Our mission is to Make Everyone Love Science

What we believe in

We are shattering the stereotype that science is dull, complex, and confined to a select few. Our mission is to bring science to the forefront as something captivating, understandable, and undeniably cool.

Our goal is to make the realm of science approachable, fascinating, and effortlessly engaging. Science thrives on curiosity, experimentation, discovery, and the unquenchable thirst for answers – qualities that are inherent in every child.

We wholeheartedly believe that every child embodies the spirit of a scientist. That's why we're here, nurturing their innate scientific curiosity by providing:

  • Entertaining hands-on experiments that captivate their imagination.
  • Thorough, in-depth explanations that facilitate genuine understanding.
  • The immersive power of VR and AR technologies for deeper exploration.

With these tools, we're empowering the scientists of tomorrow, igniting their passion for learning and unleashing their boundless potential.

What we offer

Embark on an educational journey with our subscription boxes featuring captivating hands-on experiments, enriched by immersive AR & VR lessons, and live online classes.

Tailored to aspiring scientists aged 5–14+, our products are also a perfect match for science educators, schools, homeschooling parents, and everyone who wants to introduce their kids to science.

What the media is saying

This is one of the most exciting and ambitious home-chemistry educational projects I’ve seen

Chemistry World by Royal Society of Chemistry

The classic chemistry set gets a 21st-century upgrade

MEL’s apps for smartphones and tablets should distract kids from game consoles

Chemical & Engineering News by American Chemical Society

Our story

Bound by a collective passion for science, fate brought our tight-knit team together. Our team members' love for science ignited during childhood – for some, it was chemistry; for others, mathematics and physics.

Love for science led us to five medals in nationwide chemistry and physics competitions, one first-place medal in a national championship in programming, and multiple PhD degrees. Apart from a science background, our team shares world-class business expertise. Together, we achieved remarkable feats:

  • Initiated the creation of two mobile software development startups that have collectively grown to employ hundreds of individuals.
  • Founded multiple thriving companies, securing funding in the tens of millions of dollars.
  • Lead an EdTech company to a successful $430M acquisition.
  • Held C-level positions in Just Eat, Busuu, and Mrs. Wordsmith amongst others.
  • Created science communication media with 20M+ followers.

With the call of parenthood, a longing to provide more than conventional education arose. Thus, we share a united vision: to simplify, enhance, and invigorate science education – crafting an experience that's both accessible and captivating.

Leadership team

Tara Hamilton-Whitaker
CEO

EVP Just Eat. PLC (FTSE 100), responsible for product & tech, business expansion.

Group Digital Director for Time Inc UK, the UK’s largest digital publisher.

Vassili Philippov
Founder, Exec Chair

Co-founder & COO at SPB Software, the leading Windows Mobile app development platform.

Gold medal winner of Physics & Programming Olympiads, PhD in Math and six technology patents.

Michael Stevens
Chief Innovation Officer

Founder of Vsauce and Curiosity Box, the subscription for thinkers.

Strategist at Google and YouTube for 5 years. The leading science communicator in the world with 20M+ followers, and influential within the creator community.

Ed Relf
CMO

CMO at EdTech company Busuu (acquired by Chegg for $430M).

BAFTA-winning CMO Mind Candy (0 → 80M users).

Founder & CEO at Laundrapp ($12M raised).

Edd Stockwell
VP Commercial

Consumer product and partnership experience in C-level positions at Busuu, Mrs. Wordsmith, and Tutorfair.

Expertise in adding meaningful digital experiences to offline consumer products.

Backed by research

Leveraging our MEL Chemistry VR lessons, we actively participated in groundbreaking research orchestrated by the New Jersey Institute of Technology. This study sought to unravel the educational implications of VR within a school environment. The conclusive findings unveiled that:

  • Students engaged with VR achieved elevated scores in final examinations and overall class grades.
  • VR integration significantly alleviated chemistry contextualization challenges, enhancing the learning experience.

BETT 2020

Innovator of the year

The BETT show is a leading global event for educators and the first industry show of the year in the education technology landscape.

The EdTech Awards 2020

Best VR/AR solution

The EdTech Awards is the largest and most competitive recognition program in all of education technology.

The VR Awards 2020

VR Education and training of the year

The VR Awards is an international industry awards ceremony celebrating outstanding achievements in VR organized by AIXR.

HICOOL 2020

2nd prize

HICOOL is a global entrepreneurship competition. MEL Science was top-ranked among the best 15 companies out of 2000 competitors from around the world.

Homeschooling

MEL Science has achieved remarkable success within the homeschooling community, with a substantial number of our customers being homeschooling families. They unanimously recognize that our products offer a fantastic alternative to traditional school labs.

Milestones

2023
Curiosity Box customer base doubled in less than a year.
2022
MEL Science successfully acquired Curiosity Box.
2022
Launch of the innovative math subscription, MEL Math.
2021
Proudly introduced the world's first medical educational subscription box, MEL Med.
2020
Received BETT Award for Innovator of the Year.
2019
Launched our new product MEL Kids. Sales to 12 new countries, including China and Canada. 2.5M followers on social media, 100M views of one of our science videos.
2018
Start of international sales to over 35 countries.
2017
Launch of Chemistry Lessons in VR, launch of sales to charter schools.
2016
First sales launched in US, UK.
2015
Company foundation.

We would love to hear from you

UK: +44 808 281 2775

USA: +1 (855) 971‑2330

support@melscience.com

Bloggers and marketing:
marketing@melscience.com

MEL Science, Huckletree,
18 Finsbury Square,
EC2A 1AH, London, UK