Polymath, a kid-focused app that transforms screen time into a healthy, productive, and enjoyable experience, has raised $1 million in funding. This includes a significant investment from ClassDojo CTO Liam Don in their first angel round, followed by a venture-backed pre-seed round co-led by Blackbird Ventures and GD1.
Polymath, founded by Sophie Silver and Christian Silver, is a learning game children like. Despite spending up to 4 hours every day on screens outside of school, children only spend an average of 6 minutes on educational apps. Instead, they play games, watch videos, and use social media. The platform addresses this by combining an adaptive learning algorithm with a sandbox play environment, which keeps thousands of elementary-aged children engaged for an average of 30 minutes each session. Data demonstrate that regular Polymath users learn up to twice as quickly as non-users.
Speaking about the platform, Sophie Silver, the CEO and Co-founder of Polymath, said:
Polymath is kid-first. Our mission is to improve global education outcomes, and we can’t do that without children’s enthusiasm. We’re rebranding learning as exciting and developing a learning algorithm to simultaneously deliver results.
The app is used both in the household and at schools, with the school version engaging students and serving as a gateway to the at-home experience, proving parents can trust the platform with genuine educational endorsement. It is used both at home and in classrooms. Teachers can adopt it for free, making it easy to integrate into lesson plans. U.S. teachers in states like AZ, VA, SF, FL, TX, and CA are already raving about the portal.
Liam Don, the CTO and co-founder of ClassDojo, first invested in Polymath during its angel round. ClassDojo is an EdTech unicorn with over 50 million users, namely teachers and families, whose app bridges the gap between home and school. Don champions Polymath’s ability to create a user-focused product:
Most learning products only have notional educational value. This team has developed a cutting-edge product that is already making a real impact. Their mission to transform education through tech that kids enjoy and a focus on meaningful learning outcomes is genuinely inspiring and sets a high bar for the future of products made for children.
Polymath has a game-like environment with collecting, building, and multiplayer features. At its foundation, an adaptive algorithm tailors learning experiences to each child’s development. To complete a house, a youngster might need to measure its proportions. They need to recognize when they get a bad deal from a shop. It guides children toward activities that match their present ability.
Christian Silver, the CTO and Co-founder of Polymath added:
We’re constantly experimenting with new features in our game world. Trying a new character here, a new way to ask questions there. We’re pushing new ideas out almost daily. The team, engineers included, works with real kids to get immediate feedback on what’s fun and what’s not.
Vignesh Kumar, Co-Managing Partner at GD1, commented on the funding:
GD1’s investment in Polymath was driven by the team’s apparent user obsession. Their rapid iteration and deep engagement with teachers and parents demonstrated a commitment to creating a product kids genuinely love. This tenacity and strong commitment to drive learning through understanding the early users was pivotal in enabling us to become early believers. We eagerly look forward to what Sophie, Christian and the team achieve over the coming years.
With this funding, Polymath will expand in the United States and include collaborative play, improving the cooperative aspects of learning. The company, which has already been played by tens of thousands of children worldwide, is gaining popularity in the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia.
