Child-development startup Mindshapes raises $4M for educational gaming

Gone are the days of Hooked on Phonics on cassette tape. Today’s kids are turning to technology and games to learn before they ever get to kindergarten. One company operating in this space is Mindshapes, which offers several educational kids games for mobile devices.

The company announced Wednesday it has raised $4 million in funding. Index Ventures, Richmond Park Partners, and existing investors participated in the round. The full press release is below.

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 Index Ventures Leads $4 Million Investment in Mindshapes

Mindshapes launches Magic Town with stories licensed from leading publishers including Hachette Group, Simon & Schuster and Penguin Group

LONDON, ENGLAND and NEW YORK, NY – MAY 30, 2012– Interactive learning company Mindshapes announced today that it has secured a $4 million investment from Index Ventures, Richmond Park Partners and existing investors.

Mindshapes was founded in 2010 by Chairman Shukri Shammas (co-founder of Macrospace and Playfish), CEO David Begg (co-founder of Active Hotels and Tom Dixon), CTO Sami Lababidi (co-founder of Macrospace and Playfish), CCO Christian Dorffer, and CFO Tareq Naqib. Mindshapes is pioneering the development of multi-platform, interactive educational games for children and adults. Mindshapes has also produced nine highly acclaimed educational apps for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch.

Mindshapes is the developer of Magic Town, the first virtual world based on picture book characters. The websitewww.magictown.com launched on May 16^th, and the iPad and iPhone app will launch this summer. Magic Town’s e-learning platform, which is designed for children aged 2-6, features stories licensed from 15 of the world’s leading children’s book publishers including Hachette Group, Simon & Schuster and Penguin Group. At launch, Magic Town was home to more than 70 popular picture book stories including the Winnie the Witch, Elmer, Little Princess and Aliens Love Underpants series. By the end of the year there will be a total of 200 stories, making Mindshapes the leading publisher of popular interactive picture books.

Mindshapes is also set to revolutionize the online language learning space with the launch of Language City, the first interactive language learning game for the social networking generation. “Language City London” targets 16-30 year olds around the world who want to develop their conversational English skills. The game immerses users in a chapter-based situational comedy, filled with quirky London characters. Users will also be able to buy access to premium chapters based on licensed entertainment brands. “Language City London” launches this summer, with other cities and languages following shortly thereafter.

Ben Holmes, Index Ventures’ Partner said: “We see interactive fiction and education products for both kids and adults as massive opportunities. Rarely have we seen such a compelling combination of content, product and team as exists atMindshapes. We are delighted to be investing in the company and look forward to supporting this exceptional team as the business develops.”

David Begg, Mindshapes CEO said: “We are delighted that Index Ventures led this round. Index Ventures’ deep experience, working closely with management teams to drive rapid growth in technology businesses will be of great benefit to Mindshapes. Index have been a great supporter of the founding team in the past and we are looking forward to deepening that partnership.”

About Mindshapes

Mindshapes’ mission is to change the way children and adults learn through interactive game-play. The company was founded in 2010 and has offices in London, New York and San Francisco. For more information, please visit www.mindshapes.com