Imagi Raises $4.5M to Teach Students AI Coding and Vibe Coding Skills

Edtech startup Imagi has raised $4.5 million in seed funding to expand its AI literacy platform, which helps K-12 students learn coding, computer science and AI skills in the classroom. The funding round was backed by Brighteye Ventures, Day One Capital and artist Will.i.am, among other investors.

Founded in 2018 by Dora Palfi and Beatrice Ionascu, Imagi was created to make coding education more accessible to students. Over time, the company has expanded its curriculum beyond programming to include AI literacy, reflecting the growing role artificial intelligence is expected to play in education and future careers.

Teaching students to build with AI

One of Imagi’s biggest recent initiatives is its partnership with AI-powered coding platform Lovable. Announced last November, the collaboration allows teachers to create classroom lessons while giving students controlled access to AI tools so they can learn “vibe coding” within a monitored environment.

OpenAI has also supported the partnership by providing $1 million in credits, enabling schools to use the Imagi and Lovable platform at no cost through free trials and freemium access.

Palfi said the partnership has already produced practical classroom projects. In one case, a teacher created an application that translated classroom materials into the 15 languages spoken by students. Another student built a website to promote a lawn-mowing business, complete with an online booking calendar.

Balancing AI innovation with classroom safety

Palfi believes education specialists have an important role in helping schools adopt advanced AI tools safely while technology companies continue developing new models.

To protect students, every prompt submitted through the platform and every AI-generated response is screened before reaching the classroom. Imagi also complies with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). According to the company, student data is not retained, and partner platforms do not train AI models using classroom activity.

The platform also includes professional development for teachers, helping them learn AI, coding and computational thinking so they can confidently introduce the technology into their lessons.

"Rather than worrying about students cheating or regressing with AI, the education system has to adjust to the reality," Palfi said. "Most kids already use AI, but we need to teach children to build with AI rather than just passively consume it."

Funding to support global expansion

Since launching, Imagi says it has reached more than 700,000 students across 140 countries. The company plans to use the new investment to expand into additional K-12 schools, strengthen district sales, hire new employees and develop additional product features.

The funding will also support the launch of a new platform scheduled for next month as Imagi continues building tools that help schools prepare students for a workforce increasingly shaped by artificial intelligence.