Pok Pok is one of TIME100'S Most Influential Companies!

What this means for us and what’s next for the future.

Pinch us please…

Pok Pok has made TIME’s list of the 100 Most Influential Companies of 2025! We are beyond honored to receive this recognition and excited about what it means for the future of digital play and learning. 

Being included in this list is a powerful affirmation of the impact Pok Pok has had on families all around the world. It also affirms the need for a more thoughtful approach to kids’ screen time and to help our little ones build a healthy relationship with technology in these early stages of development.

Since we started Pok Pok back in 2019, this has been our mission—to help raise the next generation of creative thinkers through healthy digital experiences. As parents who wanted better screen time options for our own kids, we knew we couldn’t repeat the same formula of other apps and that we had to walk a different path—one that prioritized calm engagement over distraction, and built key skills how children learn best, not just regurgitating information.

Luckily, we’ve never had to walk this path alone. From our earliest advisors and playtesting families to our incredible online community and team members, Pok Pok has been a co-creation.

So, to our Pok Pok families and collaborators: Thank you endlessly for trusting in us. None of this growth would be possible without you, and we can’t wait to continue this journey together!

“Charting an essential path forward.”

The TIME100 list celebrates companies that are “charting an essential path forward”. How do we fit into this? 

According to many of the critiques we receive online, a kids’ app is anything but essential. We read comments daily that argue how screen time is not necessary and kids should be playing outside, reading books, and building contraptions out of toilet paper rolls.

The thing is, we actually agree with the sentiment! Which is why we made an app that allows kids to pivot more easily to other activities instead of having a meltdown from overstimulation. Not to mention, the same curiosity and creativity that’s exercised in these offline activities is also sparked while playing Pok Pok.

Kids’ screen time may not always be seen as essential, but here’s what is:

• Addressing the rise in screen time and tablet use—not ignoring it. While it is up to every family to decide how or if they use screen time, we do not believe that ignoring it as a collective is the way to foster a healthy relationship with technology.
• Offering more support for families in an era where the US Surgeon General has declared parental stress a public health crisis. No one truly knows another parent’s story or how having a kids’ app they can trust may be the hero in theirs. 
• Encouraging our next generation to strengthen critical thinking and problem-solving skills in a time where technology offers more conveniences than ever. In Pok Pok, nothing happens without kids making decisions. It is anything but passive! 
• Representation for marginalized identities that rarely get to see themselves reflected. It shouldn’t be a rarity to find LGBTQ+ families, disabilities, a range of hair types or cultural attire in kids’ media.

From the beginning, we felt that Pok Pok was essential for these reasons, and these values guide much of our development. You may never hear us argue that every family needs a tablet or to play our app, but we will continue advocating for the above! Our Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Esther Huybreghts, says it best:

“Screen time is a loaded topic for parents—it’s coated in shame and stigma, yet most parents would argue it saves their sanity. The problem is, most apps weren’t made with young kids in mind. With Pok Pok, we created something parents can feel good about: a calm, thoughtful app that empowers kids and gives families a much-needed moment of peace. In today’s world, that feels pretty essential.”

Highlights & Horizons

The past 4 years since Pok Pok’s debut have been an absolute dream. As if growing our community wasn’t rewarding enough, we’ve also had the honor of receiving accolades like the Apple Design Award upon launch, a Mom’s Choice Award, Academic’s Choice Award, and Apple’s App Store Award in 2023, to name a few.

In 2024, Pok Pok won a KidScreen Award for Best Original Learning App, and was named a Game Changer—one of the top 25 most innovative startups globally reshaping the gaming industry by Nasdaq, Lightspeed and VentureBeat. Our CEO Melissa was also selected for Maclean’s Power List, which names the Top 100 most powerful Canadians shaping the country. 

Adding to these milestones, we brought Pok Pok to Android for the first time in the fall of 2024 and released on Amazon Fire devices earlier this year. This allowed us to welcome even more families into our world, and we’ve loved meeting each and every one of you. 

These successes continue to inspire us to bring updates and new toys that serve our community best. CEO and Co-founder Melissa Cash speaks to this motivation:

“Being recognized by TIME feels incredible. But, nothing matters more than the messages from parents that tell us how profoundly Pok Pok has shaped their children’s childhoods, or the handwritten snail mail we get from kids telling us how much they loved cooking in the Pok Pok kitchen! The most important marker of success for me is whether or not we’re leaving the world better than when we got here—and I truly believe we are making that difference for this next generation of digital natives.”

One of these new ventures “making a difference” is Studio Pok Pok, our YouTube channel just for kids! We’ve been touched by the positive response since announcing this just 2 weeks ago, and are so glad to offer parents another screen time option they can feel good about.

In the spirit of building the app with our community, we’ve heard from families that they are looking for more educational content resembling the material kids will cover as they enter school. Think early maths, sciences and language. Mathijs Demaeght, our Co-Founder and Chief of Design, has shared a hint for what’s coming up next:

“At Pok Pok, we believe kids learn best through open-ended, gently-guided play. Unlike most educational apps that focus on instruction and achievement, Pok Pok invites curiosity, creativity, and exploration—skills that are just as essential for lifelong learning. Even in tackling more traditional aspects of learning, we try to find the most playful way of engaging children to explore abstract concepts like maths or geometry—and we’ve got even more exciting releases up our sleeves.”

We can’t state enough how honoured we are to be receiving this recognition, or how thankful we are to you all for your role in this. We hope to continue evolving together in the years to come, so please never stop sending us your ideas or snaps of your life with Pok Pok! If you haven’t already, join us on Instagram and TikTok to catch many more milestones like this and all of the special moments in between.

We’ve been so inspired by the unique approach of each child who plays with our toys and can’t wait to hear what families like yours think of this one. Receiving your feedback, videos and ideas for new updates is so important for the growth of Pok Pok so please say hello at hello@playpokpok.com or on social media @playpokpok.