FriendsLearn

FriendsLearn

Company type	Private
Industry	Life sciences, Biotechnology, mHealth, Digital therapeutics
Founded	2011
Founder	Bhargav Sri Prakash
Headquarters	San Francisco , United States
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Bhargav Sri Prakash (Founder)
Products	fooya!

FriendsLearn is a private company operating in the life sciences and biotechnology mHealth sector, headquartered in San Francisco, California, with an additional office located in Chennai. Established in 2011 by Bhargav Sri Prakash, the firm focuses on mobile health innovations and is widely recognized for its premier product, fooya!. FriendsLearn is a trailblazer in the field of Digital Vaccines, an advancement honored as a leading technological innovation by Carnegie Mellon University.

The organization’s business strategy combines artificial intelligence, virtual reality, behavior design rooted in neuropsychology, gamification, and educational entertainment to create therapeutic solutions centered on neuromodulation and neurocognitive training. This inventive methodology underpins their strong position within the digital therapeutics market.

FriendsLearn acts as the principal research translation and innovation collaborator for Carnegie Mellon’s Digital Vaccine Project. In 2025, the company broadened its international reach by forming a strategic alliance with the National University of Singapore’s Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine and School of Computing to further digital vaccine research initiatives in Singapore.

In 2022, FriendsLearn’s executive leadership and business development efforts were acknowledged when it, alongside Carnegie Mellon University, received the Transformative Business Award from the Financial Times and the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation. This accolade recognized their pioneering achievements in Digital Vaccines, chosen from 219 global nominations at an award ceremony held in London.

Founding

Bhargav Sri Prakash founded FriendsLearn during his fellowship at the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City. Early on, the company secured a contract from the United States Department of State and EducationUSA to create "Your 5 Steps to US Study," a gamified application launched in 2012. This app was distributed worldwide via US Consulates and EducationUSA centers, building upon the founder’s prior accomplishments in gamified student recruitment strategies.

Mobile Health & Behavior Design

FriendsLearn developed fooya, a mobile application exemplifying their expertise in ‘learnified’ gaming approaches. Fooya was showcased at the 2014 Stanford MedicineX Conference under the theme "Scalable Behavior Design through Mobile Gaming."

Clinical trials conducted by researchers at Baylor College of Medicine’s Children’s Nutrition Research Center highlighted fooya’s effectiveness in influencing healthier snack selections. These findings were presented at the 2014 The Obesity Society ObesityWeek Conference.

In 2014, FriendsLearn collaborated with the ExxonMobil Bernard Harris Summer Science Camp to encourage healthy lifestyle choices among middle school students nationwide. Additionally, Bloomberg featured the company as a promising health gaming startup during its Next Big Thing Conference in 2013.

Fooya initially launched as a Facebook app at the DEMO Conference held in Silicon Valley in 2012 and successfully raised over $50,000 through Kickstarter crowdfunding to support its growth and further development.

Reciprocity Wave

The Reciprocity Wave, founded by Architect Sheila Sri Prakash, is a Sculpture Competition that challenges students to craft sculptures using recycled materials, aiming to spotlight pressing social and environmental concerns. Shilpa Architects has organized three editions of this event—two hosted in Chennai and one held in Bangalore.

The most recent competition took place at Cubbon Park in Bangalore, focusing on themes such as corruption and women's rights, which garnered widespread media attention due to its powerful message. Additionally, the event incorporated a Health Gaming Championship featuring fooya!, conducted in collaboration with FriendsLearn.