AI has been a boom for the education space, and one startup just raised millions by convincing investors that large language models and generative AI will supercharge kids’ learning.
The startup, Lirvana Labs, just raised $5.3 million in seed funding from Kapor Capital, Transcend Capital Partners, and Chingona Ventures, Business Insider has learned.
Based in Menlo Park, California, brother and sister duo Christie and Clement Pang cofounded Lirvana Labs in 2021 in part as a response to pandemic-related learning setbacks among kids. According to the National Center for Education Studies, more than 87% of public schools report that the pandemic has had a negative effect on student behavior and socioeconomic development. Test scores have decreased since 2020, and 67% of fourth graders struggle to read proficiently, according to The Nations’ Report Card, an NCES resource for standardized testing data.
Lirvana Labs is betting that AI can counteract these trends. The startup’s flagship program, Yeti Confetti Kids, is a learning companion that provides personalized instruction to pre-school through third-grade students using generative AI in subjects including English and math and social, emotional, and critical thinking.
While one-on-one tutoring can be expensive, generative AI enables more kids to receive personalized learning help, explained the Pangs.
“Initially, the concept of providing individualized learning paths for each child was ambitious,” Clement Pang said. “With AI’s massive growth, what previously seemed like mere science fiction now enables us to implement cognitive research into Yeti Confetti, ensuring that the platform is engaging and effective in fostering essential skills across English, math, and social-emotional learning.”
Using AI, Yeti Confetti Kids can generate gamified problem sets in real time and deliver various education theories to children based on their learning needs. The startup’s tech is available via a mobile app, which costs $9.99 monthly or $69.99 annually.
AI has been taking the edtech world by storm for more than a year, and several startups in the space are leveraging the tech to improve kids’ learning experience, including Curipod, which lets teachers create lesson plans with AI; Digest.ai and FoondMate, two AI-powered study assistants; and Kyron Learning, which uses AI to offer supplemental lessons to children outside the classroom.
With its funding round complete, the Pang siblings said they plan to expand Lirvana Labs to include new assessment types and learning modalities and build offerings for older children. The startup has, to date, delivered 160,000 minutes of AI lessons to 15,000 children worldwide, including for Taiwanese ESL students as well as Syrian refugee children in Lebanon.
“Given we work with US school districts with a large proportion of ELLs [English language learners], and many communities abroad where Spanish, Arabic, Thai, or Mandarin are predominant languages, the ability to clone native languages is invaluable,” Christie Pang said.
Check out the 13-slide pitch deck Lirvana Labs used to raise its seed-funding round.
