Hellosaurus Grabs $3.5M Seed Round

Hellosaurus, the interactive video platform reimagining entertainment for the touchscreen generation, announced today the beta launch of its mobile app, which is now available for download on iOS, along with $3.5M in seed funding led by General Catalyst. In addition to providing a mobile app for families filled with active play experiences that support kids' cognitive and social development, the platform also offers a toolkit for creators of safe, high-quality kids programming that empowers them to move beyond passive video into immersive, interactive content.

The seed financing round follows a summer in Y Combinator and includes participation from GSV Ventures, Shrug Capital, Next 10 Ventures, BDMI, Runway Fund, GFC, as well as Dave Gilboa (Founder, Warby Parker), Neil Blumenthal (Founder, Warby Parker), Jeff Raider (Founder, Warby Parker, Harry's), and Joey Zwillinger (Founder, Allbirds) through their Good Friends fund. This round also includes a number of prominent angel investors like Chad Hurley (Founder, YouTube) and Zach Klein (Founder Vimeo, DIY.org) among many others and will be used to further grow and develop the Hellosaurus team and product.

Hellosaurus is an interactive video platform for kids filled with episodes they can actually play instead of just watch. Top kids media creators and YouTube stars with a global reach of over 200M subscribers are already making content for the Hellosaurus platform and transforming screen time into an active, fun, and safe experience. Hellosaurus was founded in 2019 by James Ruben, who pioneered the interactive video format as Head of Product at HQ Trivia and was named Forbes 30 Under 30. Hellosaurus is built by folks with previous experience at companies like Google, Toca Boca, Nickelodeon, The New York Times, Apple, Sesame Street, Kidville, Mystery.org, DataCamp, and EA Games.