The company was founded by Bhargav Sri Prakash[16] when he was a fellow of the Kauffman Foundation in Kansas City. The United States Department of State and EducationUSA awarded FriendsLearn a contract to design and produce a gamified application based on a track record of the founder's previous company in gamified student recruitment. "Your 5 Steps to US Study" was launched in 2012 and is distributed around the world by US Consulates and EducationUSA centers.[17]
Mobile Health & Behavior Design
FriendsLearn has produced and designed the mobile app fooya,[18] which is the product of the company's innovations in 'learnified' gaming and was presented at the 2014 Stanford MedicineX Conference[19] under a session titled "Scalable Behavior Design through Mobile Gaming".
In 2014, the company entered into a collaborative partnership with the 2014 ExxonMobilBernard Harris Summer Science Camp[21] and was used to promote healthy choices among middle school campers from across the United States.
The company was featured at the Bloomberg Next Big Thing Conference in 2013 as an emerging startup in health gaming.[22][23]
Fooya was first launched as a Facebook App in 2012 at the DEMO Conference in Silicon Valley[24] and successfully raised over $50,000 through a crowd funding campaign[25] via Kickstarter[26]
Reciprocity Wave
The Reciprocity Wave, a program conceived by Architect. Sheila Sri Prakash, is a Sculpture Competition where students create art work with recycled materials to sensitize the public about social and environmental issues that need immediate attention. Shilpa Architects have already conducted three such initiatives, two in Chennai [27][28] and one in Bangalore.[29][30]
The most recent initiative at Cubbon Park, Bangalore, brought to light various issues ranging from corruption to women's rights, and gained attention from the Bangalore Media for the powerful concept and impact that it created. Many of the leading daily's published a series of articles about the event and also covered the competition at length. The event also included a Health Gaming Championship involving fooya!, in partnership with FriendsLearn.
