MindSnacks already has 14 apps for learning subjects such as Spanish, Italian, German, French, Portuguese, Mandarin and SAT Vocab. The company focuses on making games that are educational but also fun for people. They also are personalized to help people learn specific skills at their own pace.
While the popular apps used to be all iPhone, they are now iPad supported. This will not only make it accessible to people on the iPad it will also make possible more types of games and game play. The company is also adding six new games to teach things like conversation, sentence construction and grammar. MindSnacks is also adding skill tracking. This will make it possible for people to track their improvements and skills across different apps.
The company also plans to soon expand into other subjects like Geography and Math. The users are split about 50% between those under 18 and over 18.
MindSnacks cofounder and CEO Jesse Pickard, who was named to FORBES 30 Under 30 list, wants to make learning languages and other subjects fun. Games are the best way to do this, he says, but the games have to be very well designed. "With a lot of educational games it's extremely dry or it separates the educational piece from the fun piece. So you answer a multiple choice question and then you get a fun prize. That's not the way. It's got to have everything blended together."
I've been playing with the Mandarin app, which is fun, though I can't say I'm at kindergarden level yet.
Founded in 2010 and backed by Sequoia Capital, DreamIt Ventures, 500 Startups and Felicis Ventures, MindSnacks has a team of 25 people who build both the educational curriculum and the gaming. The apps are all free-to-play, but have a one-time $5 fee after you reach a certain level in the game. The company doesn't have micro-transactions, Pickard says because he thinks there shouldn't be "hidden purchases." There is 40 hours of learning on each app.
