Unruly Studios

Unruly Studios develops movement-based STEM learning products for elementary and middle school students, built around Unruly Splats: programmable, stompable floor tiles that connect to iPads or Chromebooks and are controlled through the Unruly App. Students play pre-built games or build their own using a block coding interface, so coding, math, music and PE practice takes place through physical activity rather than screen time. The company's two named product lines are Unruly Code and Unruly Math, the latter extending the platform from computer science into general education math practice.

The offering is packaged as memberships for schools and programs, combining Splats hardware with a curriculum library of more than a dozen pre-built after-school courses and 80+ classroom activities, pacing guides, unlimited seats in the Unruly App, warranty coverage, and a Success Manager who adapts activities to a school's schedule. Materials are designed to be run by staff without a STEM background. Unruly also runs recurring, company-organized engagement events across its customer base, including the September "Go Bananas" stompetition, "So You Think You Can Code" (November-December), "Stomp Madness" (March), the Unruly Educator Awards (April-May) and a Family Coding Night (May).

The company positions its products against rising student screen time, citing Common Sense Media data on 6+ hours of daily screen use and CDC findings on physical activity and brain health. Its products were developed by staff with backgrounds at Nickelodeon, iRobot, Disney, Mattel and Hasbro.

Business model

Unruly Studios sells membership plans to schools, districts and after-school/camp programs. Each plan bundles Splats hardware, STEM and coding lesson plans and activities for grades K-8, unlimited seats in the Unruly App, and warranty, with Splats intended to be shared across a school. The site supports purchase-order submission, a district/classroom support model with Success Managers, and referral programs.

Membership plans covering hardware, curriculum and app access, sold to schools, districts and after-school programs, with purchase-order-based procurement.

Traction

The company reports more than 40 million stomps recorded across its products in North America, thousands of Splats placed in schools and homes since 2018, a catalog of 80+ classroom activities and more than a dozen pre-built after-school courses, and adoption spanning states including Washington, Maine, Texas and Georgia as well as Canada.

Latest developments

In a press release, Unruly Studios described entering the general education space following the launch of Unruly Math, its first after-school partnership with Brains and Motion, new state-level partnerships in the U.S. and Canada, and a $4 million pre-Series A round. Leadership additions included Krista Curran as President and COO (previously Amplify Education), Chris Garrity as Product Manager (previously MIT Media Lab's Scratch team) and James Sanders as Product Marketing Manager (previously Breakout EDU, Future Ready Schools); Zach Silverstein (Z Beach Strategies) and Jim Mylen (former President and SVP of Amplify) joined the board.