Back in 2016, a Belgian startup called Jooki raised just under €54k on Kickstarter to make its first ‘jukebox for kids’ – a speaker that kids used by placing figurines or tokens on top of it, rather than by interacting with a screen.
The company went on to pitch at the 2018 Midemlab startups contest, expressing the hope that by 2021 it might be producing 500k units a year.
Well, it’s 2021 now, and while we can’t speak for its product shipments, we can report that Jooki is releasing a brand new speaker: Jooki Generation 2.
Unveiled yesterday, it still uses the ‘ToyTouch’ technology as an interface, but new features include a Spotify integration for music streaming, with a companion app for parents to link specific Spotify playlists to the tokens or figurines used to control the device. The speaker can also play MP3s and audiobooks.
Jooki is selling the device for $112.99 including two of the tokens, with extra packs of tokens and figurines available separately.