AUCKLAND, New Zealand, Feb. 18, 2025 /PRNewswire/ — Kid-tech startup Polymath has secured $1M USD in funding with notable investment from ClassDojo CTO Liam Don in their first angel round, followed by a venture-backed pre-seed raise co-led by Blackbird Ventures and GD1. This investment accelerates Polymath’s US market expansion, bringing exciting targeted math learning to over 23 million children.
Polymath is the learning game that kids actually want to play. Despite spending upwards of 4 hours a day on screens outside of school, kids only spend 6 minutes on average on educational apps. Instead, they spend time gaming, watching videos, and using social media. Polymath changes this by merging an adaptive learning algorithm with a sandbox gaming world, keeping thousands of elementary-aged kids engaged for an average of 30 minutes per session. Data shows regular Polymath users learn up to twice as fast as non-users.
Liam Don Backs Polymath
Liam Don, the CTO and co-founder of ClassDojo first invested in Polymath during its angel round. ClassDojo is an edtech unicorn with over 50 million users, namely teachers and families, whose app bridges the gap between home and school.
Don champions Polymath’s ability to create a user-focused product: “Most learning products only have notional educational value. This team has created a cutting-edge product that’s already making a real impact. Their mission to transform education through tech that kids enjoy and a focus on meaningful learning outcomes is truly inspiring and sets a high bar for the future of products made for children.”
An Obsessed Team
Polymath’s founders, Sophie and Christian Silver are obsessed with fighting the drop in mathematics attainment that has been snowballing for the last 20 years. Sophie’s passion for education started with inventing games for children she worked with while studying human learning at UCL. Christian, a Cambridge Computer Science graduate, helped turn those ideas into a dynamic learning app.
“Polymath is kid-first. Our mission is to lift global education outcomes and we can’t do that without enthusiasm from children. We’re rebranding learning as exciting and developing a learning algorithm to simultaneously deliver results”, says Sophie Silver, the CEO and co-founder of Polymath.
Cohesive Learning In and Out of the Classroom
Polymath is used both in the household and at schools, with the school version engaging students and serving as a gateway to the at-home experience, proving parents can trust Polymath with genuine educational endorsement.
Polymath is used both at home and in classrooms. Teachers can adopt it for free, making it easy to integrate into lesson plans. U.S. teachers in states like AZ, VA, SF, FL, TX, and CA are already raving about the app.
Kids take Polymath home because they enjoy it. At home, they gain access to all game features, reinforcing learning through play. “GD1’s investment in Polymath was driven by the team’s clear user obsession. Their rapid iteration and deep engagement with teachers and parents demonstrated a commitment to creating a product kids genuinely love. This tenacity and strong commitment to drive learnings through understanding the early users was pivotal in enabling us to become early believers. We eagerly look forward to what Sophie, Christian and the team achieve over the coming years” says Vignesh Kumar, Co-Managing Partner at GD1.
Doubling Learning with Fun: What Sets Polymath Apart
Polymath feels like a game—complete with collecting, building, and multiplayer features. At its core, an adaptive algorithm personalizes learning moments to each child’s progress. To finish a house, a child might need to measure its dimensions. They might need to spot when they’re getting a bad deal from a shop. Polymath steers kids towards activities that match their current abilities.
“Watching Christian and Sophie work, I was struck by their ability to iterate quickly, listen to user feedback, and build a game with strikingly long session times given it involved math! This is a scrappy team delivering a product that kids love, and parents love that their kids love,” says Phoebe Harrop, General Partner at Blackbird Ventures.
The team has built a fraction of what Polymath can be. They’re working towards a more dynamic world with activities like farming and looking after pets, as well as multiplayer features so that kids can motivate each other to learn.
“We’re constantly experimenting with new features in our game world. Trying a new character here, a new way to ask questions there. We’re pushing new ideas out almost daily. The whole team, engineers included, work with real kids so we get immediate feedback on what’s fun and what’s not” says Christian Silver, the CTO and co-founder of Polymath.
Looking Ahead
With this funding, Polymath will expand in the U.S. and introduce collaborative play, enhancing the collaborative aspects of learning.
Already played by tens of thousands of children worldwide, Polymath continues to grow in the U.S., U.K., New Zealand, and Australia.
Discover Polymath at https://polymath.how/.
About Polymath Polymath is a kid-focused app that turns screen time into a healthy, productive, and enjoyable experience. Through personalisation and interactive gameplay, Polymath empowers children to learn and grow, while giving parents peace of mind.
