Kids’ app maker Fingerprint, which was backed by Dreamworks last summer with a $10.9 million round of funding, has put some portion of that cash to use with the acquisition of two children’s mobile education companies, Cognitive Kid and Scribble Press, the company announced this morning. With the new additions, Fingerprint’s library of kids’ apps is now at 800 – or 10 times larger than it was last year.
For those unfamiliar, the San Francisco-based Fingerprint, led by former Leapfrog exec Nancy MacIntyre, was founded in 2010 and has grown its network of apps to around 3 million as of last summer. Though the company doesn’t disclose revenues, it says it has grown those ten-fold over the past two years.
Fingerprint today runs its own kids’ app network, Fingerprint Play, but also powers networks for other third parties, including Samsung (KidsTime), Sylvan Learning (SylvanPlay) and Astro (AstroPlay). It’s also planning to build a network for educational media company Cricket Media, and has other partnerships with new investors in the works.
Fingerprint declined to detail the terms of the acquisitions announced today, but notes they’re part of a bigger trend at the company to grow through similar deals as well as partnerships. The company tells us it’s adding a new partner or buying a company around every eight weeks these days.
Today’s deal for Scribble Press and Cognitive Kid are focused on bringing educational and productive content to Fingerprint’s network. The former, Scribble Press, launched in 2011 and offers a digital book-making product that’s been used in over 25,000 classrooms by children ages 6 to 12, and has produced over 3 million books which kids build using text, art, soundtracks and more. Meanwhile, Cognitive Kid offers seven apps that teach kids on a variety of subjects including history, math, dinosaurs and more.
To date, Fingerprint has worked with over 400 developers and children have spent more than 100 million minutes on Fingerprint games.