FEL Inovations’ Akita Kids app provides e-books, animated videos, and games that are enmeshed with educational syllabi to arrive at a child’s best of both worlds. Aiming to transform the way kids learn through embedded education and gamification, Akita Kids has raised £1.2 million from a UAE-based investor, Gulfsea Capital, to advance to the next step of their international implementation in homes and schools, from its HQ in London and a subsidiary in Warsaw.
Edutainment is a growing global market, whose demand for immersive and interactive learning experiences is only accelerating. Used in both schools and at home, edutainment games, mobile apps, videos, and online platforms show both effectiveness and widespread application throughout education models. With a current reported market size of $144 billion and expected to grow to $518.9 billion in 2034, the possibilities of technology-driven customized learning experiences seem near endless.
With a rising middle-class population, dual-income households are seeing less time with parents at home to teach their children when school is off and an increasingly tech-savvy younger generation of learners. Children spend an average of 6 hours a day on screens, much of this unsupervised, and as a result, 93% of parents report that they would prefer to see education embedded in entertainment. Gamified learning activities can keep children engaged and focused through every step of the syllabus, emerging as a vital assistant for educators and parents alike.
There has long been representation at both extremes in the spectrum of entertainment and education technologies. Companies that focus solely on entertainment such as streaming services and publishers see themselves across the aisle of companies that focus primarily on educational resources, with a large void in between that is waiting to be filled. Akita Kids has disrupted that increasingly lucrative space to provide holistic school curricula that are embedded into immersive entertainment.
Through their expertly designed learning syllabus that complies with the national British curriculum for children of age groups 3 to 13, subjects like Languages, Maths, History, Science, and Geography become part of the fabric of the scattered discovery process of a child’s endless curiosity and desire to have fun. “The key to success in education is repeating a concept that is difficult to learn. The two characteristics a child needs for that repetition are a long duration of focus and a high level of engagement. With this knowledge we utilize a child’s natural curiosity and ability to learn immersively by consuming embedded education with what they are drawn to based on their own interests,” says Alexander Bellon, co-founder, and CEO of Akita Kids.
FEL Innovations was co-founded by CEO Alexander Bellon, and COO Aleksandra Brożynska, in 2022 when they realized that mobile applications solely designed for learning don’t stay effective for long – because children are not interested in solely learning. The company has evolved through many iterations to reach the model it employs now, carrying out extensive consumer research to design the most effective, engaging, and entertaining holistic edutainment app.
The app provides users a one-month free trial period to discover and enjoy its content and has multiple subscription models available to choose from. Their release date is set in the first quarter of 2025, and plan to expand their available content with newly published material every month, ensuring that no child is left bored. Educational games on the app will allow users to accumulate points and achievements, making visible the path of their progress and fun. 88% of the parents that the company surveyed in trial phases voted that their children enjoy the app and benefit from it educationally, with one satisfied mother saying “I love Akita Kids, it got my children to love reading and they are learning so much of what they need for school. It’s also really good value for money and saves us from cluttering the house with books. They are entertained for hours!”
Akita Kids employs a client acquisition model of on-the-ground digital promotion direct to consumers, as well as affiliate success-based marketing through appropriate partnerships such as private funds, media companies, educational institutions, and governments. This model will allow the company a tiered system of consumer targeting, with a total addressable market of 500 million children.
The company expects to grow around £8 million in its second year and around £40 million by its fourth, coinciding with its expected user growth rate of ~200,000 per year. With a network of supporting graphic artists and writers ready to continue expanding the app’s offerings, the company plans to use its recently raised funds for content production, marketing, staff, tools, and operational costs.
Akita Kids is excited to partner with organizations to provide access to out-of-school education for children around the world, whether it be downloaded in individual households or incorporated within school learning programs. “If your kid won’t eat their vegetables, you blend it into their soup,” says CEO Alexander Bellon, “Akita Kids takes their natural state of scattered curiosity and develops them into an engaged and focused student through the fun our content engenders. We’ve created something that goes above and beyond traditional forms of schooling, that allows kids to absorb knowledge while enjoying themselves.”
