BiMA, a Munich-based startup growing a conscious leisure platform for kids, has raised €500k in pre-seed funding to launch its first product, a child-friendly, screen-free projector that transforms bedrooms into immersive, story-driven worlds.
The spherical was led by Antler, the world’s most lively early-stage investor, with participation from a number of outstanding angel traders, together with the Oetinger Publishing Group, represented by Managing Administrators Julia Bielenberg, Thilo Schmid and Christian Graef, who have been among the many first backers of the kids’s audio platform Tonies. Extra traders embrace Andreas Peters, former Managing Director of Disney; Felix van de Sande, founding father of Kickbase and design company COBE; and Silvia Sommer, an e-commerce knowledgeable previously at Birkenstock and Roland Berger, and organiser of the Quick & Curious occasions in Munich for Verena Pausder.
Based in 2024 by Larissa Ruf (CEO) and Greta Garkisch (CTO), BiMA goals to redefine how households expertise play and storytelling by providing screen-free leisure that sparks creativeness and strengthens household bonds. Positioned on the intersection of edutainment, wellbeing and shopper expertise, BiMA represents a brand new strategy to family-friendly innovation.
The funding will assist BiMA’s market entry, together with manufacturing, advertising and content material growth, in addition to workforce enlargement. The corporate plans to launch an preliminary batch of 1,500 projectors later this 12 months.
In Germany alone, there are 3.5 million households with youngsters aged 0–5, representing a possible market of greater than €730 million. Throughout Europe, this determine rises to 17 million households and an addressable market of round €3.7 billion. Globally, BiMA estimates over 420 million households on this section, creating a possible market value greater than €88 billion.
Larissa Ruf, co-founder and CEO of BiMA, mentioned: “Most toys are designed to maintain youngsters busy, and that’s completely positive. However we wished to create one thing completely different: a product that brings households collectively on the most significant time of day. With BiMA, evenings turn into magical moments of connection and creativeness.”
Julia Bielenberg, Managing Director at Oetinger Publishing Group, commented: “We see BiMA as a pure continuation of our custom of storytelling innovation. Simply as Tonies created a brand new manner for households to expertise tales, BiMA has the potential to redefine the way in which youngsters work together with creativeness, creativity, and calm.”
Ruf and Garkisch, each from Munich, met over six years in the past by means of Academy Seek the advice of Munich, one among Germany’s main pupil consultancies. They later based their very own consultancy earlier than launching BiMA, combining backgrounds in schooling, expertise and design with expertise from Schleich, Siemens AI Lab, Microsoft, Accenture and different world corporations.
Christoph Klink, Companion at Antler, mentioned: “Larissa and Greta mix actual ardour with deep business and area experience. They’re constructing a product that may immediately enhance bedtimes and studying for kids and households in Germany and throughout Europe. We’re delighted to have backed BiMA from inception and have each confidence of their future progress.”
