Lebanese entrepreneur Ayah Bdeir will now be able to bring snap-together electronics toys littleBits to a wider audience, thanks to a new round of $3.65 million in Series A funding from U.S. venture capital firms.
As Business Insider reports, the round was led by tech-focused Silicon Valley-based VC True Ventures, with Kholsa Ventures, O’Reilly AlphaTech Ventures, and New York-based Lerer Ventures joining in. The round follows a seed round last year that included investors Joi Ito, a Wamda board member, Wamda Chairman Fadi Ghandour, and Nichloas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Lab, as well as Joanne Wilson, Taha Mikati, Josh Spear, Jason Port and Salah Chamma.
In her TED talk this March, Bdeir, who also co-founded Beirut workspace Karaj, explained the simplicity of the little color-coded pieces that teach children how to build and augment electronic circuits that connect via magnetic ends. “Instead of having to program, to wire, to solder, little bits allows you to program using very simple, intuitive gestures.â€