Makers Of ‘Your Child’s First Robot Friends’ Gets $20 Million In Funding

Wonder Workshop, a San Mateo, California-based company that makes two types of toy robots intended to teach children coding skills, announced on Thursday (July 28) that it had secured $20 million in Series B funding from a round of investors.

Wonder Workshop said it plans to use the funding to expand into the lucrative Chinese marketplace, where most parents are passionate about their children’s education, and to “make coding and STEM education accessible to kids everywhere.”

The financing was co-led by WI Harper Group and Idea Bulb Ventures and includes participation from Learn Capital, Charles River Ventures, Madrona Venture Group and TCL. Wonder Workshop had previously raised $15.9 million from investors, including Madrona Venture Group, Maven Ventures, WI Harper Group and others, according to Reuters.

Wonder Workshop said it also plans to use the funding to expand its management team, invest in new product development and grow its “vast network of educators” that use the toy robots to teach computer science and coding to children in classrooms across the nation.

“As parents and technologists, we founded Wonder Workshop to make the world a better place for children and create age-appropriate tools to inspire the future innovators,” Vikas Gupta, Wonder Workshop’s cofounder and CEO, said in a statement. “We are proud to have such passionate investors join us in our mission to lower the barrier to entry for children to learn and enjoy STEM subjects, such as coding and robotics.”

Wonder Workshop makes two kinds of toy robots — Dot and Dash — that are both compatible with iOS and Android devices and allow children to control them through mobile apps. The robots can be “taught” to perform certain tasks, like delivering a message to a friend or navigating through an obstacle course in a child’s room, when kids using the toys write simple commands or codes for the robots to perform.

“Coding is the modern-day superpower. It helps us think differently, understand how things work and gives us the power to create and succeed in a digital world,” Wonder Workshop says of its products on its website.

Wonder Workshop has sold more than 7,000 toy robots to elementary schools around the world since its founding in 2012.

A Dot and Dash combo pack retails for $294.99 on Amazon.