Flintobox

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 2-8 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 2,80,000 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]

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 & Recognition

Flintobox was awarded [16] the "Coolest Startup of 2014" by Business Today, the "Best Education Startup of 2014" by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII),[17] the Wharton India Startup Competition 2015 [18] and also the best subscription boxes of 2014 by kidstoppress.[19]

References

  1. "Indian Education Show 2015".
  2. "Woo kids away from the idiot box". Bangalore Mirror.
  3. Sangeetha Kandavel. "Flintobox: Game for something new?". The Hindu.
  4. "Flintobox: Building engaging products for children that aid their holistic development". timesofindia-economictimes.
  5. "Educational firm Flinto raises $300,000". timesofindia-economictimes.
  6. "Mauj Mobile to raise $30-50 million for appstore play". The Hindu Business Line. 24 April 2016. Retrieved 28 October 2016.
  7. "Educational firm Flinto raises $300,000". timesofindia-economictimes.
  8. "Chennai start-up looks to tap PEs for funds". Business Line. 6 May 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  9. "Flintobox app comes to Google Play store". The Times of India.
  10. "Why FlintoBox "The Magical Monthly Discovery Kit" Might Help You and Your Kids". 16 October 2014. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  11. Samiksha Jain (26 August 2015). "Flintobox: A box full of toys to set your kids' imagination soaring". Entrepreneur.
  12. "Out of the box". Business Standard. 25 July 2015. Retrieved 4 October 2016.
  13. http://thegoldensparrow.com/news/get-children-hooked-to-something-worthy/
  14. Anusha Parthasarathy. "The Flinto adventure". The Hindu.
  15. http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2015-05-26/news/62672140_1_rakesh-kumar-100-schools-flintobox
  16. http://www.newindianexpress.com/education/edex/Out-of-the-box-Learning/2015/03/09/article2699432.ece
  17. Priyam Mukhopadhyay. "Flintobox bags Best Start-Up Award of 2014".
  18. "Wharton India Startup Competition—In India!".
  19. "Kidsstoppress Awards 2013 - Reviews of kids products & services in India". kidsstoppress.com.
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