New Zealand Social Startup For Kids, MiniMonos, Announces Funding As They Approach 1M Members

The New Zealand based social network startup for kids MiniMonos is taking off like wild-fire. CEO and Founder, Melissa Clark-Reynolds, has reported that the company has just received $1.3 million dollars in funding and they are quickly approaching 1 million users.

MiniMonos allows kids to sign up for their social network using a monkey avatar. From there they can play free games and interact with other kids on the network. There is also a premium based subscription which opens up a world of virtual currency and other features. Clark-Reynolds has also teamed up with Buy1Give1 so that for every subscription membership purchased the company then purchases clean water for a child in India.

Currently MiniMonos is converting about 3% of their users from free membership to paid membership however Clark-Reynolds has reported that the 3% of paid memberships are driving 90% of their revenue. They are quickly approaching 1 million members, their current member tally is about 840,000 members with more than half being in the UK.

More after the break



Clark-Reynolds is no stranger to the UK though. MiniMonos was the first non European startup to be selected for the Springboard accelerator program in Britain. To capture the Britain audience MiniMonos has put prepaid play cards in the British supermarket chain Sainbury’s and they also do tv advertising there.

“[We plan to] grow like mad in the UK, launch in Australia and New Zealand and develop a fair trade, cradle-to-cradle licensing strategy for toys, books [other things],” Clark-Reynolds told betakit an interview. “We’re also going to build a community team in the UK [and] raise some more growth capital.”

Minimonos isn’t just about kids playing character and cartoon games on a social network, there are plenty of those out there. Like with their partnership with Buy1Give1 Clark-Reynolds has instilled themes of social awareness and environmental issues within the games themselves.

“A senior exec at the largest kids site said to me that they’ve been impressed by how much our social and environmental goals are embedded in the site,” she said. “He was comparing it to their own ‘giving’ and ‘green’ programs which he said had been tacked on as an afterthought.”

Clark-Reynolds has also said that MiniMonos stands apart from other similar sites because most kids sites are predominantly girls, 70% of MiniMonos users are boys.

MiniMonos has no plans for expansion into the United States. The kids social network space is already crowded in the states with offerings from top brands like Nick Jr and Disney Kids.

source: Betakit

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