- For press and speaking inquiries, as well as kit requests, please email [email protected].
- About littleBits
littleBits are color-coded “bits” that snap together magnetically to make it easy for children and adults to build simple circuits and inventive projects in seconds — from flickering lanterns to piggy banks to light-sensitive cars. Founded by MIT graduate and TED Senior Fellow Ayah Bdeir, littleBits wants to make learning about electronics more fun and accessible to spark the world’s next generation of inventors. Our community of Bitsters ranges from designers, artists and museums to parents, schools and after-school programs.
- For Media Kit click here.
- Fact Sheet
- Founded: September 2011
- Founder, CEO: Ayah Bdeir
- Flagship Product: littleBits Starter Kit
- Ages: 8+
- Headquarters: Greenwich Village, NYC
- Employees: 20+
- Bits made to date: 35
- Number of kits: 4
- Countries sold to: 57
- Funding: Seed Round, 9/2011 ($850K); Series A Round, 07/2012 ($3.65M)
- Investors and Partners: True Ventures, O’Reilly Alpha Tech, Khosla Ventures, PCH International, Lerer Ventures, Joi Ito, Nicholas Negroponte, Joanne Wilson, Jeffrey Walker, Fadi Ghandour, Taha Mikati, Jason Port, Josh Spear, Salah Chamma
- Awards and Honors:
- Editor’s Choice Award 2013 (Children’s Technology Review)
- KAPi Award for Best Technology Toy 2013 (Living in Digital Times and Children’s Technology Review)
- Academics’ Choice Brain Toy Award (Academics’ Choice)
- National Parenting Publication Awards (Parenthood.com)
- Parent Tested, Parent Approved Awards (PTPA Media)
- Dr. Toy’s Best Children’s Products 2012 (Dr. Toy)
- Best Tech Toys of 2012 (Best Toys Guide)
- New Educational Toys for 2012 (Best Toys Guide)
- The STEMmy Award 2012 (Wired: GeekMom)
- Best of Toy Fair 2012 (Popular Science)
- Educator’s Choice Award 2012 (NYC Maker Faire)
- TED2012 Fellowship, TED2013 Senior Fellowship (TED.com)
- The National Parenting Center 2013 Seal of Approval (tnpc.com)
Milestones
- 1/2008: Ayah Bdeir creates first littleBits prototype at Eyebeam
- 1/2009: Ayah Bdeir delivers invited talk at TEI Conference in Cambridge, UK and publishes “Electronics As Material” academic paper (littleBits blog)
- 4/30/2009: littleBits exhibits early prototypes at Eyebeam in solo exhibit “Electronics As Material” (littleBits blog)
- 4/17/2010: Ayah Bdeir organizes the first “Opening Hardware Workshop” at Eyebeam, which gives rise to the Open Hardware Definition (Eyebeam)
- 9/23/2010: Ayah Bdeir and Alicia Gibb co-found the Open Hardware Summit, the world’s first conference on Open Source Hardware (Open Hardware Summit)
- 4/2011: Ayah Bdeir launches Open Hardware logo competition and community selects winner by popular vote (link)
- 7/2011 – 11/2011: littleBits is featured in MoMa’s “Talk to Me” exhibition (MoMA)
- 9/1/2011: littleBits receives seed funding led by investors including tech and open source hardware pioneers Joi Ito and Nicholas Negroponte (littleBits blog)
- 9/17/2011: First Starter Kit is sold at World Maker Faire NYC
- 10/18/2011: MoMA acquires littleBits for its permanent collection
- 2/27/2012: Ayah Bdeir delivers TED Talk about littleBits and the future of play (TED.com)
- 7/18/2012: littleBits receives Series A funding led by True Ventures and announces manufacturing partnership with PCH International (littleBits blog)
- 9/10/2012: littleBits moves to new Greenwich Village office
- 11/20/2012: littleBits releases v0.3 littleBits (littleBits blog)
- 11/20/2012: littleBits launches 2012 Special-Edition Holiday Kit (littleBits blog)
