Education

Launchpad Toys

Website

We're creating digital toys and tools that empower kids to create, learn & share their ideas through play. Give a young child a couple of toys or a box of crayons and he or she is likely to play for hours, deeply engrossed in an imaginary world. In both art and dramatic play, children construct settings, create fictional characters, and act out

Founded 2010Origin source ↗Checked 2026-09-15

Overview

We're creating digital toys and tools that empower kids to create, learn & share their ideas through play.

Give a young child a couple of toys or a box of crayons and he or she is likely to play for hours, deeply engrossed in an imaginary world. In both art and dramatic play, children construct settings, create fictional characters, and act out fantastic storylines that would be the envy of many Hollywood scriptwriters. Yet, ask that same child to write out a story in a blank notebook or a word processor and you would be lucky to capture a fraction of the depth and splendor of his or her imagination. Play inspires and scaffolds the creative process from an early age, but there is a persistent gap between the origins of imaginative play (ages 4-5) and kids' adoption of the formal discipline of creative writing (ages 8-10).

At Launchpad Toys, we're using mobile devices like the iPad to bridge this gap between informal and formal learning, to harness the power of play to help children capture and share their ideas with other kids around the world. Our first product, Toontastic an app for the iPad, is a creative learning tool that blends constructionist and social development theories to empower young children to create, learn, and share their ideas through play.

Company description As recorded 2026-11-08
EducationConsumer appConsumersConsumer

Founders & team

Thushan Amarasiriwardena

Founder

Co-founder of Launchpad Toys (S11), acquired by Google in 2015. Now lead of product for LLMs on the Google Assistant.

LinkedIn
Founder profile As recorded 2026-09-15
2team members reported
Source-reported As recorded 2026-09-15

Founded 2010 · Source

News & product activity

Sources & observations

Y Combinator

Profile depthverified profile
Website observationwebsite unreachable
Last website check2026-11-11
Location · source statedSan Francisco, CA, USA
Pricing evidenceNo pricing page confirmed
Maturity: Not assessed · 3 of 6 areas documented

Source-based assessment · automated evidence rules

The source reports an inactive or acquired company; current product identity needs review.

Maturity is an evidence-based assessment, not a success rating. It may understate the current stage where evidence is limited. Coverage records documented areas, not a complete or independently audited company history.

Stage definitions
independent websitesource corroborationdescriptive evidenceclassified market and modelsourced peoplesourced founding year
startup.observe Directory coverage · Sources & method