Airy Labs secures $1.5 million in funding
Educational developer raises money from Google and Playdom co-founder
Start-up developer Airy Labs has raised $1.5 million in funding to make educational games, the Wall Street Journal's digital blog reports
The money is from Foundation Capital, Google Ventures and Rick Thompson, co-founder of the social game developer Playdom.
According to Airy Labs' founder Andrew Hsu, the money will be used to make, "games that parents can feel good about handing to their kids...and that don't suck."
"Our games are designed in the spirit of 'learning through play' and 'learning by doing,' with the fundamental philosophy that learning is fun and the best games are the ones where kids are having fun playing and learning at the same time," reads a statement on the company's website.
"They will have learning value across a broad landscape, including academic courses and skills, brain and psychological training, and broader life skills that aren't taught in school."
Hsu founded Airy Labs after receiving a $100,000 grant from PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel's "20 under 20" programme – a pool of money to encourage 20 young entrepreneurs to leave higher education in favour of setting up a business.
Andrew Hsu left Stanford University in the fourth year of a neuroscience Ph.D. to start the company.