It’s a dino-sized deal for interactive video platform Hellosaurus. The New York-based company announced Tuesday that it’s poised to be acquired by edtech software publisher Brilliant Worldwide.

The deal on the table would give Brilliant access to Hellosaurus’s user base and proprietary tools, while Hellosaurus would benefit from being supported by a well-established owner that operates on a bigger scale with deeper pockets.

“Brilliant has been pushing the boundaries of digital interactive learning for over 10 years…I am most excited by the increased scale of the impact we will now be able to have as a part of [that organization],” says Hellosaurus CEO James Ruben.

The Hellosaurus app and website launched in 2020 and offers interactive videos for two- to eight-year-olds (on-screen action is affected when kids tap, swipe and call out responses as they’re watching). The company shored up US$3.5 million in investment funding that same year, and has since partnered with major kids brands and companies such as The Wiggles and pocket.watch.

When the acquisition goes through, the Hellosaurus mobile app will continue to be available in the App Store and Google Play Store. The company also has a Hellosaurus Creator Studio tool that producers can use to drag and drop interactive elements into their existing videos, and Brilliant plans to put it to work on creating more interactive content.

Brilliant is an educational app that teaches kids and teens math and science through interactive lessons that see them drag and drop objects and manipulate numbers on screen to creatively solve problems. The company says it currently has 12 million users spanning students, teachers and adult learners.

Edtech has been a hot space since 2019, when the pandemic forced kids to learn at home during long lockdown stretches. Recent M&A activity has seen Sandbox buy preschool VOD platform and app operator PlayKids (February 2022), and BYJU’s acquire digital reading platform Epic for US$500 million (July 2021).