Co-founders G-Jay Yong and Brian Tan identified a need for practical, secure, and entertaining digital toys for their young children a few years back.
The pair released its first item, a kid-friendly camera, in 2018. Since then, the business has grown to include drones, watch phones, headphones, and even a children’s social networking network.
Their goal is to assist children between the ages of three and twelve in “staying connected socially without the normal drawbacks of social media”.
To that aim, IT entrepreneurs and executives from PatSnap, Google, Rainforest, TNB Aura, and Zopim, among others, secured US $2.2 million for myFirst, a Singapore-based startup.
MyFirst Circle, which the firm introduced at CES 2023, is the brainchild of myFirst and the center of its children’s digital ecosystem.
“Usual social media have age constraints, lots of ads, and lots of strangers,” Tan says. “MyFirst Circle puts control back in the hands of parents over what children share socially and who can access the content. We balance both the needs and wants of our two customers: parents and kids.”
He explains that the nuclear family forms the basic network unit of myFirst Circle, thus requiring a grown-up to enable to sign up and help classify new contacts for young users. Kids can only interact with pre-approved connections by parents for “freedom of expression within a controlled environment.”
MyFirst Circle hasn’t yet been commercialized, the startup notes. “Revenue and cash flow are important, but the most important thing is user happiness,” Tan explains. “As long as we keep providing what families, parents, and kids need, we know we have a market.”
Instead, the startup’s major source of income is the sale of its products, which range in price from a $20 digital sketchpad to a $199 wristphone. The firm also states that it has sold over 1 million units globally. These goods are offered in 24 markets.
MyFirst is now focusing on growth across Asia and the US with a series A financing target of $5 million USD.
