Irish toy company HoloToyz has raised €1 million in funding as it plans to hire new staff to support its expansion in the global market.
The company, which makes interactive toys for children in the three to 10 age group, is planning to expand its team, hiring staff in administrative roles, sales, marketing and technology, joining experts it has contracted to work on international sales, product design and engineering and finance.
The latest funding round was led by Irish tech veteran John Herlihy and Molten Ventures’ Brian Caulfield, who were early investors in the company.
Other backers in the round include Shipyard Technologies chief executive Garry Lyons, Movidius cofounder Sean Mitchell and MongoDB’s Shalena O’Connell, along with a number of investors through the HBAN Angels network. The company has also been backed by Enterprise Ireland through its High Potential Start-up programme.
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“The first thing we’re going to be doing is hiring Irish-based people to be able to help grow this both from an admin perspective because that takes a lot of the heavy weight and heavy duty away from Kate and I, but also in sales and marketing as well,” said cofounder Declan Scott.
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“The second is going to be development of new products. In toys it’s really important that every season you innovate, but also refresh your brand. So developing new products, but also working more along the lines of core toy products.”
The company was founded by husband-and-wife team Declan and Kate Scott with business partner Paul Cosgrave, and its platform uses augmented reality to create interactive experiences for children.
The product range includes books, wall decals, tattoos and stickers with everything from monster trucks and dinosaurs to pets and unicorns that come to life through the use of a smartphone or tablet app.
The company has also signed a deal with Nickelodeon that will see interactive products featuring the Paw Patrol characters launched later this month.
The company is also planning to develop its line of toys further, with new products set to launch in the coming months.
“The reason that we set up this business was to marry the physical product with digital play,” Ms Scott said. “Kids today love technology, but we don’t want them to lose touch with physical.”
“There’s a lot of research to show, psychologically, the importance of cognitive development with cause and effect toys like Lego building and creating art activity. So we’re bringing our more creative thinking into that to create more hardline creative products like sticker makers and badge makers.”
Getting the right mix of investors is crucial to HoloToyz’s growth plans in the coming months.
“We had a few angel groups that were interested in investing and we handpicked the ones that we felt were right,” Ms Scott said. “We have a good, smart group involved. They all have relevant experience in scaling businesses, but also from a tech point of view.”
