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There are many possibilities to build your own minicomputer. There are more tutorials for programming than the most committed student could ever do with. What can an ambitious student do? Where should a teacher begin? How can an edtech businessperson decide what tools are most effective? Venture capitalists are betting the winner of the race will include Minecraft because of Piper, a kit that helps students build their own computers, begin playing Minecraft and, in doing this, learn to code. The company behind it has raised $2.1 million in seed capital from Princeton University, Reach Capital, 500 Startups, FoundersXFund, Jaan Tallinn (co-founder of Skype) and Jay Silver (the founder of Makey Makey). The company, which is based in San Francisco and started in 2014, plans to make use of the funds to launch PiperEDU, a version of Piper geared towards K-12 classrooms. Every Piper kit includes the Raspberry Pi 3 microcomputer and an LCD display. A powerbank is also part of the. The wooden case that forms the computer’s chassis is also included. The education-friendly version, named Piper Block, also comes with additional components to ensure that any mishaps in the classroom don't disable an entire kit. Piper has also hired curriculum developers to develop professional development and activities that align with the goals of the Next Generation Science Standards. Thesewill also come with the new product. PiperEDU is also available at a reduced price. While a typical Piper kit costs $300, PiperEDU will cost $250 when a school buys four units. If that price is too steep, teachers have the option to lease Piper kits on a monthly schedule-two for $100 per month. Then, they can use the money they pay in rental costs to an eventual purchase. The company has experienced rapid growth over the last 18 months. Piper graduated from the co.lab education accelerator at the end of 2014. Piper launched a successful Kickstarter that raised $280,000 by April 2015. While he was raising funds developing the first version. It sold 1300 units during the Kickstarter and 1700 more during the rest of 2015. Minecraft servers Piper co-founder Mark Pavlyukovskyy predicts Piper will ship between 10,000 and 15,000 total kits in 2016, especially with Christmas having helped boost sales last year. Piper began with Pavlyukovskyy's personal educational endeavors and misadventures. He was in the process of implementing a gamified healthcare program in Ghana in 2012 when he was struck with what was believed to be cerebral malaria. He was evacuated to England. He was in a fever dream when he realized that he could be more effective as a programmer than an advocate for health issues in the public arena. So when he was lucky enough to recover, he taught himself programming. The next step, to Pavlyukovskyy was to provide this opportunity to children because he believed, "If I can teach myself, so can others!" He tested the idea in India, Ghana and Kenya using the newly in vogue Raspberry Pi microcontroller, but the price point was too expensive for the developing communities. Minecraft servers "Besides I was shipping parts," he said. He turned his attention to the US, but crashed into another obstacle: kids wanted to play Minecraft more than they wanted to construct computers or learn to code. The makers of Raspberry Pi were ahead of him. They had already released Minecraft Pi an original Minecraft server that runs on the Raspberry Pi, at the tail end of 2012.