Powering gen alpha with interactive & educational phygital toys

For many parents today, the amount of time their young children spend with screens is concerning, especially the passive non-learning screen time. Vivek Goyal and Dinesh Advani, both parents themselves, wanted to embrace technology as a part of their children’s development.

With a vision of making screen time more meaningful for children, they set up PlayShifu and it has today become a leading Augmented reality (AR) toy company with unique phygital (physical + digital) play experiences for children aged 2-10 years. With a focus on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) learning, PlayShifu makes best-selling products Shifu Orboot and Shifu Plugo. The first-ever AR globe, Orboot lets kids explore the world across wildlife, landmarks, cultures, inventions, and maps. Plugo is a gaming system for hands-on play without touching the screen. It builds skills like math, music, engineering, and more through storybased challenges.

What started as an indigenous solution for Indian children, with the support of Amazon, in just three years, has become a multi-million-dollar company clocking an 8X YoY growth. It has won the hearts of parents, educators, and kids all over the world. PlayShifu prides itself on inculcating skills like critical thinking, logical reasoning, communication and problem-solving amongst children with their products.

"Our massive growth has been a result of a strategic global expansion in partnership with Amazon. Our adoption strategy is centered on Amazon and its massive reach. Through Amazon, we have now expanded into 6 countries- US, UK, CA, Australia, India, UAE, says Dinesh Advani Founder, PlayShifu, adding, "A global e-commerce ecosystem in true sense, Amazon has made it easier for Sellers from all over the world to get started, to understand customers and to scale business from their respective locations. From Seller tools, listing management, and ads management to customer’s voice and aftersales service - all have been revamped with global Sellers in mind."

This rapid growth through online channels and deep market penetration has helped PlayShifu strengthen its position as the segment leader and become a global brand specializing in early learning. After starting their Amazon Global Selling journey with US, they have now expanded to 6 countries, the US, UK, CA, Australia, India and UAE.

It was a super proud moment for Team PlayShifu when they won the tech enabled Digital SMB of the Year - 2019 award by Amazon, awarded by Jeff Bezos and Amit Agarwal!

PlayShifu has been able to launch multiple products into the market every year and is focused to grow in the future. The company is introducing new toy lines that dig deeper into a well-rounded phygital learning experience and cover the entire spectrum of foundational skills that children need to develop early on. From their initial funding of $75,000 on Kickstarter, PlayShifu raised $7 million in Series A in July 2019.