Dex just closed a $4.8M round for its kid-friendly language learning gadget. The device looks like a high-tech magnifying glass with a camera on one side and a touchscreen on the other. Kids snap pictures of objects, and Dex’s AI identifies and translates the word into one of eight languages, plus 34 dialects.
The founders—Reni Cao, Xiao Zhang, and Susan Rosenthal—left tech jobs over concerns about kids’ screen time. Dex aims to get kids aged 3-8 moving, thinking, and interacting with real-world objects, not just tapping on apps.
Dex also offers interactive stories and games that push kids to respond in the language they’re learning. There’s a parent app to track vocabulary, stories, and usage streaks. 
The company is testing an AI chatbot for free-form kid conversations but says it’s too early for wide release. Safety is a big focus:
“We have an always-on safety agent that evaluates conversations in real-time and filters conversations with a safe stop word list. The agent will suppress conversation if any of the stop words are mentioned, including but not limited to those related to sexuality, religion, politics, etc. Parents will soon be able to further add to personalized stop word lists.”
Reni Cao, CEO of Dex
Dex notes it trains its AI using children’s encyclopedia standards. But the device still identifies words like “gun,” raising potential parent concerns. Cao says soon there will be filters for sensitive words like guns, cigarettes, and marijuana.
The device doesn’t store any images or data, which protects privacy but means parents can’t see what kids are snapping.
Dex is working on COPPA certification for kid-focused privacy compliance.
Investors include ClayVC, EmbeddingVC, and angels like Pinterest founder Ben Silbermann and former OpenAI safety lead Lillian Weng.
The gadget costs $250, pitched as cheaper than tutors ($80/hr) or immersion schools. Hundreds of families have already picked it up.
Image Credits: Dex
Watch Dex in action:
Image Credits: Dex
