Hopster buys learning app Curious World

Leading preschool educational platform Hopster has bought Curious George-branded learning app Curious World.

Curious World is an early learning app aimed at children aged 2-7 and was founded by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt in 2015. The app is based around the character Curious George, the mischievous monkey who first featured in Margret and H. A. Rey. George’s French-language children novel Cecily G. and the Nine Monkeys in 1939. The character has since gone on to feature in countless adaptations, and most recently in an original series on NBCUniversal streaming service Peacock.

The app itself utilises the well-known brand to map educational games and lessons to eight key early learning areas. It is made up of 140 original short-form videos, more than 150 interactive games, over 100 books and 53 exclusive Curious George titles.

The acquisition, it said, would help to bolster Hopster’s content portfolio and strengthen its global footprint.

Hopster said that Curious World would continue to operate as a standalone brand, giving the combined services a total of 5 million downloads and over 500,000 subscribers worldwide. It noted that the addition of Curious World to Hopster’s portfolio is “the first step” in aggregating all Sandbox’s preschool brands under itself and follows the recent appointment of Miki Chojnacka and Tyrell Ellis as Hopster co-CEOs. The pair were appointed with a remit to accelerate financial growth and further develop original content, partnerships and global awareness.

Miki Chojnacka, co-CEO and Chief Content Officer at Hopster said “We are very excited to welcome Curious World to the Hopster family. This consolidation will boost our original IP offering and will double our catalogue of mobile-first  educational content. We believe learning starts at an early age and through this acquisition and combined original content we will help kids learn through the stories they love on a larger scale.”

Tyrell Ellis, co-CEO at Hopster said “Curious World has a strong presence in the US with over a million downloads to date – it’s an exciting opportunity to leverage commercial synergies between these businesses, drive growth across both platforms and increase our global reach.

“This is the first of our strategic pre-school brands aggregation that will support our mission to grow our content and reach, whilst adding value to our partners and customers. Hopster is actively seeking acquisitions, and is targeting preschool content, brand IPs and digital distribution companies to further accelerate growth.”