New York-based littleBits is a company that has developed kits with color-coded and magnetic electronic building blocks. To date, littleBits has sold more than 1 million electronic building block kits across 70 countries and over 20,000 schools. To fuel its growth further, littleBits has announced that it is acquiring DIY.co, which is the largest online learning community for kids.
San Francisco-based DIY was co-founded by Zach Klein, who is known for being one of Vimeo’s co-founders and serving as a Kleiner Perkins Design Fellow. DIY has seen over 1.5 million projects uploaded by kids across subjects like astronomy, woodworking, pizza making, etc. DIY also developed JAM.com, which is the biggest paid subscription STEAM course platform for kids.
“littleBits is reinventing learning – at home, at school, and everywhere in between,” said littleBits founder and CEO Ayah Bdeir in a statement. “Kids are using littleBits to create their own sibling alarms, program wireless robots, and learn math, grammar or design thinking at school. But learning is a journey: hardware is just the start, and new inspiration and skills have to be added all the time. DIY Co. is an important piece of littleBits’ ongoing engagement strategy, ensuring that kids are having fun and expanding their creative skills throughout their journey.”
Immediately after the acquisition, littleBits will be offering a set of online courses based on three new STEAM kits that the two companies are launching in the fall of 2018. These kits will be inviting kids to learn from mentors and inventors. And the kids will be encouraged to share their work with others.
