Rovio spins off education business to create Fun Academy
As part of its drive to focus on its core media and games businesses, Rovio has helped to create Fun Academy, a new company whose mission is solely dedicated to the pursuit and development of fun learning.
Fun Academy, established and staffed by key personnel from Rovio’s former education operations, has licensed the Angry Birds brand from Rovio and taken over the operation of the Angry Birds Playground childhood education program. From the customer point of view, the transition to the new company has been smooth and seamless. As an independent company, Fun Academy has more flexibility on financing and decision-making, allowing it to grow its business even faster.
"As a spin-off from Rovio we can continue from all the work Rovio has done over the past five years developing fun learning,” says Sanna Lukander, formerly Rovio’s VP of Education and now the one who leads Fun Academy. “That puts us in a unique position as a start-up. Not only do we have Angry Birds Playground, a wonderful kindergarten product that has real operational customers in Shanghai, Chengdu, Nanjing, Singapore and Saint Paul (Minnesota), but also ongoing major partnerships as well as research co-operation with universities like the University of Helsinki and Beijing Normal University."
“Rovio’s education operations taking flight as a separate company will allow Sanna and her team to focus exclusively on developing the fun learning concept and related tools, and provide even better service to customers,” says René Lindell, Rovio’s Chief Strategy Officer. “As a minority investor in the new venture, we are confident that Fun Academy has a bright future in bringing fun learning and Finnish education know-how to the world.”
In addition to Angry Birds Playground, Fun Academy is also developing other products, services and tools for teachers, students and parents that promote fun learning. See www.funacademy.fi for more information.
Fun Academy contact: Sanna Lukander, email sanna@funacademy.fi, Tel. +358 50 3718246
