MarcoPolo Learning Ties Up with Boat Rocker Media

MarcoPolo Learning has secured $8.5 million in Series A funding, which will be used to expand its suite of early childhood education apps and to produce animated long-form video content with Boat Rocker Media companies.

MarcoPolo’s financing round was led by Boat Rocker Ventures, part of Boat Rocker Media (The Next Step, Stella and Sam). Both companies have entered into an exclusive strategic production and distribution pact through which they will collaborate on original animated television and digital series that will be distributed by Boat Rocker around the world. Every video property will feature MarcoPolo’s cast of characters.

Additional investors include Horizons Ventures in Asia, Seedcamp in Europe, managing partners of DST Global, founders/senior execs from Amazon’s Diapers.com, Disney’s Maker Studios, NewsCorp and YY.

“This is a significant step toward advancing our vision of making early childhood education accessible to every child in the world,” said Nazar Yasin, MarcoPolo’s co-founder and executive chairman.

Justin Hsu, co-founder and CEO of MarcoPolo, noted: “Boat Rocker is one of the world’s leading video entertainment companies and partnering with them to bring our video products to life on a global basis is an amazing opportunity that we could not be more thrilled about.”

Michel Pratte, the chief revenue officer at Boat Rocker and new MarcoPolo board member, added: “The children’s media space is evolving rapidly, and Boat Rocker is excited to partner with a category innovator like MarcoPolo. We believe that their educational focus and integrated app-plus-video strategy provides them with an opportunity to become a leading, globally trusted preschool brand for the mobile generation.”