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Who's who

Companies

The companies making learning tools, AI tutors, kids' devices and AI toys, with who owns whom.

  • 196 listed

AI labs with education work

  • AmazonCompany · Seattle, WA, USA · founded 1994Amazon's kids and education efforts include Amazon Kids+ content subscriptions, Fire Kids tablets and Echo Dot Kids devices, and Amazon Future Engineer, which funds computer science classes in schools. In 2023 Amazon paid $25 million to settle a Justice Department and FTC complaint that it kept children's Alexa voice recordings in violation of COPPA.
  • AnthropicCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2021Maker of the Claude models. Claude for Education (2025) gives universities campus-wide access with a learning mode that asks guiding questions rather than giving answers. It has published research on how students use Claude, and joined OpenAI and Microsoft in backing the AFT's National Academy for AI Instruction. Claude's consumer apps require users to be 18 or older.People: Dario Amodei
  • AppleCompany · Cupertino, CA, USA · founded 1976Apple supplies iPads and Macs to schools, along with the Schoolwork and Classroom apps, Swift Playgrounds and the Everyone Can Code curriculum. Its Screen Time and Family Sharing settings, and the child-account changes it rolled out in 2025, are among the main parental-control tools on kids' iPhones and iPads.
  • Character.AICompany · Menlo Park, CA, USA · founded 2021Character.AI ran a chatbot platform where users talk with user-made characters, popular with teens. Lawsuits from families, including one over a 14-year-old's suicide in 2024, made it a central case in the debate over AI companions and minors. It ended open-ended chat for users under 18 in late 2025 and settled several suits in 2026. In October 2026 it filed for Chapter 11 and agreed to sell its assets to Disney.People: Karandeep Anand
  • GoogleCompany · Mountain View, CA, USA · founded 1998Google is one of the largest suppliers of school technology through Chromebooks, Google Classroom and Workspace for Education. Its AI education work includes Gemini for Education, the LearnLM family of learning-tuned models, Guided Learning in Gemini, NotebookLM, the Read Along reading app and Photomath. Family Link sets parental controls on kids' Android devices and accounts.
  • Google DeepMindCompany · London, UK · founded 2010Google's AI research lab. On the education side it led research on LearnLM, models tuned with learning-science principles such as active learning and managing cognitive load, and published evaluations of AI tutoring with teachers and pedagogy experts. Its models power Gemini's learning features used by students.People: Demis Hassabis
  • MetaCompany · Menlo Park, CA, USA · founded 2004Parent of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp. Its education work includes Meta for Education, which brings Quest virtual reality headsets and classroom management software to schools for students 13 and up (2024), and open Llama models used by many edtech developers. Its teen accounts and AI chatbot policies for minors have faced scrutiny from lawmakers and state attorneys general.
  • MicrosoftCompany · Redmond, WA, USA · founded 1975A major school technology supplier through Windows devices, Microsoft 365 and Teams for Education. Its learning tools include Reading Coach and Reading Progress, Minecraft Education, Immersive Reader and Copilot for students and teachers. It helped fund the AFT's National Academy for AI Instruction in 2025.
  • OpenAICompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2015Maker of ChatGPT. Its education work includes ChatGPT Edu for universities (2024), a study mode that walks students through problems instead of handing over answers (2025), ChatGPT for Teachers for K-12 educators, and co-funding the AFT's National Academy for AI Instruction. Lawsuits from families of teens who were harmed after long chatbot conversations led it to add parental controls and age-prediction features in 2025.People: Sam Altman, Leah Belsky
  • xAICompany · Palo Alto, CA, USA · founded 2023Elon Musk's AI company and maker of the Grok chatbot; it became a subsidiary of SpaceX in 2026. In late 2025 it announced a partnership with El Salvador's government to bring Grok-based tutoring to public schools. Grok's companion characters and loose content rules have drawn criticism from child-safety groups, and Musk has said a kid-focused version is planned.People: Elon Musk

AI tutors and homework help

  • BrainlyCompany · Krakow, Poland and New York, NY, USA · founded 2009Brainly is a peer-to-peer homework help community where students ask and answer questions, now with AI-generated answers, photo-based question search and test-prep tools layered on top. It reports hundreds of millions of users worldwide, mostly middle and high school students, and is backed by venture investors including Prosus.People: Michal Borkowski
  • CheggCompany · Santa Clara, CA, USA · founded 2005Chegg began in textbook rentals and grew into a subscription homework-help service for high school and college students, with step-by-step solutions, expert Q&A and the Mathway solver. Its subscribers and share price fell sharply after ChatGPT arrived, and it cut large parts of its staff in 2025. It sued Google that year, arguing AI Overviews divert its traffic, and chose to stay a standalone public company. A 2022 FTC order required it to fix data-security lapses.
  • Course Hero (Learneo)Company · Redwood City, CA, USA · founded 2006Course Hero is a study-help site where students find course documents, practice problems and AI or tutor explanations. In 2023 it reorganized under a parent company, Learneo, which also owns the QuillBot writing tool, the Symbolab math solver, LanguageTool and Scribbr. Like other homework sites, it faces questions from instructors about academic integrity.People: Andrew Grauer
  • GauthCompanyGauth (formerly Gauthmath) is a homework-help app owned by ByteDance, the parent of TikTok. Students photograph a math, science or other homework problem and get an AI-generated solution with steps, with paid access to human tutors. It has been one of the most downloaded education apps in the US, which has fed teacher concerns about answer-copying.
  • GoStudentCompany · Vienna, Austria · founded 2016GoStudent is a marketplace for paid one-to-one online tutoring, popular in Europe. Once valued at about $3 billion during the pandemic boom, it later cut staff. It bought the UK revision platform Seneca and the German tutoring chain Studienkreis, and has added AI study tools.People: Felix Ohswald, Gregor Müller
  • Mathpresso (QANDA)Company · Seoul, South Korea · founded 2015Mathpresso makes QANDA, a photo-based homework app that recognizes a math problem from a picture and returns solutions, videos and AI tutoring. It is used widely by students in South Korea, Vietnam, Indonesia and Japan, and it has built math-specialized AI models.
  • Nerdy (Varsity Tutors)Company · St. Louis, MO, USA · founded 2007Nerdy runs Varsity Tutors, which sells live online tutoring to families and schools, along with AI study tools and classes. It is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. It has pushed what it calls Live + AI, pairing human tutors with AI-generated practice and session summaries, and offers school districts high-dosage tutoring contracts.People: Chuck Cohn
  • Physics WallahCompany · Noida, India · founded 2016Physics Wallah began as a YouTube channel teaching physics for India's engineering and medical entrance exams and grew into a low-cost test-prep company with apps, online courses and offline centers. Known for prices far below rivals, it went public on Indian stock exchanges in November 2025.People: Alakh Pandey
  • QuizletCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2005Quizlet is a study platform best known for user-made flashcard sets, practice tests and study games such as Match, used by high school and college students. It added AI study tools that turn notes into flashcards and practice questions. It is privately held, with backing from investors including General Atlantic.
  • Rising Academies (Rori)Company · Freetown, Sierra Leone and London, UK · founded 2014Rising Academies runs low-cost schools and school-support programs in West Africa. Its Rori tutor delivers math practice over WhatsApp text chat using a large language model, designed for phones that are common in low-income settings. An early randomized study in Ghana reported gains in math scores for students who used it.
  • Sylvan LearningCompany · Baltimore, MD, USA · founded 1979Sylvan runs a large network of franchised in-person and online tutoring centers in the US and Canada, offering reading, writing, math, study skills and test prep for K-12 students. It also sells STEM programs such as coding and robotics classes.
  • SynthesisCompanySynthesis grew out of the Ad Astra school started inside SpaceX. It first sold team problem-solving games for kids, then launched Synthesis Tutor (2024), an AI math tutor for ages 5 to 11 that teaches through interactive, conversational lessons. It is sold to families as a subscription.People: Josh Dahn, Chrisman Frank
  • YuanfudaoCompany · Beijing, China · founded 2012Yuanfudao (Ape Tutor) runs learning apps and once ran one of China's largest live online tutoring businesses, backed by Tencent. The 2021 tutoring crackdown forced large layoffs and a pivot to learning devices and AI homework tools such as its Xiaoyuan Souti photo-search app.
  • ZuoyebangCompany · Beijing, China · founded 2015Zuoyebang ("homework help") is one of China's largest K-12 learning apps, begun as a photo-search homework tool spun out of Baidu. After China's 2021 limits on for-profit tutoring, it shifted toward learning devices and AI tools. It now sells AI learning tablets in China.People: Hou Jianbin

Adaptive learning platforms

  • 2 Hour Learning (Alpha School)Company · Austin, TX, USA2 Hour Learning supplies the software model behind Alpha School, a private school network where students do about two hours a day of adaptive app-based academics, with adult guides instead of traditional teachers, and spend the rest on life-skills workshops. Its claims of very fast academic growth have drawn wide media attention and skepticism from researchers who want independent evidence; Pennsylvania denied a related charter school application in 2025, calling the model untested.People: MacKenzie Price, Joe Liemandt
  • Area9 LyceumCompany · Copenhagen, Denmark · founded 2015Area9 Lyceum builds adaptive learning software that tracks both whether a learner is right and how confident they are, to find knowledge people think they have but don't. It grew from work that powered McGraw Hill's adaptive products and now serves corporate, medical and school training.People: Ulrik Juul Christensen
  • Atom LearningCompany · London, UKAtom Learning makes an adaptive learning platform for UK primary-age children, used by families and schools mainly to prepare for 11+ grammar and independent school entrance exams. It adjusts practice in English, math, verbal and non-verbal reasoning to each child, offers mock tests and gives parents progress reports.
  • Century TechCompany · London, UKCentury Tech makes an AI learning platform for schools that recommends lessons and practice for each student in math, English and science, and gives teachers dashboards of gaps. It is used in UK and international schools and has expanded into tools for teachers and further education.People: Priya Lakhani
  • EdmentumCompany · Bloomington, MN, USAEdmentum sells online courses and adaptive programs to US schools, including Exact Path for K-12 reading and math, and Courseware for credit recovery and virtual courses. Its history goes back to the PLATO computer-based instruction system first built at the University of Illinois in 1960.
  • Educational Initiatives (Mindspark)Company · Ahmedabad, India · founded 2001Educational Initiatives runs student assessments in India and makes Mindspark, an adaptive learning program for math and language. A randomized study of Mindspark in Delhi after-school centers, by economists Karthik Muralidharan, Abhijeet Singh and Alejandro Ganimian, found large learning gains and is widely cited in the adaptive-learning debate.
  • EmbibeCompany · Bengaluru, India · founded 2012Embibe is an AI-based learning and test-prep platform for Indian school students. It maps school subjects into a large knowledge graph of concepts to diagnose each student's gaps and recommend practice, videos and mock tests. Reliance Industries is its majority investor, and its content is offered through Jio's learning services.People: Aditi Avasthi
  • RiiidCompany · Seoul, South Korea · founded 2014Riiid builds AI that predicts test scores and picks the next best question, first in its Santa app for the TOEIC English exam. It published a large public dataset of student interactions (EdNet) used in knowledge-tracing research, and sells AI learning tools to schools and test-prep companies.
  • Squirrel AiCompany · Shanghai, China · founded 2014Squirrel Ai (Yixue Education) sells AI-driven adaptive learning that breaks school subjects into thousands of small knowledge points, tests students to find gaps and assigns practice to fill them. It runs learning centers and sells AI learning tablets in China, and has been one of the most-cited examples of large-scale adaptive tutoring outside the US.People: Derek Li

Reading and literacy

  • Amira LearningCompany · founded 2018Amira Learning makes an AI reading assistant that listens to students read aloud, gives tutoring in the moment and gives teachers fluency and dyslexia-risk screening. It draws on decades of reading research, including Carnegie Mellon's Project LISTEN and the work of Marilyn Jager Adams, and in 2024 it combined with Istation, a longtime K-8 reading and math assessment provider used by many US states.
  • BeanstackCompanyBeanstack (made by Zoobean) runs reading challenges and reading-log software for public libraries and schools. Children and families log minutes and books, earn badges and join community goals such as summer reading programs. The company began as a children's book recommendation service before shifting to software for libraries.
  • Blake eLearning (Reading Eggs)Company · Sydney, AustraliaBlake eLearning makes Reading Eggs, a game-based phonics and reading program for ages 2 to 13 sold to families and schools around the world, and the Mathseeds early math program. Children move through short animated lessons and earn rewards as they progress. It is part of 3P Learning, the Australian company behind Mathletics.
  • Book CreatorCompany · London, UK · founded 2011Book Creator is an app where students make their own multimedia books with text, drawings, audio and video, widely used in elementary classrooms for writing projects, class books and portfolios. It was built by Red Jumper, a small London company, and runs on iPads, Chromebooks and the web. The PDF annotation company Kami bought it in 2025.People: Dan Amos
  • ElloCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2020Ello makes an AI reading tutor for children in kindergarten through third grade. The child reads a real book aloud and Ello listens with speech recognition, helps with tricky words and adjusts the next book to the child's level. It sells to families by subscription and has added a tool for making decodable stories on a child's interests.People: Elizabeth Adams, Catalin Voss
  • EpicCompany · Redwood City, CA, USA · founded 2013Epic is a digital library for children 12 and under with tens of thousands of books, audiobooks and read-to-me titles, free for teachers in elementary classrooms and sold to families by subscription. Byju's bought it in 2021 for about $500 million. After Byju's US units entered bankruptcy, Epic was sold in 2025 to China's TAL Education Group for a reported $95 million, which drew questions from some US lawmakers.People: Suren Markosian, Kevin Donahue
  • HeinemannCompany · Portsmouth, NH, USA · founded 1978Heinemann publishes professional books and classroom programs for teachers, including the Fountas & Pinnell leveled literacy materials and Lucy Calkins's Units of Study. Its programs were at the center of the science-of-reading debate after the 2022 podcast Sold a Story argued they taught three-cueing strategies that research does not support; Heinemann and the authors have disputed parts of that account. It is part of HMH.
  • Ignite ReadingCompanyIgnite Reading provides daily one-to-one online tutoring in foundational reading skills, such as phonics and fluency, for students in kindergarten through grade 3. Trained tutors meet children by video in short sessions during the school day, following a structured science-of-reading curriculum. It sells to school districts as a high-dosage tutoring program.
  • LaliloCompany · Paris, France · founded 2016Lalilo is a web-based phonics and reading-comprehension program for kindergarten to second grade. It uses speech recognition to listen as children read aloud, adapts lessons to each child and gives teachers reports on skills. Its basic version is free for teachers. Renaissance Learning bought it in 2021.
  • Learning A-ZCompany · Tucson, AZ, USA · founded 2000Learning A-Z makes leveled reading resources for K-5 classrooms, including Raz-Kids and Raz-Plus with thousands of leveled e-books and printable books, and Science A-Z and Writing A-Z. Founded in 2000 with its Reading A-Z website, it is used by teachers in many countries and is now part of ExploreK12, a unit of Cambium Learning Group.
  • Lexia LearningCompany · Concord, MA, USA · founded 1984Lexia makes structured literacy software for schools, including Lexia Core5 Reading for pre-K to grade 5 and PowerUp Literacy for older struggling readers, plus the LETRS teacher training course that many states adopted in their science-of-reading laws. It is part of Cambium Learning Group, owned by Veritas Capital.
  • NessyCompany · Bristol, UKNessy makes game-based reading, spelling and typing programs designed for children with dyslexia and other learning differences, along with a dyslexia screener. It was started by a teacher and a dyslexia specialist and is used in schools and homes in the UK, US and elsewhere.
  • NewselaCompany · New York, NY, USA · founded 2013Newsela publishes news articles and other texts rewritten at several reading levels so a whole class can read the same story, with quizzes and writing prompts. It has added social studies and science content and owns the Formative assessment tool.People: Matthew Gross
  • NoRedInkCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2012NoRedInk makes an online writing and grammar program for grades 3 to 12. It builds grammar practice around students' own interests, such as favorite celebrities and shows, and gives teachers tools for guided essay drafts, peer review and feedback. It was started by a former English teacher. IXL Learning bought it in October 2026.People: Jeff Scheur
  • Novel EffectCompany · Seattle, WA, USA · founded 2015Novel Effect makes an app that listens as a parent or teacher reads a picture book aloud and plays music, sound effects and character voices in time with the words. It works with printed books from major children's publishers and has a classroom version for teachers. It appeared on the TV show Shark Tank.
  • OverDriveCompany · Cleveland, OH, USA · founded 1986OverDrive provides e-books and audiobooks to public libraries and schools through the Libby app and the Sora student reading app, used by many US school districts. It is owned by the investment firm KKR. Its sale of digital licenses to libraries is part of a long-running debate about e-book pricing.People: Steve Potash
  • ReadabilityCompanyReadability makes an AI reading tutor app for children that listens as they read stories aloud, corrects mistakes in the moment, asks comprehension questions and reports progress to parents. It is aimed at early and developing readers practicing at home and is sold to families as a subscription.
  • VooksCompanyVooks streams children's picture books as lightly animated, narrated videos with read-along text highlighted on screen, aimed at young children at home and in classrooms. It is free for teachers and sold to families as a subscription, and it pitches itself as screen time that supports early reading.
  • Wilson Language TrainingCompany · Oxford, MA, USA · founded 1988Wilson Language Training makes structured, Orton-Gillingham-based reading programs: the Wilson Reading System for older students with dyslexia and other word-level reading difficulties, and Fundations for phonics, spelling and handwriting in kindergarten through third grade. It also trains and certifies teachers, and its programs are common in US special education.People: Barbara Wilson

Math

  • 3P Learning (Mathletics)Company · Sydney, Australia · founded 20043P Learning makes Mathletics, an online math program for schools with curriculum-aligned activities, games and live challenges against students around the world. Through its Blake eLearning unit it also makes Reading Eggs and Mathseeds. Its products are used widely in Australia, the UK, South Africa and other countries.
  • Art of Problem SolvingCompany · San Diego, CA, USA · founded 1993Art of Problem Solving publishes challenging math textbooks and runs online classes and learning centers for strong math students, along with Beast Academy, a comic-book-style curriculum for ages 6 to 13. Its online community is a hub for math-competition students. Founder Richard Rusczyk stepped down as CEO in 2025 and returned in 2026.People: Richard Rusczyk
  • Carnegie LearningCompany · Pittsburgh, PA, USA · founded 1998Carnegie Learning was spun out of Carnegie Mellon University to sell the Cognitive Tutor, now called MATHia, an intelligent tutoring system for middle and high school math. A large RAND study found that its algebra curriculum improved scores in the second year of use. It also sells textbooks, world language programs and teacher training, and is owned by the private equity firm CIP Capital.
  • Desmos StudioCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2011Desmos Studio is a public benefit corporation that makes the free Desmos graphing, scientific and geometry calculators, used by students worldwide and built into major US standardized tests including the digital SAT. When Amplify bought the Desmos classroom curriculum in 2022, the calculator team was spun off as this separate company.People: Eli Luberoff
  • Doodle LearningCompany · UKDoodle Learning makes DoodleMaths, DoodleEnglish, DoodleSpell and DoodleTables, adaptive apps that set primary-age children about ten minutes of daily practice based on what each child finds easy or hard. It is widely used in UK primary schools and by families, with progress reports for teachers and parents.
  • DreamBox LearningCompany · Bellevue, WA, USA · founded 2006DreamBox makes adaptive math lessons for kindergarten through grade 8 that adjust not just to right and wrong answers but to how a student solves each problem. It merged with Discovery Education in 2023, and its reading tool Reading Plus came with it.
  • EediCompany · London, UK · founded 2014Eedi runs diagnostic multiple-choice math questions in which every wrong answer is tied to a known misconception, used by UK schools, and has shared large misconception datasets with researchers. It has tested AI and human tutors working together, including in research with Google DeepMind.People: Craig Barton
  • ExploreLearningCompany · Charlottesville, VA, USA · founded 1999ExploreLearning makes Gizmos, interactive math and science simulations for grades 3 to 12; Reflex, a game-based math-facts fluency program for grade 2 and up; and Frax for fractions. It was founded in 1999 and is now part of ExploreK12, a unit of Cambium Learning Group that also includes Learning A-Z.
  • Great MindsCompany · Washington, DC, USA · founded 2007Great Minds is a public benefit corporation that publishes the Eureka Math curriculum (and its newer Eureka Math Squared), the Wit & Wisdom English curriculum and PhD Science. Eureka Math is one of the most widely used math curricula in US public schools.
  • KumonCompany · Osaka, Japan · founded 1958Kumon runs franchised after-school learning centers in dozens of countries that teach math and reading through daily worksheets each child completes at their own pace, advancing only after mastery of each level. It was started in 1958 by a Japanese math teacher, Toru Kumon, for his son, and is one of the largest after-school programs in the world.
  • Math AcademyCompany · Pasadena, CA, USAMath Academy runs an online adaptive math program that takes students from arithmetic through university-level math using mastery learning and spaced review. It grew from an accelerated math program at a Pasadena school and is popular with homeschoolers and self-learners.People: Jason Roberts, Justin Skycak
  • MathnasiumCompany · Los Angeles, CA, USA · founded 2002Mathnasium is a franchise of after-school math learning centers in North America and other countries. Children in grades K to 12 take an assessment, then work through a personalized plan with instructors in small groups, using its own teaching method. It also offers online sessions and homework help.
  • MathspaceCompany · Sydney, Australia · founded 2010Mathspace makes an adaptive math platform for grades 6 to 12 where students write out each step of a solution and get hints on the step where they go wrong. It is used in schools in Australia, the US and the UK.
  • MatificCompanyMatific makes short game-based math activities, called episodes, for kindergarten to grade 6, used by schools and families in many countries and languages. Its games are built to teach concepts through hands-on play rather than drills, and it gives teachers reports tied to curriculum standards.
  • PhotomathCompany · Zagreb, Croatia · founded 2014Photomath is a camera-based math app: a student points a phone at a printed or handwritten problem and gets step-by-step solutions with explanations, from arithmetic to calculus. It came from the Croatian company Microblink and was bought by Google, with the deal completed in 2023. It is one of the most downloaded education apps in the world.People: Damir Sabol
  • Prodigy EducationCompany · Oakville, ON, Canada · founded 2011Prodigy makes Prodigy Math, a fantasy role-playing game in which children in grades 1 to 8 answer curriculum-aligned math questions to win battles, plus a newer English game. It is free for schools and makes money from family memberships. In 2021 the advocacy group now called Fairplay and other groups filed an FTC complaint arguing the game pressures children to buy memberships; Prodigy disputed the claims.People: Alex Peters, Rohan Mahimker
  • SmartickCompany · Malaga, Spain · founded 2009Smartick is an online math program for children ages 4 to 14 built around 15-minute daily sessions that adapt to each child's answers and speed, with tutors who monitor progress. It also offers a reading program. It is used mostly by families in Spain, Latin America and other countries.
  • Sparx LearningCompany · Exeter, UKSparx makes Sparx Maths, an adaptive homework and practice system used by many UK secondary schools, plus Sparx Reader and Sparx Science. Students get personalized homework each week, and teachers see who completed it and where they struggled. The company built the product through years of in-school trials.
  • SplashLearnCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2010SplashLearn (formerly Splash Math, made by StudyPad) makes game-based math and reading practice for pre-K to grade 5 that adapts to each child, used in many US elementary classrooms. It is free for teachers with a paid family plan. Most of its team is based in India.
  • Thinkster MathCompanyThinkster pairs daily math practice on a tablet or computer with a dedicated human tutor who reviews each child's written work and meets weekly one-on-one. It says its patented engine analyzes how a child reasons through each problem, and it adds a round-the-clock AI coach. It is sold to families for K-12 math.
  • Third Space LearningCompany · London, UK · founded 2013Third Space Learning provides one-to-one online math tutoring for primary and secondary students, sold to UK schools, often for pupils who are behind. It has built Skye, a low-cost AI tutor that teaches pupils in spoken conversation over a shared screen, alongside its human tutors.People: Tom Hooper

Early learning

  • Age of LearningCompany · Glendale, CA, USA · founded 2007Age of Learning makes ABCmouse, a subscription early-learning app for ages 2 to 8, plus Adventure Academy for older children and My Reading Academy and My Math Academy for schools. In 2020 it paid $10 million, without admitting wrongdoing, to settle FTC charges that its marketing and cancellation practices were unfair to families.People: Doug Dohring
  • BeginCompany · New York, NY, USABegin sells early-learning programs for children up to about age 8, combining the HOMER reading app, the codeSpark coding app and Little Passports activity kits. It grew out of HOMER, which renamed itself Begin as it brought those brands together.
  • EnumaCompany · Berkeley, CA, USA and Seoul, South Korea · founded 2012Enuma makes early-learning apps designed for all children, including those with learning differences, such as Todo Math and Todo English. Its Kitkit School tablet curriculum was a co-winner of the $15 million Global Learning XPRIZE in 2019 for helping children in Tanzania learn to read and count on their own.People: Sooinn Lee, Gunho Lee
  • Hatch Early LearningCompany · Winston-Salem, NC, USAHatch Early Learning sells technology for preschool and pre-K classrooms, including adaptive learning software that children use on touchscreens and tablets, assessment tools that track early literacy, math and social-emotional skills, and teacher training. Its products are used in many US Head Start and public pre-K programs.
  • KiddopiaCompany · Mumbai, IndiaKiddopia is a subscription learning app for preschoolers and early elementary children, made by Paper Boat Apps of Mumbai. It covers early math, language, science, art and social skills through dozens of games. It has been among the top-grossing kids' education apps on the Apple and Google app stores.
  • KineduCompany · Monterrey, Mexico · founded 2014Kinedu makes an app for parents of babies and toddlers up to age 4. Parents get daily video activities chosen for the child's developmental stage, along with milestone tracking and expert classes. It is widely used by families in Latin America and the US and is sold by subscription.
  • LeapFrogCompany · Emeryville, CA, USA · founded 1994LeapFrog makes electronic learning toys and tablets for babies through early elementary children, from the LeapPad tablets and the LeapStart interactive book system to talking toys that teach letters and numbers. Founded in 1994, it was a leading US learning-toy brand in the 2000s and has been owned by Hong Kong's VTech since 2016.
  • LingokidsCompany · Madrid, Spain · founded 2015Lingokids is a learning app for children 2 to 8 built around games, songs and videos that mix early academics such as English, letters and numbers with social-emotional skills it calls modern life skills. It is one of the most downloaded kids' learning apps and is sold by family subscription.People: Cristóbal Viedma
  • LoveveryCompany · Boise, ID, USA · founded 2015Lovevery sells subscription play kits matched to a child's age from birth to about age 4, designed with child development specialists, plus a parenting app, a Montessori-inspired play gym and a reading program that teaches early phonics with books and games. It is one of the best-known US brands of developmental toys.People: Jessica Rolph, Roderick Morris
  • OriginatorCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2010Originator makes animated early-learning apps for young children, including Endless Alphabet, Endless Reader, Endless Numbers and Endless Spanish, which teach letters, sight words, numbers and vocabulary through playful monsters. Its apps have been widely recommended by teachers and parents for preschool and kindergarten children.
  • OsmoCompany · Palo Alto, CA, USA · founded 2013Osmo (from Tangible Play) makes learning games that pair an iPad or Fire tablet camera with physical pieces, so children spell with letter tiles, draw or code with blocks on the table. Byju's bought it in 2019. After Byju's US troubles, Osmo went through bankruptcy and was bought in late 2025 by a small team that relaunched its core products.
  • Pok PokCompanyPok Pok makes a calm, open-ended digital play app for children 2 to 8 with Montessori-inspired toys and activities, with no ads, no timers and no reward loops. It is often cited as an example of slower, child-led design in kids' apps. It won an Apple Design Award and is sold by subscription.People: Melissa Cash, Esther Huybreghts
  • Sago MiniCompany · Toronto, ON, Canada · founded 2011Sago Mini makes open-ended play apps for preschoolers, such as Sago Mini World, along with toys and books, designed around imaginative play rather than quizzes. It is owned by the toy maker Spin Master, which bought it with Toca Boca in 2016, and its apps are now part of Spin Master's Piknik subscription.
  • Toca BocaCompany · Stockholm, Sweden · founded 2010Toca Boca makes digital toys for children, best known for Toca Life World (Toca Boca World), an open-ended app where kids build stories in a virtual town. It was started inside the Swedish media group Bonnier and has been owned by Spin Master since 2016.

Coding and STEM

  • ArduinoCompany · Turin, Italy · founded 2005Arduino makes open-source microcontroller boards and software that students, makers and schools use to learn electronics and programming by building gadgets, sensors and robots. Arduino Education sells classroom kits and courses for middle school to university. Qualcomm agreed to acquire the company in 2025.
  • BrilliantCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2012Brilliant offers interactive lessons in math, science, computer science and data, built around solving visual problems instead of watching lectures. It targets motivated middle schoolers, teens and adults who want to learn by doing, and is sold by subscription. It was founded by Sue Khim in 2012.People: Sue Khim
  • CodecademyCompany · New York, NY, USA · founded 2011Codecademy offers interactive online courses in programming languages, web development, data science and AI that run in the browser, so learners write real code from the first lesson. It is used mostly by teens and adults learning to code for school or work. The corporate-training company Skillsoft bought it in 2022.
  • CodeCombatCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2013CodeCombat teaches real Python, JavaScript and other languages through fantasy role-playing game levels in which students type code to move their hero. It sells a classroom curriculum for grades 6 to 12, including AP Computer Science Principles. Its sister game Ozaria targets middle school, and it runs AI League esports competitions for students.People: Nick Winter
  • CodeHSCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2012CodeHS sells a web-based computer science curriculum, coding environment and teacher training for middle and high schools, including AP Computer Science courses and cybersecurity. In 2025 it bought Tynker, the kids' coding platform, at a bankruptcy auction after Byju's US units collapsed.People: Jeremy Keeshin, Zach Galant
  • Generation GeniusCompany · Los Angeles, CA, USA · founded 2017Generation Genius makes short science and math videos with lesson plans, quizzes and hands-on activities for K-8 classrooms, built around US science standards. The videos are hosted by Dr. Jeff, a scientist presenter, and kid co-hosts, and the service is sold to schools and families.
  • HopscotchCompany · New York, NY, USA · founded 2013Hopscotch makes a block-based coding app for iPad and iPhone where children ages 8 and up build and share their own games, art and animations. Kids remix one another's projects in a moderated community for young creators. It was started in 2013 by Samantha John and Jocelyn Leavitt.People: Samantha John, Jocelyn Leavitt
  • iD TechCompany · Campbell, CA, USA · founded 1999iD Tech runs summer technology camps and online classes for ages 7 to 19 in coding, game design, robotics, filmmaking and AI. Its camps have been held on dozens of university campuses since 1999, and it also offers private online lessons with instructors.
  • KinderLab RoboticsCompany · Waltham, MA, USA · founded 2013KinderLab Robotics makes KIBO, a screen-free robot for children ages 4 to 7 that they program by arranging and scanning wooden blocks, decorating it with art supplies. It grew out of research by Marina Umaschi Bers's DevTech group at Tufts University on teaching young children coding through play.People: Mitch Rosenberg
  • KiwiCoCompany · Mountain View, CA, USA · founded 2011KiwiCo sells monthly hands-on project crates in science, engineering, art and design for babies through teens, each with materials and illustrated instructions for a build such as a working machine, circuit or art project. It also sells kits to schools and homeschoolers. It was founded by Sandra Oh Lin.People: Sandra Oh Lin
  • KodableCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2012Kodable teaches coding to elementary students, from early sequencing puzzles that kindergartners solve without reading to JavaScript lessons for older kids. Teachers get ready-made lesson plans that do not require a computer science background. It has a free classroom version and a paid family plan.People: Grechen Huebner, Jon Mattingly
  • LabsterCompany · Copenhagen, Denmark · founded 2012Labster makes virtual laboratory simulations in biology, chemistry, physics and health sciences for high schools and universities. Students run experiments in a 3D lab that would be costly, slow or dangerous in a real one, guided by a virtual assistant. It is used by many universities and online science courses.People: Mads Tvillinggaard Bonde, Michael Bodekaer Jensen
  • LEGO EducationCompany · Billund, Denmark · founded 1980LEGO Education, the school division of the LEGO Group, sells hands-on STEM kits for classrooms, including the SPIKE Prime and SPIKE Essential robotics sets with app-based coding, and supports the FIRST LEGO League competition. It retired the long-running Mindstorms line in 2022.
  • MakeblockCompany · Shenzhen, China · founded 2013Makeblock makes STEM robot kits such as the mBot line, the mBlock coding environment based on Scratch that also supports Python, and the CyberPi microcontroller for classrooms. Its products are used in schools and student robotics competitions in many countries, and it runs the MakeX robotics competition.People: Jasen Wang
  • OzobotCompany · Redondo Beach, CA, USA · founded 2012Ozobot (made by Evollve) makes small robots that children program either by drawing color-code lines on paper, which works without a screen, or with OzoBlockly block coding. They are used in K-12 classrooms to teach early coding and STEM, with lesson plans for teachers.
  • Primo ToysCompany · London, UK · founded 2013Primo Toys makes Cubetto, a wooden robot that children aged 3 and up program by placing colored instruction blocks on a board, with no screen or reading needed. Funded through Kickstarter, it is an early example of screen-free coding toys inspired by the Logo turtle and Montessori ideas.
  • RobloxCompany · San Mateo, CA, USA · founded 2004Roblox is an online game platform where users, many of them children, play and build games, with education programs that teach coding through Roblox Studio. Lawsuits and state attorney general actions over child exploitation on the platform led it to require age checks for chat from late 2025 to early 2026 and to split accounts into age tiers in 2026.People: David Baszucki
  • SpheroCompany · Boulder, CO, USA · founded 2010Sphero makes programmable robots and STEM kits for classrooms, including the ball-shaped Sphero BOLT, the Indi robot for early grades, the RVR, and littleBits electronic building blocks, which it bought in 2019. Its Sphero Edu app lets students code robots with drawing, blocks or JavaScript.
  • TynkerCompany · Mountain View, CA, USA · founded 2012Tynker makes block-based and text coding courses and games for children ages 5 and up, including Minecraft modding and Roblox lessons, used by families and schools. Byju's bought it in 2021; in 2025 CodeHS acquired it in a bankruptcy court auction for about $2.2 million.People: Krishna Vedati
  • VEX RoboticsCompany · Greenville, TX, USAVEX Robotics, a brand of Innovation First International, makes robot building systems for elementary through college, from VEX 123 and GO to VEX V5, and the VEX Robotics Competition, one of the largest student robotics competitions in the world. In 2026 it split from the RECF foundation and set up a new foundation to run its competitions.
  • Wonder WorkshopCompany · San Mateo, CA, USA · founded 2012Wonder Workshop makes the Dash and Dot robots for young children and the Cue robot for older students, programmed through block-based apps and text code. Its robots are used in elementary classrooms to teach sequencing, loops and problem solving, and it runs the Wonder League robotics competition for students.

Language learning and online courses

  • 2U (edX)Company · Lanham, MD, USA · founded 20082U builds and runs online degree programs, bootcamps and short courses for universities and owns edX, the course platform started by Harvard and MIT, which it bought in 2021. Revenue-sharing deals with universities drew criticism and regulatory attention. It filed for Chapter 11 in July 2024 and came out as a private company later that year.
  • BabbelCompany · Berlin, Germany · founded 2007Babbel makes a subscription language-learning app with short lessons in 14 languages written by language teachers, focused on real-life conversation. It adds live online classes and Babbel Speak, an AI speaking-practice feature introduced in 2025. It is used mainly by adults.
  • BusuuCompany · London, UK · founded 2008Busuu is a language-learning app that pairs short lessons with feedback on learners' writing and speaking exercises from a community of native speakers, plus live classes. It teaches more than a dozen languages and is used mostly by adults. Chegg bought it in 2021.
  • CamblyCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2013Cambly connects English learners around the world with native-speaking tutors for live video conversation practice at any hour, with lessons ranging from casual chat to structured courses. Its Cambly Kids service offers lessons for children with tutors who specialize in teaching young learners.
  • CourseraCompany · Mountain View, CA, USA · founded 2012Coursera offers online courses, certificates and degrees from universities and companies, with AI features such as Coursera Coach. It was started by Stanford professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller and is publicly traded. In December 2025 it agreed to acquire Udemy in a deal valuing the combined company at about $2.5 billion.People: Andrew Ng, Daphne Koller
  • DuolingoCompany · Pittsburgh, PA, USA · founded 2011Duolingo makes the world's most downloaded language-learning app, built on short gamified lessons, streaks and adaptive review, plus Duolingo Math, Music and chess, the Duolingo ABC reading app for young children, and the Duolingo English Test. In 2025 its CEO's memo calling it an AI-first company that would use fewer contractors drew public backlash; it has used generative AI to build many new courses.People: Luis von Ahn, Severin Hacker
  • NovakidCompany · founded 2017Novakid runs live online English lessons for children ages 4 to 12 taught by native-speaking and fluent teachers using a game-based curriculum aligned with the CEFR language framework. It is sold to families in Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and other regions.
  • OutschoolCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2015Outschool is a marketplace of live online classes for ages 3 to 18 taught by independent teachers, on everything from math and reading to Minecraft and Taylor Swift. It grew quickly during the pandemic and is used heavily by homeschooling families.People: Amir Nathoo
  • PraktikaCompanyPraktika makes a language-learning app where learners practice spoken conversations with AI-generated avatar tutors that react with faces and voices, used mostly for English. It has raised venture funding and is one of a wave of startups building language tutors on large language models.
  • PreplyCompany · founded 2012Preply is an online marketplace for one-to-one language lessons with more than 100,000 human tutors in over 90 languages, adding AI tools for practice and lesson summaries. Its founders are Ukrainian, and it reached a $1.2 billion valuation in a January 2026 funding round.People: Kirill Bigai
  • Rosetta StoneCompany · Arlington, VA, USA · founded 1992Rosetta Stone is one of the oldest language-learning software brands, known for immersion lessons that pair words with pictures and avoid translation, and for speech recognition that checks pronunciation. It is owned by IXL Learning, which bought it in 2021, and is sold to families, schools and businesses.
  • SpeakCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2016Speak makes an AI speaking-practice app for language learners, focused on getting people to talk out loud in conversation with an AI tutor that gives feedback on pronunciation and grammar. It began with English learners in South Korea, has expanded to other languages and countries, and is backed by the OpenAI Startup Fund.People: Connor Zwick, Andrew Hsu
  • UdemyCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2010Udemy is an online course marketplace where independent instructors sell video courses on everything from programming and data to music and design, with a large business-training arm, Udemy Business. It has added AI features for learners and instructors. Coursera agreed to acquire it in December 2025.
  • VIPKidCompany · Beijing, China · founded 2013VIPKid once ran one of the largest online English tutoring services, connecting Chinese children with North American teachers by video. China's 2021 rules banning foreign teachers for online tutoring forced it to end that core business, and it shifted to other markets and products.People: Cindy Mi

Teacher tools and school platforms

  • BlooketCompanyBlooket is a quiz-game platform where teachers host review games with several game modes and collectible characters called Blooks. It became extremely popular with elementary and middle school students during the pandemic, and teachers can use question sets made by others or write their own.
  • Brisk TeachingCompany · founded 2023Brisk Teaching makes a Chrome extension that brings AI into the tools teachers already use, such as Google Docs and Slides, to give feedback on student writing, adjust reading levels, make quizzes and check writing history for signs of AI use.People: Arman Jaffer
  • ClassDojoCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2011ClassDojo is a communication and classroom-culture app used by teachers, families and students in a large share of US elementary schools, best known for its feedback points and messaging between teachers and parents. It has added paid family features and after-school programs.People: Sam Chaudhary, Liam Don
  • CleverCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2012Clever provides single sign-on and secure student-data rostering for US K-12 schools, connecting district information systems to thousands of learning apps so students log in once, often with a badge for young children. It is used in a large majority of US schools. Kahoot! bought it in 2021.People: Tyler Bosmeny
  • CuripodCompany · NorwayCuripod makes interactive lessons that teachers generate with AI and run live, with polls, drawings, word clouds and open responses, plus AI feedback on student writing. It is used in K-12 classrooms in the US, Europe and other regions and has a free tier for teachers.
  • Curriculum AssociatesCompany · North Billerica, MA, USA · founded 1969Curriculum Associates makes i-Ready, an adaptive diagnostic and instruction program for reading and math used by millions of US students, and the Ready print curriculum. It is privately held. Lawsuits filed in 2025 and 2026 challenge how i-Ready uses student data and whether its lessons are truly personalized.
  • DiffitCompany · founded 2023Diffit is an AI tool that turns any article, topic, PDF or video into leveled reading passages with vocabulary lists, questions and activities. Teachers use it to give the same grade-level content to students who read at different levels, including English learners, in many languages.
  • EdmodoCompany · San Mateo, CA, USA · founded 2008Edmodo was a social learning network for K-12 classrooms, used by tens of millions of teachers and students at its peak. China's NetDragon bought it in 2018 and shut it down in September 2022. In 2023 the FTC obtained an order against it for collecting children's personal data without parental consent and using it for advertising, the first FTC order to bar an edtech company from forcing students to hand over unnecessary data.
  • EdpuzzleCompany · Barcelona, Spain · founded 2013Edpuzzle lets teachers take any video, from YouTube or their own recordings, and add questions, voice notes and checks for understanding, then see how each student watched and answered. It has added AI to generate questions from videos. It was started in Barcelona and is widely used in US schools.
  • EdthenaCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2011Edthena makes video-based coaching software for teachers, who record their own lessons and get feedback from coaches and peers on the video. Its AI Coach guides teachers through reflecting on their teaching and planning next steps, used for professional development in US districts.
  • Eduaide.AICompany · founded 2022Eduaide.AI is an AI assistant for teachers that generates lesson plans, discussion questions, games, assessments and feedback across more than 100 activity types. It is designed to keep teachers in charge of the final material and offers a free plan and paid plans for schools.
  • FlintCompany · founded 2023Flint makes an AI platform for schools in which teachers build tutoring, practice and feedback activities for their students, set rules for what the AI may do, and see every student conversation. It works across subjects and languages and is sold to schools.People: Sohan Choudhury, Ryan Trattner
  • GPTZeroCompany · founded 2023GPTZero makes an AI-writing detector, started by then-Princeton student Edward Tian in January 2023, used by teachers and schools, plus tools that track a writer's process so students can show their own work. Like all AI detectors, its accuracy is debated.People: Edward Tian, Alex Cui
  • InstructureCompany · Salt Lake City, UT, USA · founded 2008Instructure makes Canvas, one of the most widely used learning management systems in universities and K-12 schools, plus assessment tools such as Mastery Connect. KKR and Dragoneer took it private in 2024 for $4.8 billion. In April and May 2026 a criminal hacking group breached Canvas, causing outages and exposing data from thousands of institutions in what was described as the largest education data breach on record.
  • KamiCompany · Auckland, New Zealand · founded 2013Kami is a digital classroom tool that lets students and teachers annotate PDFs and documents, add audio and video comments and grade online, integrated with Google Classroom, Canvas and other platforms. It was started in New Zealand and is used in many US schools. It bought Book Creator in 2025.
  • Kira LearningCompanyKira Learning makes an AI-native platform for K-12 schools that combines curriculum, AI tutoring for students and AI grading and planning tools for teachers, with a focus on computer science and AI courses. Its chairman is AI researcher Andrew Ng, and it grew out of his AI Fund.People: Andrea Pasinetti, Andrew Ng
  • MagicSchoolCompany · Denver, CO, USA · founded 2023MagicSchool makes an AI platform for teachers with dozens of tools for lesson plans, rubrics, differentiated texts, IEP drafts and parent emails, plus a student-facing side with teacher-set guardrails. It was started by a former teacher and principal, grew to millions of educators within two years, and raised a $45 million Series B in 2025.People: Adeel Khan
  • Merlyn MindCompanyMerlyn Mind builds a voice-controlled AI assistant for teachers that runs classroom technology, such as displays and slides, from the front of the room, and answers questions using education-tuned language models designed to stay on trusted sources. It sells to US school districts.
  • NearpodCompany · Dania Beach, FL, USA · founded 2012Nearpod lets teachers run interactive slide lessons in which students answer questions, draw, play games and take virtual field trips on their own devices while the teacher sees responses live. It also owns Flocabulary, the hip-hop learning video company. Renaissance bought it in 2021.
  • NWEACompany · Portland, OR, USA · founded 1977NWEA makes MAP Growth, a computer-adaptive test that many US schools give two or three times a year to measure reading and math growth, and publishes widely cited research on learning loss and recovery. Once a nonprofit, it became part of HMH in 2023.
  • PadletCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2012Padlet makes online boards where students and teachers post text, images, links and videos together, used for brainstorming, discussion, timelines and displays of work. It has added AI features that create board templates and activities. It says about 40 million people have used it.
  • PowerSchoolCompany · Folsom, CA, USA · founded 1997PowerSchool makes student information systems, gradebooks, the Schoology learning management system and other software used by many US school districts. Bain Capital took it private in 2024. A cyberattack disclosed in late 2024 exposed personal data on tens of millions of students and teachers, and a college student later pleaded guilty to the hack.
  • RenaissanceCompany · Wisconsin Rapids, WI, USA · founded 1984Renaissance makes K-12 assessment and practice software, including Star Assessments, Accelerated Reader, myON, Freckle, Nearpod, and Lalilo. Accelerated Reader's points-based quizzes are among the most widely used reading programs in US schools and have long drawn debate over extrinsic rewards.
  • SchoolAICompany · Utah, USA · founded 2023SchoolAI gives teachers AI "Spaces": chat-based activities, tutors and role-plays they set up for their students. A dashboard shows teachers what each student asked and flags concerns, such as signs of distress. It also includes planning tools for teachers and sells to schools and districts.People: Caleb Hicks
  • SeesawCompany · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2013Seesaw is a digital portfolio and learning platform where elementary students post their work as photos, videos, recordings and drawings, teachers give feedback and families see it at home in their own language. It also sells literacy and math lessons and assessments for schools.
  • TurnitinCompany · Oakland, CA, USA · founded 1998Turnitin makes plagiarism-detection and grading software used by thousands of universities and high schools, and launched an AI-writing detector in 2023. The detector has been debated over false positives, especially for non-native English writers, and some universities turned it off. It is owned by Advance Publications.
  • Wayground (formerly Quizizz)Company · Santa Clara, CA, USA · founded 2015Wayground, known until 2025 as Quizizz, makes gamified quizzes and interactive lessons for K-12 classrooms that students play at their own pace on their own devices. It has added AI tools that build quizzes from any text or video and adapt materials for students with different needs, and it is used in many countries.

AI robots and toys

  • CurioCompanyCurio makes plush AI toys for young children, Grem, Gabbo and Grok (no relation to xAI's chatbot), that hold voice conversations through a large language model and an app for parents. Its launch with the musician Grimes drew wide coverage and questions from child-development experts about AI companions for preschoolers.People: Misha Sallee, Sam Eaton
  • EmbodiedCompany · Pasadena, CA, USA · founded 2016Embodied made Moxie, a $799 social robot for children ages 5 to 10 designed to build social and emotional skills through conversation. The company shut down in December 2024 after a funding deal fell through, and the cloud-dependent robots stopped working, a widely cited case of what happens to kids' AI devices when a company closes. It later released an open-source option for owners.People: Paolo Pirjanian
  • FoloToyCompanyFoloToy makes AI-powered plush toys, including the Kumma teddy bear, that talk with children using large language models. In November 2025 a US PIRG Education Fund report found Kumma could be led into discussing sexual topics and dangerous objects; OpenAI cut off its access and the company paused sales to run a safety review.
  • Luka (Ling Technology)Company · Beijing, ChinaLing Technology makes Luka, an owl-shaped reading robot that recognizes the pages of printed picture books with its camera and reads them aloud to children, in English and Chinese. It now also markets the Luka AI Cube and other AI companion devices that talk with children and act as language partners.
  • MattelCompany · El Segundo, CA, USA · founded 1945Mattel is one of the world's largest toy makers (Barbie, Fisher-Price, Hot Wheels). In June 2025 it announced a strategic partnership with OpenAI to bring AI into toys and its internal work, which drew public objections from child advocacy groups. It had earlier sold Hello Barbie (2015), a talking doll that raised privacy concerns because it recorded children's speech.
  • MikoCompany · Mumbai, India · founded 2015Miko (from Emotix) makes small talking robots for children ages 5 to 10, such as Miko 3 and Miko Mini, that play games, answer questions, tell stories and run learning content, with a paid Miko Max subscription for licensed shows and apps. It is one of the most widely sold AI companion robots for kids, with sales in the US, India and other countries.People: Sneh Vaswani
  • toniesCompany · Düsseldorf, Germany · founded 2014tonies makes the Toniebox, a screen-free speaker for young children that plays stories and songs when a child places a collectible character figure on top, and the Tonies figures themselves, including licensed characters and recordable Creative-Tonies. It is listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and sells in Europe and North America.People: Patric Faßbender, Marcus Stahl
  • UBTECH RoboticsCompany · Shenzhen, China · founded 2012UBTECH makes humanoid and educational robots, including Jimu building kits, Alpha robots and AI education kits for schools, as well as Walker humanoid robots. It is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and is a major supplier of AI education programs to Chinese schools.
  • VTechCompany · Hong Kong · founded 1976VTech makes electronic learning toys, kids' tablets and smartwatches, and owns LeapFrog. A 2015 breach exposed data on millions of parents and children, and in 2018 it paid $650,000 to settle FTC charges that it violated the children's privacy law COPPA, the first COPPA case involving internet-connected toys.
  • YotoCompany · London, UK · founded 2017Yoto makes screen-free audio players for children, the Yoto Player and Yoto Mini, that play audiobooks, music, podcasts and radio from physical cards, with no camera, ads or open internet. Its card library includes classic children's books and learning content, and parents can make their own cards.

Kids' devices and safety tech

  • AuraCompany · Boston, MA, USA · founded 2017Aura sells identity-theft and online-safety protection for families, including the parental controls it gained by buying Circle in 2023 and AI-based alerts about children's online interactions. It also publishes research on kids' digital wellbeing and screen use, and sells its family plans directly to parents by subscription.People: Hari Ravichandran
  • Bark TechnologiesCompany · Atlanta, GA, USA · founded 2015Bark makes parental monitoring software that scans children's texts, email, social media and web activity for signs of bullying, self-harm, predators and other risks and alerts parents, plus the Bark Phone and a kids' smartwatch. It offers a free version, Bark for Schools, to monitor school accounts.People: Brian Bason
  • CanopyCompanyCanopy makes parental-control software that uses on-device AI to blur explicit images in real time, including in browsers and apps, and to detect when children try to send explicit photos. It also offers web filtering, screen-time controls and removal-prevention features.
  • GabbCompany · Lehi, UT, USA · founded 2018Gabb sells phones and smartwatches for kids and teens without open internet, social media or app stores, offering parent-approved apps, location tracking and a curated music service, Gabb Music. It runs its own wireless service and is one of several "safe phone" makers that grew with parent worries about smartphones.People: Stephen Dalby
  • GaggleCompany · Dallas, TX, USA · founded 1999Gaggle monitors students' school email, documents and chat for signs of self-harm, violence and abuse, with human reviewers who alert school staff. It is used by many US districts. Reporting by news outlets and studies have raised concerns about false alarms, LGBTQ students being outed, and the privacy cost of round-the-clock monitoring.People: Jeff Patterson
  • GoGuardianCompany · Los Angeles, CA, USA · founded 2014GoGuardian makes web filtering, classroom screen-monitoring and student-safety software for school Chromebooks, along with the Pear Deck interactive lesson tool it merged with. Its Beacon product flags online signs of self-harm. Civil liberties groups have questioned how such monitoring affects student privacy.People: Advait Shinde
  • iFlytekCompany · Hefei, China · founded 1999iFlytek is a Chinese speech-recognition and AI company with a large education business, selling AI learning tablets for children, smart classroom systems and automated grading for Chinese schools, built on its Spark (Xinghuo) language models. It has faced US export restrictions over human-rights concerns.People: Liu Qingfeng
  • k-IDCompany · Singapore · founded 2023k-ID builds age-assurance and parental-consent tools that help game and app makers follow children's privacy and safety laws in different countries. Parents can approve features, such as chat, for each child in one place. It is used by game studios and was founded in Singapore in 2023.
  • Life360Company · San Francisco, CA, USA · founded 2008Life360 makes a family location-sharing app, along with Tile trackers and crash detection, used by tens of millions of families to see where children and teens are. It has faced scrutiny over past sales of location data, which it said it stopped in 2022.People: Chris Hulls
  • Lightspeed SystemsCompany · Austin, TX, USA · founded 1999Lightspeed Systems makes web filtering, device management, classroom monitoring and safety-alert tools for K-12 schools, and bought the STOPit anonymous reporting app in 2025. It is one of the largest suppliers of filtering to US districts. In 2026 a security flaw was reported in its classroom Chrome extension.
  • NetEase YoudaoCompany · Beijing, China · founded 2006NetEase Youdao, a unit of the gaming company NetEase listed in New York, makes dictionary pens and other learning devices, the Youdao dictionary and translation apps, and AI tutoring built on its Ziyue education language model, sold mainly in China.
  • PinwheelCompany · Austin, TX, USAPinwheel makes a smartphone for kids built on Android in which parents choose every app and contact, see texts and set schedules, with no web browser by default. It was started by a father who wanted a middle path between a flip phone and a full smartphone, and it has added PinwheelGPT, a kid-focused AI chatbot whose conversations parents can review.People: Dane Witbeck
  • PRIVOCompanyPRIVO helps companies comply with children's privacy laws such as COPPA, offering identity, parental-consent and age-verification services for apps, games and websites. It runs one of the FTC-approved COPPA Safe Harbor programs, which certify that member companies follow the law.
  • Qoria (Linewize)Company · Perth, AustraliaQoria, formerly Family Zone, owns school safety brands such as Linewize and Smoothwall, offering web filtering, classroom management and student wellbeing monitoring sold in Australia, the UK and the US. It also sells parental-control tools to families and is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange.
  • QustodioCompany · Barcelona, Spain · founded 2012Qustodio makes parental-control software for phones, tablets and computers that filters websites, sets screen-time limits, tracks location and reports on app use. It publishes an annual report on children's app and screen habits based on anonymized data from families who use it.
  • SecurlyCompany · San Jose, CA, USA · founded 2013Securly makes web filtering, classroom management and student wellness monitoring for schools, including alerts on signs of self-harm or bullying. It also offers a parent app that shows children's activity on school-issued devices, and sells to many US school districts.
  • SuperAwesomeCompany · London, UK · founded 2013SuperAwesome makes kid-safe technology for apps, games and advertisers, including Kids Web Services for verified parental consent and advertising tools that do not track children, to help companies follow laws such as COPPA. Epic Games bought it in 2020 and uses its tools in Fortnite and other games.People: Dylan Collins
  • TroomiCompany · Utah, USATroomi Wireless sells smartphones for kids with parent-managed apps, contacts and web filtering, designed to grow with the child, starting close to a basic phone and adding freedom over time. It is one of several Utah-based kid phone companies and runs its own wireless service.
  • XploraCompany · Oslo, Norway · founded 2016Xplora makes smartwatch phones for children with calling, messaging, step counting and GPS location but no open internet or social media, marketed as a first device before a smartphone. It sells mainly in Europe and is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange.
  • YotiCompany · London, UK · founded 2014Yoti makes digital identity and age-assurance technology, including facial age estimation that guesses a person's age from a selfie without storing it, used by social platforms and websites to meet child-safety laws. Its accuracy across ages and skin tones and its data practices have been debated; Spain's data protection agency fined it in 2026.People: Robin Tombs

Edtech holding companies and publishers

  • AmplifyCompany · Brooklyn, NY, USA · founded 2000Amplify publishes K-12 curricula including Amplify CKLA and Core Knowledge-based literacy, Amplify Science and Desmos-based math, the mCLASS early reading assessment with DIBELS 8, and Boost Reading. It bought the Desmos classroom curriculum in 2022 and Mathigon's Polypad in 2023; in 2025 Desmos Classroom was renamed Amplify Classroom.People: Larry Berger
  • Byju'sCompany · Bengaluru, India · founded 2011Byju's was once India's most valuable startup, selling app-based tutoring and test prep and buying Western edtech companies including Epic, Tynker, Osmo and Great Learning. It collapsed amid disputes with lenders over a $1.2 billion loan, delayed accounts and aggressive sales tactics; its US units went through bankruptcy and its parent company is in insolvency proceedings in India.People: Byju Raveendran
  • Cambium Learning GroupCompany · Dallas, TX, USACambium Learning Group is the parent of Lexia (reading software and LETRS teacher training), ExploreK12 (Learning A-Z and ExploreLearning), Voyager Sopris Learning, Time4Learning, Kurzweil Education and Cambium Assessment, which runs online state tests. It is owned by Veritas Capital, which also owns HMH.
  • Cengage GroupCompany · Boston, MA, USA · founded 2007Cengage publishes higher education and school textbooks and digital courseware, including the Cengage Unlimited subscription, MindTap and National Geographic Learning for English and K-12 content. Owned by Apollo Global Management, it filed confidentially in 2026 for an initial public offering.
  • Discovery EducationCompany · Charlotte, NC, USA · founded 2004Discovery Education sells digital curriculum, video and science resources to K-12 schools, including the Mystery Science elementary science program and, since 2023, DreamBox adaptive math and Reading Plus. Once part of Discovery Communications, it is now owned by the private equity firm Clearlake Capital.
  • Highlights for ChildrenCompany · Columbus, OH, USA · founded 1946Highlights for Children publishes the long-running Highlights magazine, known for its Hidden Pictures puzzles and Goofus and Gallant, plus Highlights High Five for preschoolers, activity books and puzzle apps. Founded in 1946 by Garry Cleveland Myers and Caroline Clark Myers, it is still family-owned.
  • HMH (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt)Company · Boston, MA, USA · founded 1832HMH publishes K-12 curricula such as Into Reading and Into Math, owns the Heinemann professional publisher and the NWEA assessment organization (since 2023), and sells the Writable AI writing-feedback tool. Veritas Capital took it private in 2022 for about $2.8 billion.
  • Imagine LearningCompany · Tempe, AZ, USAImagine Learning sells K-12 digital curricula and courseware, including Imagine Language & Literacy for English learners, Imagine Math, Edgenuity online courses used for credit recovery and virtual classes, and a certified edition of the Illustrative Mathematics curriculum. Its products are used in many US districts.
  • IXL LearningCompany · San Mateo, CA, USA · founded 1998IXL Learning makes IXL, an adaptive practice program used by millions of K-12 students, and owns a family of learning brands: Rosetta Stone, Education.com, Teachers Pay Teachers, Wyzant tutoring, ABCya, Vocabulary.com and, since October 2026, NoRedInk. It is privately held.People: Paul Mishkin
  • Kahoot!Company · Oslo, Norway · founded 2013Kahoot! makes game-based quiz software used in classrooms and workplaces worldwide, and owns the Clever school sign-on platform, the DragonBox math apps, Drops language app and Poio reading app. An investor group led by Goldman Sachs Asset Management took it private in 2024 for about $1.7 billion.
  • McGraw HillCompany · Columbus, OH, USA · founded 1888McGraw Hill publishes K-12 curricula, higher education courseware and adaptive programs such as ALEKS for math and Connect, and is adding generative AI assistants to its programs. Owned by Platinum Equity since 2021, it returned to the stock market with a New York Stock Exchange listing in July 2025.
  • PearsonCompany · London, UK · founded 1844Pearson is one of the world's largest education companies, now focused on assessment and qualifications (including Pearson VUE and UK exams such as Edexcel), virtual schools through Connections Academy, English language learning, higher education courseware and workforce skills. It sold its US K-12 curriculum business, now Savvas, in 2019. UK exam regulator Ofqual fined it in 2025 over exam-security breaches.
  • Savvas Learning CompanyCompany · founded 2019Savvas, formerly Pearson's US K-12 courseware business, publishes core curricula such as enVision Mathematics, myView Literacy and Miller & Levine Biology, with digital platforms used by many US schools. It took its new name after the private equity firm Nexus Capital Management bought the business in 2019.
  • ScholasticCompany · New York, NY, USA · founded 1920Scholastic is the largest publisher and distributor of children's books in the world, running school book fairs and book clubs and publishing series such as Harry Potter in the US and Clifford the Big Red Dog, plus classroom magazines. It launched the free Scholastic TV streaming app in 2025. A 2025 data breach exposed customer contact details.
  • Stride (K12)Company · Reston, VA, USA · founded 2000Stride, formerly K12 Inc., runs online public and private schools and sells online curriculum, career courses and tutoring, serving a large share of US virtual-school students. Online charter schools it manages have long drawn scrutiny over student outcomes, and in 2026 its schools were affected by the Canvas data breach.
  • TAL Education GroupCompany · Beijing, China · founded 2003TAL Education is one of China's largest education companies, listed in New York, known for its Xueersi tutoring brand. After China's 2021 tutoring rules it moved into learning devices, enrichment and AI learning tools, including its MathGPT model. In 2025 it bought the US children's reading app Epic out of Byju's bankruptcy.