About Kita

About Kita

Our mission is to make high-quality computing education accessible to every student.

Our mission is to make high-quality computing education accessible to every student.

We believe learning computer science matters more in the age of AI, not less.

Students still need to learn how to think computationally, solve problems, understand the systems around them and develop the confidence to create with technology. Teachers need tools that help them do that without adding more complexity or taking away the thinking that makes learning valuable.

Why we built Kita

Kita grew out of more than a decade of teaching computing.


When Replit for Education was discontinued, we experienced the same problem as computing teachers everywhere who had come to rely on it: a tool that had become part of the classroom suddenly disappeared.


We wanted something we could rely on for the long term.


But we didn't want to simply recreate Replit for Education. We wanted to build something better for teaching and learning: a platform designed specifically for education, shaped around the way teachers actually teach, and built for a world in which AI is becoming part of the classroom.


Our approach is grounded in 12 years in the classroom and more than 21,000 students taught. Since starting Kita, we've spoken with more than 50 secondary computing teachers across the UK to understand what they need from the next generation of computing tools.


Our work has also been supported by the Department for Education through two competitive grant-funded projects looking at safe, ethical AI in the classroom.


What began with a problem in our own classrooms has become a bigger ambition: to build the computing platform teachers and students need for the next decade of computing education.

The people building Kita

We're educators, designers, researchers and engineers brought together by a shared belief that computing education matters and that the tools teachers and students use should be worthy of the work they're doing.


Heather Lyons

Co-founder

Co-founder

Heather has spent more than a decade teaching computing and building products and programmes for young people.

Before Kita, she founded BlueShift Education, where her team taught more than 21,000 students. She previously worked in product and UX.


Heather has spent more than a decade teaching computing and building products and programmes for young people.

Before Kita, she founded BlueShift Education, where her team taught more than 21,000 students. She previously worked in product and UX.


Heather has spent more than a decade teaching computing and building products and programmes for young people. Before Kita, she founded BlueShift Education, where her team taught more than 21,000 students. She previously worked in product and UX.


Sebastian Vasquez-Lopez

Head of AI Engineering

Head of AI Engineering

Designs Kita's standards-aligned AI workflows: safe, pedagogically sound, and built to scale across real classrooms.

Sebastian leads Kita's work on AI, focused on using it to support learning without doing the thinking for students. He holds a PhD in Neuroscience from Oxford, where he was also a Research Fellow, and a PGCert in Educational Technology from UCL.

Sebastian leads Kita's work on AI, focused on using it to support learning without doing the thinking for students. He holds a PhD in Neuroscience from Oxford, where he was also a Research Fellow, and a PGCert in Educational Technology from UCL.

Nathan Varughese

CTO

Co-founder

Co-founder

10+ years in machine learning and software engineering.

Nathan has more than a decade of experience in machine learning and software engineering and leads the technology behind Kita. He was previously CTO of an algorithmic trading company, worked at JP Morgan and DRW, and holds an MSc in Mathematics from Imperial College London.

Nathan has more than a decade of experience in machine learning and software engineering and leads the technology behind Kita. He was previously CTO of an algorithmic trading company, worked at JP Morgan and DRW, and holds an MSc in Mathematics from Imperial College London.

Fiona MacNeill

Head of Product

Head of Product

15+ years in UX, learning experience design, and learning technologies.

Fiona has more than 15 years of experience in learning design, UX and learning technologies, and leads Kita's product development with teachers and learners at its centre. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has worked across education, technology and learning design in the UK and US.

Fiona has more than 15 years of experience in learning design, UX and learning technologies, and leads Kita's product development with teachers and learners at its centre. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has worked across education, technology and learning design in the UK and US.

Nathan Varughese

Co-founder

Nathan has more than a decade of experience in machine learning and software engineering and leads the technology behind Kita. He was previously CTO of an algorithmic trading company, worked at JP Morgan and DRW, and holds an MSc in Mathematics from Imperial College London.

Sebastian Vasquez-Lopez

Head of AI Engineering

Sebastian leads Kita's work on AI, focused on using it to support learning without doing the thinking for students. He holds a PhD in Neuroscience from Oxford, where he was also a Research Fellow, and a PGCert in Educational Technology from UCL.


Fiona MacNeill

Head of Product

Fiona has more than 15 years of experience in learning design, UX and learning technologies, and leads Kita's product development with teachers and learners at its centre. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and has worked across education, technology and learning design in the UK and US.


Built on four principles

Learning over cognitive offloading

Kita is designed to develop understanding, not to replace it. Learning computer science matters more in the age of AI, not less.

Feedback that works

Kita replaces fragmented workflows with a single, real-time workspace. Teachers can see student progress, intervene earlier, and deliver high-quality feedback without moving between multiple tools. The result is less time spent managing tools and more time spent teaching.

Built for the long term

Kita is designed as durable educational infrastructure, co-designed with teachers rather than retrofitted to the classroom. Its roadmap is transparent and grounded in real classroom needs, so that schools can adopt it with confidence rather than risk another tool that pivots or disappears.

Built for the long term

Kita is designed as durable educational infrastructure, co-designed with teachers rather than retrofitted to the classroom. Its roadmap is transparent and grounded in real classroom needs, so that schools can adopt it with confidence rather than risk another tool that pivots or disappears.

Modern, inclusive design

Kita treats interface quality as a pedagogical requirement, not a cosmetic one. Considered UI/UX reduces cognitive load, builds confidence, and creates a sense of belonging from the first interaction. This matters most for students underrepresented in computing, for whom dated and difficult tools can reinforce the sense that the subject is not for them.

Kita exists to remove tool overload, return time to teachers, and make high-quality

computing education accessible to every student.

Kita exists to remove tool overload, return time to teachers, and make high-quality computing education accessible to every student.