In 2020, Christian and I started talking about declining maths ability rates and unknowingly sparked Polymath—with a simple idea: a learning algorithm that personalises maths questions for kids. By February 2023, we’d quit our “proper” jobs to launch in schools, and by 2024, Polymath had helped over 40,000 students worldwide make maths fun.
The journey has been incredible, challenging, and so rewarding. We've heard from parents whose kids went from dreading maths to loving it, teachers who’ve seen classrooms transformed, and most importantly, kids who are actually excited to learn.
We’re incredibly proud to announce our $1.5M NZD pre-seed raise, led by Blackbird and GD1, with follow-on support from Phase One and Startmate. A huge thank you to our early angel investors: Mahesh and Phase One, Startmate, Sarah and Kate at Protagonist Capital, Liam Don at ClassDojo, and our friends and family who took a leap of faith for us. You all share our belief that improving education is one of the most important challenges of our time.
With the backing of New Zealand’s best investors, we've grown our team from two to four, welcoming our brilliant engineers, Jared and Charlie. Together, we’re driving our mission to lift global maths ability while making learning joyful. This is just the beginning.
Why this matters for kids, parents, and teachers
By the age of 10, kids spend an average of 4 hours on screens but only 6 of those minutes on educational apps. Polymath changes that by turning enjoyable screen time into a valuable learning experience, giving kids an educational app they love.
For parents, it’s a screen-time option that they can feel good about, whilst also receiving weekly updates as to how their child is progressing, keeping them in the loop when it comes to their child’s education.
Our adaptive learning algorithm personalises challenges to each student, helping them progress while having fun. Kids play for an average of 30 minutes per session, and regular players learn up to twice as fast.
For teachers, Polymath is a free, engaging classroom tool that changes children’s attitudes towards maths, building confidence and ability hand-in-hand as they get to practice at their own pace and learn with their friends.
The people behind Polymath
Hey! 👋 We’re Sophie & Christian, husband and wife, co-founders, and aunt and uncle to a whole bunch of little ones who are just at the start of their education journey. With backgrounds in psychology and computer science, we worked together to create Polymath, a platform that combines a game world with learning research to make maths actually fun.
We care deeply about the next generation having access to learning that’s engaging, effective, and accessible. That’s why we’re focused on making Polymath the best it can be, constantly fine-tuning it with real feedback from real kids, parents, and teachers!
Because when learning feels like play, kids don’t just get better at math, they grow in confidence, curiosity, and a love for learning.
Join us on this journey
Polymath is loved by kids and trusted by teachers across NZ, Australia, the US, UK, and beyond! Teachers can bring Polymath into their classrooms for free, and parents can give their kids a screen-time experience that builds confidence and maths skills while being fun.
Ready to try it out? Sign up at https://polymath.how and see what it’s all about.
This is just the beginning, and we can’t wait to share what’s next. Thank you for being part of this journey with us!
P.S. a note on funding
You’ll see different numbers in the news because of currency conversions and whether it is this specific round or our funding to date. Here are the specifics.
At the start of 2023 we raised $327K NZD from Startmate, Phase One, Liam Don, and a group of family and friends. In mid-2024, we raised $1.5M NZD co-led by Blackbird and GD1, with follow-on investment from Startmate and Phase One.
