The EA founder secured $6.5 million in funds for If You Can

The educational app company If You Can recently launched its free educational app. According to CNNMoney (visit this link for more game details) Hawkins was able to raise $3 million as an initial investment from various seed and angel investors. Fast forward to today and the If You Can Company landed an additional $6.5 million to bring the total investment to just under $10 million. This round of investments was led by Greylock partners. This is Greylock’s foray into tablet gaming, it previously back web gaming companies Kongregate, Social Games Network, and WildTangent.

IF … is designed specifically to guide kids in developing SEL – social and emotional learning – skills. The developers utilized the RPG genre to put users in situations that help prepare them to make real-life relevant decisions. Ultimately the game strides toward teaching the users self-awareness, self- management, social awareness, relationship skills, and decision making.

Education apps have potential to be big money makers in 2014, but they have to be able to generate revenue and there is a fine line when it comes to making money from kids.

If IF … is going to be a revenue generating vehicle it needs to include in-app purchases otherwise the free model is not a lucrative route as it hinges on money via advertisers. Currently there are only 3 education apps on the top 200 grossing list for iPad only one is a paid app with no IAPs. Proloquo2Go has a listed price of $219.99 while Reading Rainbow and Fit Brains Trainer are both freemium. Freemium titles are free to play, but charge for IAPs (i.e. stickers, emojis, subsciptions) and have recently come under some scrutiny - Apple paying back $32.5 million.

IF … is currently only available for iPad users.