STEMPlay Labs, founded by Aditi Prasad in Chennai, is transforming STEM education by offering screen-free, hands-on learning through products like Wonder Briks and PictoMath. The startup emphasizes creativity, problem-solving, and equitable access, preparing children for 21st-century skills while promoting social impact and inclusion.
Chennai is no longer just a hub of industry and intellect, it is becoming the heartbeat of a movement that is reshaping how young minds engage with Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM). This new approach to education is being led by a company called STEMPlay Labs. This company is creating a new way for kids to learn all the STEM skills without needing to use electronic devices. Kids will learn these kills through play and hands-on experimentation. At the same time, this new company wants to give every child the opportunity to experience STEM education in the most equitable way possible.
The development of this company started with a personal experience by the founder, Aditi Prasad. Aditi is a seasoned legal scholar with an interest in STEM education. She has always been passionate about giving every child access to the highest quality education possible. Throughout her educational career, Aditi has been working to design a better way to teach our children through a combination of play and solid teaching of the basic principles of STEM education. Through her work, she has combined her passions into one venture called STEMPlay Labs.
Prasad utilized her own background as both a parent and educator when developing tools that made STEM (Science Technology Engineering & Mathematics) concepts more accessible, understandable
and engaging for children. With this goal in mind, STEMPlay Labs was established in Chennai with a mission of using “play as the basis of future learning”. This ethos is tied to STEMPlay Labs’ philosophy of
“Swadeshi 2.0: Born in India, Built for the World” – mixing local design styles with worldwide standards, thus capturing the modern interpretation of India’s long-standing tradition of innovation.
What STEMPlay is All About
Unlike many other educational technology (ed-tech) companies, which are based around an application and/or screen, STEMPlay Labs focuses on providing an education through a physical, screen-free/sensory way as a primary learning experience. The core products that are offered by STEM Play Lab are Wonder Briks and PictoMath. These products grow along with children as they develop.
Wonder Briks are patent-pending, side-locking construction bricks that inspire open-ended creativity and spatial reasoning. These bricks go beyond traditional sets by allowing children to build structures that reflect their evolving ideas, developing problem-solving and engineering thinking skills intuitively.
PictoMath has succeeded at developing an engaging way of learning for mathematics by turning what was once perceived as complicated into visual play with cards. With this card game, children and adults aged 6+ will explore their relationships with numbers, patterns, and logical thinking rather than emorizing
them repetitively.
Both of PictoMath’s products emphasize the importance of long-term engagement. While many toys are designed to only engage users for a short amount of time (days) before becoming throwaway items, PictoMath’s products serve as tools for deeper investigation and continued educational use.
The overarching principles guiding the startup’s development like screenless learning, hands-on learning, developing skills for the 21st century while supporting a global vision of education through creativity, concentration, logic, and teamwork, represent a significant change in thinking about today’s educational
products in order to encourage a greater emphasis on these areas while also eliminating passive consumption during traditional learning.
Prior to launching STEMPlay Labs, Prasad founded Indian Girls Code, a program that seeks to support the empowerment of girls (particularly from Under privileged backgrounds) through interest and involvement in coding, robotics, and STEM-based education.
Prasad has achieved international success through her efforts within the educational sector. She was keynote speaker at the UNESCO Policy Forum in Bangkok, where she spoke about girls’ education in
STEM. Additionally, Prasad has spoken at both TEDx events in Chennai as well as TEDx events in Mumbai. In 2017, she was also recognized as one of 15 Young Societal Leaders in the World by the Government of Singapore for her dedication to continuing to support education and social impact globally.
Her prior initiatives under Indian Girls Code have empowered hundreds of girls to pursue STEM learning they might otherwise never have experienced, illustrating a deep commitment to equity and inclusion long before STEMPlay Labs began (Robotix).
CSR Initiatives and Social Impact
While STEMPlay Labs is still a fledgling startup, it has clearly identified its intent and altruistic goals. The overarching purpose of the enterprise supports an educational equity mission, especially for educational experiences. children with inconsistent access to quality digital infrastructure or engaging educational experiences.
STEMPlay Labs provides a tactile learning environment for students; therefore, regardless of your ability to access tablets and/or high-speed internet, STEMPlay Labs is inclusive to all. STEMPlay Labs also possesses a broader corporate social responsibility philosophy that encourages companies to grow
through community-based manufacturing and support for productive thinking and problem solving early in life to elevate communities throughout the world.
Prasad’s leadership is an important aspect of the social mission of the enterprise because she builds on many years of experience enriching the lives of underprivileged girls by providing opportunities to learn STEM. In particular, she draws on her experiences with Indian Girls Code in curriculum development and community engagement to further develop partnerships and outreach strategies throughout the country to close the STEM education gap (Robotix).
As STEMPlay Labs continues to build onits network of distribution both offline and online, the vision of the founders is world in which young learners are engaged and inspired by interactive, collaborative, and quality educational opportunities, all without excessive reliance on digital media. The increase in recognition for developing authentic skills, coupled with the growing support for women entrepreneurs in India, where approximately half of the total startups are founded or co-founded by women lets the company represent both creativity and opportunity.
In a fast-moving, highly-saturated digital world, STEMPlay Labs clearly illustrates how playing in an unstructured way with no interference from others is one of the best methods for preparing young
children to meet future challenges. This Chennai-based start-up has an immediate objective of offering innovative products and a vision to create a new learner for the next generation through building a new
image of STEM education, one brick and card at a time.
Clear Cut Education Desk
New Delhi, UPDATED: Feb 11, 2026 01:15 IST
Written By: Antara Mrinal
