By Ivan Mehta
Publication Date: 2026-01-22 11:00:00
Big tech companies and emerging startups want to use generative AI to develop software and hardware for children. Many of these experiences are limited to text or speech, and children may not find this engaging. Three former Google employees want to overcome this hurdle with their generative, AI-powered interactive app Sparkli.
Sparkli was founded last year by Lax Poojary, Lucie Marchand and Myn Kang. As parents, Poojary and Kang were unable to satisfy their children’s curiosity or provide engaging answers to their questions.
“Kids are, by definition, very curious, and my son would ask me questions about how cars work or how it rains. My approach was to use ChatGPT or Gemini to explain these concepts to a six-year-old, but that’s still a wall of text. What kids want is an interactive experience. That was our core process in starting Sparkli,” Poojary told TechCrunch in a call.
Before starting Sparkli, Poojary and Kang co-founded a travel agency…
