GoKawiilIn a media landscape dominated by Baby Shark and Skibidi Toilet, one startup is reimagining children’s media by focusing on well-being, not watch time.
Maka Kids is building a streaming app for children ages zero to six featuring content designed for healthy development. The startup has now raised $3 million in seed funding to scale its platform, and is currently accepting waitlist sign-ups.
Unlike traditional streaming platforms, Maka Kids doesn’t have recommendation algorithms, ads, or auto-play. Instead, it is designed to offer a predictable experience that supports learning, creativity, and emotional growth.
Maka Kids was founded by Isabel Sheinman and Tanyella Leta, who previously founded Nabu, a non-profit venture that brought children’s books to more than 15 million children across 26 countries.
Sheinman and Leta were introduced at a dinner back in 2013 through a mutual friend and immediately hit it off, the pair told TechCrunch in an email. They said they initially over the fact that they both came from families of educators and entrepreneurs, an experience that first inspired Nabu and later fueled their passion for Maka Kids.
They began dreaming up the concept of Maka Kids after discussions with their friends, families, and customers at Nabu. They heard from parents who felt increasingly anxious about the effects of screen time on their children. Building on those concerns, the duo conducted hundreds of user interviews, which ultimately shaped their solution: a children’s streaming app designed with well-being at its core.
Maka Kids founders Tanyella Leta and Isabel Sheinman Image Credits:Maka Kids
“We were seeing parents get completely overwhelmed trying to weigh decisions about what was unsafe, what was good, and understand why their kid was melting down every time screen time ended,” Sheinman said. “At the same time, we watched the children’s media ecosystem get louder, faster, more algorithmically driven. Looking at this problem, we felt uniquely positioned to deliver the relief that parents craved.”
All of the content on Maka Kids is evaluated using Maka Imprint, the startup’s patent-pending developmental framework created through two years of R&D in collaboration with researchers at the Yale Child Study Center. The framework maps seven core domains of early childhood development across more than 650 developmental indicators, including language, creativity, emotional skills, and growth mindset.
Maka Kids licenses content directly from IP holders and individual creators. The startup is also partnering directly with studios and animators to produce original content.
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