Keeping a growing toddler engaged and engrossed for long is not easy.

As Mamata Sampath, a young professional and mother of three-and-half-year-old Kriti points out, she struggled to keep the little one away from television and the mobile handset despite buying her toys every now and then.

“There is no dearth of games and puzzles in the market. But my concern was to keep her engaged in an activity that is both fun and educative.”

While Mamata was worried about keeping her child engaged, Veena Eshwar did not know what to gift her five-year-old son Abhichandra's friend on his birthday. “There are soo many games, but one is not sure if the child already has it,” remarks Veena.

The ‘Flinto Box’ seems like an answer for mothers like Mamata and Veena.

The box, designed by Early Child Development experts, provides next generation tools/activities that help improve the child’s cognitive, motor, creative, social and language skills, besides keeping them engaged in theme-based activities, say parents who have subscribed for it.

Introduced by the Chennai-based start-up Flinto, the box offers theme-based activities for children between three and seven years of age. “We come up with a new theme every month,” says Arunprasad Durairaj, one of the two founders of this four-month-young company.

Talking about how the idea was conceptualised and conceived in the first place, Flinto’s co-founder Vijaybabu Gandhi narrated his struggle to keep his four-year-old son Aadhav engaged with a variety of toys ranging from puzzles to soccer ball and cricket. “It was neither easy to keep him engaged and engrossed for long with the toys nor keep him from watching television or playing with an iPad or mobile. I discussed the issue with a couple of other parents and felt the need for some fun activity that would keep such kids engaged for longer periods. I joined my friend Arunprasad Durairaj, did some research and created Flinto — the Orange Octopus — as the mascot!

An octopus? Why?

Arunprasad retorts, saying “it is one of the most intelligent creatures in the world. We could associate its eight tentacles to eight skills associated with the child development such as cognitive, social and motor skills. As an animal, the octopus has not been leveraged to its fullest potential unlike the mouse, dog, bear or bunny rabbit.

The box comes with a set of five activity materials every month, including a story book to enthuse the reading habit in children, a game designed on the month’s theme and a set of three activities (hands-on project).

“Flinto is a differentiator, in the sense that it fills the white space between completely educational toys and a totally recreational one,” adds Vijaybabu.

The company has since inception come up with a new theme every month. The theme for July was ‘The Amazing Ocean’. In August the theme was a journey into the magical sounds of nature and the September theme revolved round the mysteries of the universe and space.

“Kriti’s favourite theme box so far has been the space box. We followed the instructions and made the functional telescope together. Now, she shows it off to all her friends,” says Mamata.

Answering a query, Arunprasad said the company ships the box on subscription basis. “Parents will have to subscribe for the box on the Flinto Web site. Subscriptions are available for three months and six months duration. However, one can also try it for a month, before committing for a longer duration. Shipment is free. The box is delivered between three and five working days.”

The company has shipped over 500 boxes across 36 cities in September. “The response has been phenomenal and the subscriptions have been growing month-on-month.”

To a query on funding, Arunprasad said ‘Flinto is a GSF-accelerated start-up. The key objective of GSF is to spur innovation and entrepreneurship through angel and seed investment. We are among the 12 companies to be short-listed for GSF accelerated funding, GSF has made an initial investment of Rs 15 lakh and we have invested Rs 12 lakhs for product development.

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