Flintobox
| Industry | Education Toys |
|---|---|
| Founded | September 2013 |
| Founders | Arunprasad Durairaj, Vijaybabu Gandhi, Shreenidhi Srirangam |
| Headquarters | Chennai , India |
Area served | India |
| Products | Activity Boxes for Children |
| Services | E-commerce Subscription Boxes |
| Website | flintobox.com |
Flintobox is an India-based company that produces educational activity boxes for children. Based on a theme, the company makes resources for Early Child Development on a monthly basis. The company follows a subscription operational model and delivers the boxes straight to a child’s doorstep.
History
Flintobox was founded by Arunprasad Durairaj,[1] Vijaybabu Gandhi, and Shreenidhi Srirangam. As young parents, they realised the growing trend of TV addiction in children [2] and the urgent requirement for activities to get their children engaged with. The idea of Flintobox was then born. After a few test runs,[3] they invested their savings of close to Rs. 10 lakh to establish the business in September 2013.
In October 2014, they raised USD 300,000 [4] from leading angels GSF Global, Globevestor (USA),[5] AECAL (Germany), and Mauj Mobile. Mauj Mobile already owns three app platforms, namely, AppyStore, Gamesbond and Mobango.[6] The investment primarily went into scaling marketing, operation, and product development capabilities. The company began operations with designing products for 4-8 year olds and is currently widening the target to 2-12 year olds. The name Flintobox originates from flint, a sedimentary rock, which can generate sparks when struck against steel.[7]
Membership
Flintobox offers three subscription plans, which customers can upgrade or cancel at any point of time.[8] There are 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month subscriptions available. The company looks at teaching children several concepts over the period of their subscription. Currently, Flintobox has more than 4,28,958 subscribers.
Subscribers of Flintobox also receive a digital feed of parenting tips and weekly activity ideas to do with children through the Flintobox App.[9]
Product
Flintobox started off in 2013 with products for 4-8 year olds. Each box contains 4-5 play based activities [10] that bring about overall development of the child. It is educational and is designed by child development experts to make learning more engaging and healthy for kids. Each month has a new theme based on which all the activities are designed.[11] Flintobox has a tie-up with International Institute of Information Technology in Hyderabad to design developmental games that can help with a child's motor skills, creative thought process, and overall psychological development.[12] Flintobox targets at getting four main activities inside every box that makes a child create, explore, play, read, and sometimes a bonus activity is included.[13]
In December 2015, Flintobox announced that it was expanding its product line to include products for children between the ages of 2-3 and 3-4. The new products have 7-9 activities inside each box.The boxes have toys themed around topics like wildlife, vegetables, colouring, outer space, numbers, and others - all aimed at 12 development needs in children.[14] At present, Flintoboxes are shipped across India. The concepts are ideated and designed in-house, but manufacturing is generally done by suppliers. Bengaluru and Chennai contribute to over 30 percent of Flintobox's revenue.[15]
End of 2016, Flintobox began producing activity kits[16] for 8-12 year olds that deals with everyday science concepts.
Promotion
Flintobox operates on a complete ecommerce model. There are no offline stores. Orders and purchases are made through the company's website and app.
Awards and recognition
Flintobox was awarded [17] the "Coolest Startup of 2014" by Business Today, the "Best Education Startup of 2014" by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII),[18] the Wharton India Startup Competition 2015 [19] and also the best subscription boxes of 2014 by kidstoppress.[20]
References
- ^ "Indian Education Show 2015".
- ^ "Woo kids away from the idiot box". Bangalore Mirror.
- ^ Sangeetha Kandavel. "Flintobox: Game for something new?". The Hindu.
- ^ "Flintobox: Building engaging products for children that aid their holistic development". timesofindia-economictimes.
- ^ "Educational firm Flinto raises $300,000". timesofindia-economictimes.
- ^ "Mauj Mobile to raise $30-50 million for appstore play". The Hindu Business Line. 24 April 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
- ^ "Educational firm Flinto raises $300,000". timesofindia-economictimes.
- ^ "Chennai start-up looks to tap PEs for funds". Business Line. 6 May 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
- ^ "Flintobox app comes to Google Play store". The Times of India.
- ^ "Why FlintoBox "The Magical Monthly Discovery Kit" Might Help You and Your Kids". 16 October 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
- ^ Samiksha Jain (26 August 2015). "Flintobox: A box full of toys to set your kids' imagination soaring". Entrepreneur.
- ^ "Out of the box". Business Standard. 25 July 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
- ^ http://thegoldensparrow.com/news/get-children-hooked-to-something-worthy/
- ^ Anusha Parthasarathy. "The Flinto adventure". The Hindu.
- ^ http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-05-26/news/62672140_1_rakesh-kumar-100-schools-flintobox
- ^ http://smartwoop.com/flintobox-reviews/
- ^ http://www.newindianexpress.com/education/edex/Out-of-the-box-Learning/2015/03/09/article2699432.ece
- ^ Priyam Mukhopadhyay. "Flintobox bags Best Start-Up Award of 2014".
- ^ "Wharton India Startup Competition—In India!".
- ^ "Kidsstoppress Awards 2013 - Reviews of kids products & services in India". kidsstoppress.com.