Flintobox is an

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

-based company that produces STEAM-based educational activity boxes for children. Based on a new theme every month, Flintobox designs resources for Early

Child Development Child development involves the Human development (biology), biological, developmental psychology, psychological and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the conclusion of adolescence. Childhood is divided into 3 stages o ...

. The company follows a

subscription The subscription business model is a business model in which a customer must pay a recurring price at regular intervals for access to a product or service. The model was pioneered by publishers of books and periodicals in the 17th century, and ...

operational model and delivers the boxes straight to the child’s doorstep.

History

Flintobox was founded by Arunprasad Durairaj, Vijaybabu Gandhi, and Shreenidhi Srirangam. They are also the co-founders of Flintoclass. As young parents, they realised the growing trend of screen addiction in children and the urgent requirement for activities to get their children engaged with. The idea of Flintobox was then born. After a few test runs, 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 from leading angels GSF Global, Globevestor (USA), AECAL (

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

), and Mauj Mobile. Mauj Mobile already owns three app platforms, namely, AppyStore, Gamesbond and Mobango. The

investment Investment is the dedication of money to purchase of an asset to attain an increase in value over a period of time. Investment requires a sacrifice of some present asset, such as time, money, or effort. In finance, the purpose of investing i ...

primarily went into scaling

marketing Marketing is the process of exploring, creating, and delivering value to meet the needs of a target market in terms of goods and services; potentially including selection of a target audience; selection of certain attributes or themes to emph ...

, operations, and product development capabilities. The company began operations with designing products for 4-8 year olds and is currently catering to 2-12 year olds. The third and fourth round of funding was for Rs.2cr in 2015 and Rs.6.2cr in 2016 respectively, and was led by Ashwin Chadha - a leading Angel Investor, and Globevestor with participation from existing investors. In 2017, Series-A funding was done by Lightbox and they invested Rs.45cr along with existing investors. InnoVen Capital, Asia’s leading venture debt and specialty lending firm, made a debt investment of INR 60 million in 2018. In 2020, Pre-Series B funding of $7.2 million was led by Lightbox Ventures. The name Flintobox originates from

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and start fir ...

, a

sedimentary rock Sedimentary rocks are types of rock that are formed by the accumulation or deposition of mineral or organic particles at Earth's surface, followed by cementation. Sedimentation is the collective name for processes that cause these particles ...

, which can generate sparks when struck against

steel Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

Membership

Flintobox offers three subscription plans, which customers can upgrade or cancel at any point of time. There are 3-month, 6-month, and 12-month subscriptions available. The company looks at

teaching Teaching is the practice implemented by a ''teacher'' aimed at transmitting skills (knowledge, know-how, and interpersonal skills) to a learner, a student, or any other audience in the context of an educational institution. Teaching is closely re ...

children several age-appropriate concepts and build 16 developmental skills over the period of their

. Currently, Flintobox has more than 10 lakh subscribers. Subscribers of Flintobox also receive a digital feed of

parenting Parenting or child rearing promotes and supports the physical, emotional, social, spiritual and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the intricacies of raising a child and not exclusively for a ...

tips, engaging activity ideas and downloadable worksheets to do with children through the Free Flintobox App.

Product

Flintobox started off in 2013 with products for 4-8 year olds. Each box contains 3-4 play based activities that bring about overall development of the child. It is educational and is designed by

child development Child development involves the Human development (biology), biological, developmental psychology, psychological and emotional changes that occur in human beings between birth and the conclusion of adolescence. Childhood is divided into 3 stages o ...

experts to make learning more engaging and healthy for kids. Each month has a new theme based on which all the activities are designed. 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 A motor skill is a function that involves specific movements of the body's muscles to perform a certain task. These tasks could include walking, running, or riding a bike. In order to perform this skill, the body's nervous system, muscles, and br ...

, creative thought process, and overall psychological development. Flintobox targets at getting four main activities inside every box that makes a child create, explore,

play Play most commonly refers to: * Play (activity), an activity done for enjoyment * Play (theatre), a work of drama Play may refer also to: Computers and technology * Google Play, a digital content service * Play Framework, a Java framework * Pla ...

read Read Read may refer to: * Reading, human cognitive process of decoding symbols in order to construct or derive meaning * Read (automobile), an American car manufactured from 1913 to 1915 * Read (biology), an inferred sequence of base pairs of ...

, and sometimes a bonus activity is included. In December 2015, Flintobox announced that it was expanding its

product line Product may refer to: Business * Product (business), an item that serves as a solution to a specific consumer problem. * Product (project management), a deliverable or set of deliverables that contribute to a business solution Mathematics * Produ ...

to include products for children between the ages of 2-3 and 3-4. The new products have 3-5 activities inside each box. The boxes have toys themed around topics like

wildlife Wildlife refers to domestication, undomesticated animal species (biology), species, but has come to include all organisms that grow or live wilderness, wild in an area without being species, introduced by humans. Wildlife was also synonymous ...

, vegetables, coloring,

outer space Outer space, commonly shortened to space, is the expanse that exists beyond Earth and its atmosphere and between celestial bodies. Outer space is not completely empty—it is a near-perfect vacuum containing a low density of particles, pred ...

, numbers, and others - all aimed at 16 developmental needs in children. At the end of 2016, Flintobox began producing activity kits for 8-12 year olds that deals with everyday science concepts and experiments. At present, Flintoboxes are shipped across India. The concepts are ideated and designed in-house, but manufacturing is generally done by suppliers.

Bengaluru Bangalore (), officially Bengaluru (), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Karnataka. It has a population of more than and a metropolitan population of around , making it the third most populous city and fifth most ...

and

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

contribute to over 30 percent of Flintobox's revenue.

Promotion

Flintobox operates on a complete

ecommerce E-commerce (electronic commerce) is the activity of electronically buying or selling of products on online services or over the Internet. E-commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain managemen ...

model. There are no offline stores. Orders and purchases are made through the company's website and app.

Awards and recognition

Flintobox was awarded the "Coolest Startup of 2014" by Business Today, the "Best Education Startup of 2014" by the

Confederation of Indian Industries The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) is a non-governmental trade association and advocacy group headquartered in New Delhi, India, founded in 1895. CII engages business, political, academic, and other leaders of society to shape globa ...

(CII), the Wharton India Startup Competition 2015 and also the best subscription boxes of 2014 by Kidstoppress. In 2017, it won the Best Start-Up award by TiECON Chennai. In 2018, it bagged three awards including Innovative Learning Solution by Global Edfest, Academics' Choice 'Brain Toy' Award, as well as Academics' Choice 'Mind Spring' award.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Educational toys Subscription services Indian companies established in 2013