Kidaptive

Kidaptive
Company type	Private
Industry	Educational technology
Founded	January 1, 2011; 15 years ago in California, United States
Founder	P.J. Gunsagar, Dylan Arena
Defunct	March 1, 2021
Fate	Acquired by McGraw Hill
Headquarters	Silicon Valley, United States
Area served	Early childhood education
Key people	Josine Verhagen (Senior Director of Psychometrics and Data Science), Ashraf Jahangeer (Vice President of Engineering)
Products	Adaptive Learning Platform (ALP), Hodoo English, Learner Mosaic, Leo's Pad
Number of employees	<150
Parent	McGraw Hill

Kidaptive is an educational technology firm located in Silicon Valley, specializing in an adaptive learning platform that addresses several learning areas, including two unique early childhood educational applications. Established in California in 2011 by entrepreneur P.J. Gunsagar (who co-founded Prana Studios) and Stanford-based Learning Scientist Dylan Arena, Kidaptive emphasizes personalized education through offerings like the Adaptive Learning Platform (ALP), Hodoo English, Learner Mosaic, and Leo's Pad.

The organization’s business approach revolves around delivering a foundational platform for adaptive learning, primarily aimed at early childhood education. Key leadership figures include Josine Verhagen, serving as Senior Director of Psychometrics and Data Science, and Ashraf Jahangeer, Vice President of Engineering. Kidaptive operates with a team of fewer than 150 employees from its Silicon Valley headquarters.

Kidaptive attracted substantial venture capital backing from investors such as Formation 8, Menlo Investors, New Schools Venture Fund, CrunchFund, and Stanford University. This financial support facilitated the company’s expansion and product innovation within the competitive edtech sector.

In March 2021, Kidaptive was acquired by McGraw Hill, merging its adaptive learning technologies and personnel into McGraw Hill’s worldwide operations to strengthen their suite of personalized educational solutions and broaden market reach.

Products

Development of the company’s technology involves collaboration with education experts, including Stanford Professors Dan Schwartz and Ed Haertel.

Adaptive Learning Platform (ALP)

Kidaptive’s ALP is a Big Data-driven system that aggregates information from diverse learning environments—both digital and physical—to generate comprehensive psychometric profiles tailored to each learner.

Leo’s Pad

Introduced in December 2012, Leo's Pad is designed for preschool children and follows a format similar to a television series, composed of various chapters or “appisodes.” The series features youthful depictions of historical personalities such as Leonardo da Vinci, Galileo Galilei, Marie Curie, Confucius, Phillis Wheatley, and Teresa Carreño.

This application combines educational content with entertainment through a curriculum covering subjects like physics, mathematics, logic, literacy, and art. It also fosters cognitive abilities including executive function, working memory, and impulse regulation.

Learner Mosaic

Complementing Leo's Pad is the Learner Mosaic app, which allows parents to track their child’s cognitive and non-cognitive growth. This companion tool offers progress monitoring along with evidence-based guidance to support learning development, enhancing Kidaptive’s portfolio in educational technology.

Awards and recognition

Founders Dylan Arena and P.J. Gunsagar have demonstrated their strategic vision by presenting twice at Stanford’s StartX startup accelerator (in 2012 and 2013), underscoring their entrepreneurial expertise.

Notable awards received by the Leo's Pad series include:

Winner of LAUNCH Edu 2013
Winner at Startup World San Francisco 2013
Recipient of the Academics' Choice Award for mind-building excellence in 2014

External links

Official website of Kidaptive