Toy Trunk offers handmade educational toys

February 16, 2023 Start Up Valli Sarvani No comments

Toys promote cognitive development in children. They also play a crucial role in the early development of the brain and interactions with others.

That’s why Toy Trunk, a Pune startup, decided to offer eco-friendly educational toys to toddlers and children.

Priyanka Mangaonkar-Vaiude and Ajay Vaidya are the founders of the startup. Both Priyanka and Ajay are architects and designers.

The idea of launching a startup came to their mind during the lockdown. At that time, Priyanka realized that her 3-year-old son was getting addicted to mobile phones and TVs. It was difficult for her to keep him away from these gadgets. When she tried to find toys that could engage him, she did not find such toys.

So, she, along with Ajay, decided to launch Toy Trunk to entertain children while promoting their development and cognitive abilities. Before launching their startup, the duo participated in Toycathon 2021, which boosted them to proceed with their startup. That’s how Toy Trunk was born.

Priyanka and Ajay say that toys are good for the overall development of children. However, many parents ignore their importance due to a lack of awareness.

So they raise awareness in parents on the importance of toys for the cognitive abilities of children. Besides, toys help promote the response of children to daily challenges.

Toy Trunk’s toys are handmade with non-toxic materials like wood and lac. They use machines for the basic cutting of some toys. And the remaining things, like colouring, shaping the edges, assembling etc., are done manually.

At present, 30 artisans are working with Toy Trunk. They make toys on a per-order basis. Toy Trunk works on a D2C (direct-to-consumer) business model. It sells toys through its website and other marketplaces like FirstCry.

So far, the startup has released 24 products. It has a turnover of ₹1.5 crores and aims to become one of the best toy brands in the country by the end of this year.

Image Credit: Thetoytrunk Website Screenshot