NEW YORK, NY –Internet of Things startup Toymail Founder and CEO Gauri Nanda was on Shark Tank pitching for her business Toymail and landed $600K. She has developed a line of plush toys that contain a wifi voice messaging system which allows kids to easily send messages to approved family and friends through their app. The toys present a playful alternative to a mobile phone. Not only does this toy send messages,
it also responds to physical play and is expandable into songs, games, and educational content. How does a plush toy with no screen run apps, you might wonder? These are exclusively audio apps — in keeping with the original concept for the toys to put communications technology within the reach of younger kids, between two and eight, without having them fixate on a screen from such an early age.
Indeed, the Talkies — which is the name of the current gen of the toys — look more like teddy bears than mobile phones. But turn them around and there’s two buttons on the back for kids to cycle through their Toymail contacts, and record/send messages. Parents can send messages to kids’ Talkies via the companion Toymail app on their smartphones. And now they can also load additional functionality onto the toys via the Toymail Cloud (aka its app store).
Apps available at this point include an app called Sleepie, which is supposed to send soothing bedtime sounds for helping put your kids to sleep, and one called Voicie, that adds “fun voice filtering” to the toy. This first handful of apps has been built by Toymail and are free, but the startup plans to launch paid app content in future.
Indeed, the Talkies — which is the name of the current gen of the toys — look more like teddy bears than mobile phones. But turn them around and there’s two buttons on the back for kids to cycle through their Toymail contacts, and record/send messages. Parents can send messages to kids’ Talkies via the companion Toymail app on their smartphones. And now they can also load additional functionality onto the toys via the Toymail Cloud (aka its app store).
Apps available at this point include an app called Sleepie, which is supposed to send soothing bedtime sounds for helping put your kids to sleep, and one called Voicie, that adds “fun voice filtering” to the toy. This first handful of apps has been built by Toymail and are free, but the startup plans to launch paid app content in future.
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