobox announced that it was expanding its product line to include products for children between the ages of 2-3 and 3–4. The new products have 3-5 activities inside each box. The boxes have toys themed around topics like wildlife, vegetables, coloring, outer space, numbers, and others - all aimed at 16 developmental needs in children.[14] At the end of 2016, Flintobox began producing activity kits[15] for 8-12 year olds that deals with everyday science concepts and experiments.
At present, Flintoboxes are shipped across India. The concepts are ideated and designed in-house, but manufacturing is generally done by suppliers. Bengaluru and Chennai contribute to over 30 percent of Flintobox's revenue.[16]
Promotion
[edit]Flintobox operates on a complete ecommerce model. There are no offline stores. Orders and purchases are made through the company's website and app.
Awards and recognition
[edit]Flintobox was awarded the "Coolest Startup of 2014" by Business Today, the "Best Education Startup of 2014" by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII), the Wharton India Startup Competition 2015[17] and also the best subscription boxes of 2014 by Kidstoppress.[18] In 2017, it won the Best Start-Up award by TiECON Chennai.[19] In 2018, it bagged three awards including Innovative Learning Solution by Global Edfest, Academics' Choice 'Brain Toy' Award, as well as Academics' Choice 'Mind Spring' award.[citation needed]
References
[edit]- ^ "Indian Education Show 2015". Archived from the original on 22 December 2015. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
- ^ "This Chennai-based start-up is trying to reform pre-school experience". www.businesstoday.in. 11 April 2019.
- ^ "Woo kids away from the idiot box". Bangalore Mirror.
- ^ Sangeetha Kandavel (25 May 2015). "Flintobox: Game for something new?". The Hindu.
- ^ "Flintobox: Building engaging products for children that aid their holistic development". timesofindia-economictimes. Archived from the original on 27 February 2015.
- ^ a b "Educational firm Flinto raises $300,000". timesofindia-economictimes. Archived from the original on 4 October 2014.
- ^ "Mauj Mobile to raise $30-50 million for appstore play". The Hindu Business Line. 24 April 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
- ^ "Chennai start-up looks to tap PEs for funds". Business Line. 6 May 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
- ^ "Flintobox app comes to Google Play store". The Times of India.
- ^ "Why FlintoBox "The Magical Monthly Discovery Kit" Might Help You and Your Kids". 16 October 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
- ^ Samiksha Jain (26 August 2015). "Flintobox: A box full of toys to set your kids' imagination soaring". Entrepreneur.
- ^ "Out of the box". Business Standard. 25 July 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
- ^ "Get children hooked to something worthy | The Golden Sparrow". thegoldensparrow.com. Archived from the original on 23 December 2015.
- ^ Anusha Parthasarathy (24 June 2013). "The Flinto adventure". The Hindu.
- ^ "Flintobox Review: Is It Really Useful For Kids Learning?". 1 October 2017.
- ^ "Business News Today: Read Latest Business news, India Business News Live, Share Market & Economy News". The Economic Times.
- ^ Koshy, Rohit (9 March 2015). "Out-of-the-box Learning". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 8 May 2021.
- ^ Zaveri, Mansi (10 January 2014). "Kidsstoppress Awards 2013 - Reviews of kids products & services in India". kidsstoppress.com.
- ^ "Entrepreneurs, new and old, recognised at TiECON Chennai". The Hindu BusinessLine. 9 January 2018. Retrieved 8 May 2021.