Dora Palfi comes from a family of teachers. So naturally, “it was instilled in me that education is something that can completely alter the trajectory of your life,” he told TechCrunch.

In 2018, she and Beatrice Ionascu launched Imagi, a company that helps provide K-12 students and teachers with the tools to teach and develop curriculum around coding, basic computer skills, and, as of last year, AI literacy. On Thursday, the company announced a $4.5 million seed round, with investors including Brighteye Ventures, Day One Capital and artist Will.i.am.

Notably, last November, the company announced a partnership with vibration coding tool Lovable that allows teachers to create lessons and give students controlled access to the platform so they can learn vibration coding with guardrails in place. OpenAI also provided $1 million in credits so schools can access the Imagi x Lovable tool for free. “We continue to provide free trials and freemium access thanks to your support,” Palfi said.

He shared some examples of what has come out of the partnership so far, such as the teacher who created an app that translated his curriculum into 15 languages ​​spoken in his classroom.

“Another student created a website to promote his lawnmower business, linking it to his calendar so people can book time directly on the website,” he said.

The product is, in a way, a response to the debate about how AI should be implemented in school and how young people should interact with this powerful technology. Speaking to TechCrunch, Palfi said the brains behind OpenAI and Lovable are “experts in creating cutting-edge AI tools,” while education experts like her “have the experience and knowledge to safely deploy them in the classroom.”

In this case, a secure implementation means that every message and every response generated by the platform is analyzed and violations are removed before they reach the student. Imagi is also compliant with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), and the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which means there is no data retention and Imagi partners are not trained on student data and activity. The system also trains teachers on how to use artificial intelligence, coding and computational tools, so they can confidently teach it to students, Palfi said.

“Instead of worrying about students cheating or regressing with AI, the education system has to adapt to reality,” Palfi continued. “Most kids already use AI, but we need to teach them to build with AI instead of just passively consuming it.”

This is particularly important given the impact of AI on the job markets these young students will eventually have to enter. Since not everyone has access to AI tools at home, school is often the best place to teach this new technology.

Since its launch, Imagi has worked with more than 700,000 students in 140 countries, Palfi said. This new capital will be used to scale to more K-12 schools, invest in district sales and hiring, develop new product features, and help launch a new platform next month.

This piece has been updated.