Wonder Workshop Raises Additional $6.9 Million To Expand Platform For Playful Robots That Help Children Learn To Code

SAN MATEO, Calif., May 5, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Wonder Workshop today announced it has raised an additional $6.9 million from new investor WI Harper Group and existing investors Madrona Venture Group, CRV, Maven Ventures, Bright Success Capital and angels. Wonder Workshop will use the funding to continue to expand into new markets, develop manufacturing and strategic business channels. The funding brings the company's total funding to $15.9 million.

"The Wonder Workshop team has translated a compelling mission and vision into Dash & Dot, programmable robots that kids, their parents and their teachers absolutely love," said Peter Liu, Chairman and Founder of WI Harper Group.  "We are excited to partner with Vikas and team to create fun, delightful products that help our children learn to code."

Since the launch in late 2014, Dash & Dot have appeared at the White House for the National Hour of Code, been broadly adopted in classrooms around the country and have provided more than 75,000 hours of fun and entertainment to kids around the world.

"The response from kids, parents and teachers has been incredible. It's heartening to see Dash, Dot and our apps opening minds to the possibilities in blending coding and hands-on play," said Gupta. "We continue to build a platform that helps children learn through play, and the additional funding will help us invest even further in content for our community such as new apps, school curricula, weekly challenges, the monthly magazine, and more."

Additionally, Wonder Workshop recently welcomed Raghu Sethuraman as chief operating officer and Ned Ward as vice president of marketing. The unique blend of talent making up the passionate team at Wonder Workshop includes those from top technology, toy, consumer goods, design and gaming industries such as Apple, Google, Amazon, LEGO, Mattel, Microsoft, Facebook, Adobe, Electronic Arts, and IDEO.

• Sethuraman will lead global operations, finance, customer service and reseller partner organizations. He brings more than 16 years of leadership experience to Wonder Workshop from fast growing global e-commerce, supply chain, manufacturing, finance and customer service organizations such as Cisco, Amazon and Shutterfly.
• Ward will be overseeing all marketing including brand, product marketing and community, public relations and partnership efforts for Wonder Workshop. He is a toy industry veteran with more than 20 years of toy and brand marketing experience at Mattel, Bandai and Playmates Toys. Ned led numerous Mattel brands such as Hot Wheels & Masters of the Universe as well as key licensed brands such as Disney/Pixar Cars.

For more information or to purchase, please visit www.makewonder.com. Wonder Workshop products are also available through Amazon.com and now at Apple retail stores throughout the US and Canada.

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About Dash & Dot
Dash & Dot are smart robots for curious minds. Kids will discover a world of creativity and fun with robots that bring imaginations to life, fun challenges, encourage problem solving and multiply curiosity. Through hands-on play and endless adventures, kids will learn the concepts of coding by playing with the lovable robots that they'll carry on throughout life. Kids can define how they want to play – whether with friends, siblings, solo or with parents. Dash & Dot come with four free apps for kids to connect with to explore a ton of play experiences that match their development stages. Wonder Workshop accessories from Dash's Xylophone to Building Brick Connectors (including LEGO™) bring endless creative possibilities, plus kids can involve their existing toys around the home into the fun. Dash & Dot come with a weekly challenge sent out to every owner by email, as well as a free monthly digital magazine that is full of activities for the robots, problem solving challenges and creations from the Dash & Dot community around the world.  The four free Wonder Workshop apps that come along with the robots are compatible with more than 20 iOS and Android devices including the iPad 3, iPad mini, iPad Air 1 & 2 and a variety of Nexus and Samsung Galaxy devices.

About Wonder Workshop
Wonder Workshop launched Dash & Dot in December 2014 and within its first month, delivered more than $3.5M in robots to 37 countries including the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, European countries, India, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong. Based in San Mateo, CA, Wonder Workshop was founded in 2012 by Vikas Gupta, Saurabh Gupta and Mikal Greaves, inventors, designers, programmers and parents with the mission to make coding a new creative tool that is accessible for children from age five and beyond. The company has currently raised $15.9 million in funding from Madrona Venture Group, CRV, WI Harper Group, Google Ventures, Bright Success Capital, Maven Ventures, Reza Hussein, Jeff Schox and Vikas Gupta. For more information, visit www.makewonder.com.

MEDIA CONTACT:
Brooke Bauguess
Wonder Workshop
[email protected]
310-863-0278

SOURCE Wonder Workshop

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