The early years of childhood—up to the age of 7—constitute a formative period in healthy human development. This is the phase in which children most efficiently acquire their first languages, as well as learning basic social values and facts about the world. 

Unfortunately, today, most urban families need dual incomes to sustain themselves, leaving less time for parents to engage with their children. Subsequently, the below-7 age group is exposed to high levels of digital media via smartphones, televisions, and tablets. Since most of this media consumption is passive, these children may struggle with critical thinking and creativity as they grow older.

Fully restricting children’s access to digital media can be difficult. However, what if we could use these media to engage with children in healthy ways? Pixie, founded in 2025 by Shiv Bansal and Rahul Agarwal, is a Bengaluru-based education startup that follows this approach. Using generative AI, this startup has created an app for storytelling, boosting not only attention spans but also active memory in thousands of children.

What does the Pixie app offer?

The Pixie app contains various AI-generated stories, with each story being ~5 minutes long and coming with its own vocal narration, background music, and sound effects. When a child selects any of these, the AI bot not only tells the story but also asks various questions related to it. This encourages the child to stay actively engaged by sharing their own opinions, recalling story details, and performing simple actions such as clapping their hands. 

The library of stories on the app comes from two sources. The first of these is the Pixie team itself, which regularly designs new stories based on various relevant topics—scientific facts, emotions, Hindu mythology, upcoming holidays, and more. There are over 400 such stories at present. 

The other source comprises parents and other guardians, who can design their own stories using the inbuilt templates on the app. To generate a new story, a user can provide inputs such as the names of the child’s friends and favorite characters, then explain what lesson they would like the child to learn. They can even clone their voices to be used by the Pixie AI storyteller. 

Pixie’s primary objective is to help children build their speaking and listening skills, with a special focus on expanding their vocabulary. In future, the startup may expand the app features to support older children with reading as well. 

Who are the app’s users?

Pixie works mainly with children aged 3 to 7, with ~85% of them being Indians. The app works on a monthly subscription model, costing INR 299/month in India and USD 7/month abroad. 

Of the Indian group, ~60% of the users are from Bengaluru, Mumbai, Chennai, and Delhi, and the remaining 40% are from cities such as Hyderabad, Pune, and Chandigarh. 

Across Android and iOS, the app has 16,000 individual users. It is also utilized by three schools in Bengaluru, where teachers use it to help children visualize the contents of daily lessons. Both in schools and in homes, Pixie’s efforts align with the Indian government’s intent to introduce AI software to the next generation at an early age.

What impact has Pixie created?

Pixie reports satisfaction from the majority of its users, especially parents, who find themselves experiencing less stress and enjoying more leisure time as their children use the Pixie app for learning. Parents are also appreciative of the app’s inclusion of stories related to Hindu mythology, with 60–70 stock stories dedicated to this area. 

In the early stages of app development, generating a story would take up to 2 minutes, but as the technology has been refined, generation can now be achieved within 30 seconds per story. Moreover, while children would initially only finish listening to 20% of the stories they opened, this number has increased to 60%, signaling improved engagement over time. 

Most promisingly, the app has encouraged these children to improve their attention spans by asking them questions after each story. Shiv Bansal estimates that they are now able to answer 70% of these questions successfully.

Awards and recognition

At the start of Pixie’s journey in 2025, it received an angel investment from Divyesh Shah, VP of Engineering at Meesho. Although the startup has not approached any government incubators so far, it has won two grants: the AWS Activate Program (INR 25 lakh, 2025) and a Google award (INR 20 lakh, 2026).

Path forward

Over 330 million Indian children fall within the age bracket of 3–7-year olds. Due to various social and economic barriers, they do not have equitable access to information—a factor that could shape their success throughout their lives. Through tech-first initiatives such as that of Pixie, both private and public partners could help bridge this gap decades in advance and thus prepare India’s next generation for an increasingly competitive future.