A mother, a gamer, and a pioneer of India’s gaming industry, Anshu Dhanuka is the co-founder & CEO of Kiddopia. She oversees content, design, product features, innovations and strategy. She has strong design skills and provides creative direction to the Kiddopia team. Anshu has a Master’s degree in Finance from Nottingham University Business School. With Kiddopia, her mission is to make screen time safe, healthy, and enriching for toddlers, at a time when digital media consumption is inevitable.
In July 2017, Anshu and her husband, Anupam Dhanuka, became strategic business partners and launched Kiddopia as a start-up venture. Their goal was to create a world-class edutainment app for preschoolers. Kiddopia has since become an award-winning, kidSAFE+ COPPA-certified app that has garnered 16M+ downloads, a top 2 ranking in 7 geographies worldwide (#1 in the UK, Canada, Australia, India; #2 in the US, Mexico, Philippines – Kids Under 5, Apple App Store), 2.5M monthly active users, 400,000+ active subscribers and a 4.4 rating on the Apple App Store. It also has an animated web show and merchandise line to its name.
When the iPad was first launched in 2010, Anshu saw it as a great interactive learning medium if used correctly. At the same time, she realised that while there were countless apps available for preschoolers, they focused on either one of two things: education or entertainment. She saw this as an opportunity to create an app that blended both. But it wasn’t easy. She had to don many hats, play multiple roles, and learn various technicalities and best practices on the job.
She was building a team of app developers and learning experts at a time when such a mix was largely unheard of. She also had the Herculean task of keeping kids engaged on an app that offered neither casual gaming nor video consumption (both of which are kid favourites) in isolation. She came through these challenges by drawing inspiration from real life: her daughter’s experiences as a toddler, her own experiences as a mother, and her academic and gaming background. For instance, when the company was faced with the hurdle of marketing different apps and scaling, Anshu made the bold decision to integrate all its apps together in one app and offer it as a subscription product. This was a major turnaround for Kiddopia. Anshu has also been instrumental in creating Kiddopia’s unique, award-winning pedagogy — one that combines real early childhood experiences with engaging activities and is trusted by parents and educators worldwide.
“I have a deep understanding of the difference between games that simply entertain and those that provide the tools to teach and help kids develop in the early stages of life,” says Anshu. “As a passionate gamer and tech-savvy mother, I take pride in my ability to personally connect to users of the Kiddopia app and hopefully make a difference in their lives.” Anshu doesn’t limit herself to her work at Kiddopia. She also relishes the opportunity to mentor young women entrepreneurs and developers who are starting up.
Anshu is also the recipient of multiple awards — a BW Education 40 Under 40 Award, an ET Inspiring Leaders Award for Woman Entrepreneur in the Field of Edutech, and a BW Business world Award Edutech for Woman Edutech Leader of the Year. Throughout her journey as a co-founder of Kiddopia, she has followed her motherly instincts and intuition. This has helped her pave her own unique professional path and has ensured Kiddopia is the distinct product it is today. Anshu aims to continue venturing into new product verticals and providing joy to kids in different forms, till she achieves her dream of making Kiddopia a responsible, globally recognized media entity.
