US-based edtech company Piper has raised $7.6m of series A capital from investors including Stanford University’s StartX fund.
VC firm Owl Ventures led the round, which also featured VC firm Reach Capital and angel investor Charles Huang.
Piper markets a computer programming kit, based on the computer game Minecraft, that encourages children to practice electronics and coding.
The startup claims its product will reduce the time children spend watching screens passively, which can hamper their academic performance and their ability to handle stress.
Total funding for Piper now stands at $10.1m. The Alumni Entrepreneurs Fund, backed by alumni of Princeton University, took part in a $2.1m seed round with Reach Capital, 500 Startups, FoundersXFund and assorted angel investors in June 2016.
Piper also secured $280,000 in a crowdfunding campaign in 2015.
Mark Pavlyukovskyy, co-founder and CEO of Piper, said: “The Piper Computer Kit transforms kids typical experience with technology, giving them the power to create versus empty, passive screen time consumption.
“We have seen Piper kids grow in computing engineering skills, and in their confidence to take on all kinds of challenges.”
“Owl Ventures has a reputation for helping education technology companies scale their businesses, which makes them the perfect partner to help battle the passive screen time consumption epidemic, as we bring Piper to more kids, both in school and at home.”
