Hopster Acquires Preschool App Curious World

Hopster has acquired the preschool learning app Curious World, bolstering its content portfolio and strengthening its global footprint.

Curious World, founded by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and powered by the Curious George brand, is an early learning, ad-free app aimed at kids aged 2 to 7. It uses a personalized navigation system to showcase its diverse portfolio, which is mapped to eight key early learning areas.

Operating as one company but maintaining both brands, Curious World and Hopster, will collectively have more than 5 million downloads and over 500,000 subscribers worldwide. Through the acquisition, Hopster picks up an additional 140 original short-form videos, 150-plus original interactive games and 100-plus book titles. The acquisition also features 53 exclusive Curious George original content, including games, books and two video series—Let’s Go to Work and How to Make.

Adding Curious World to Hopster’s portfolio is the first step in aggregating all Sandbox’s preschool brands under Hopster. The acquisition follows the appointment of Miki Chojnacka and Tyrell Ellis as Hopster co-CEOs, with a remit to accelerate financial growth and further develop original content, partnerships and global awareness.

Miki Chojnacka, co-CEO and chief content officer at Hopster, said: “We are very excited to welcome Curious World to the Hopster family. This consolidation will boost our original IP offering and will double our catalog of mobile-first educational content. We believe learning starts at an early age and through this acquisition and combined original content, we will help kids learn through the stories they love on a larger scale.”

Tyrell Ellis, co-CEO at Hopster, said: “Curious World has a strong presence in the U.S. with over a million downloads to date—it’s an exciting opportunity to leverage commercial synergies between these businesses, drive growth across both platforms and increase our global reach. This is the first of our strategic preschool brands aggregation that will support our mission to grow our content and reach whilst adding value to our partners and customers. Hopster is actively seeking acquisitions and is targeting preschool content, brand IPs and digital distribution companies to further accelerate growth. ”