Boki, returning enthusiasm for learning​

Every day millions of children in Latin America (and billions worldwide) get bored in class. This lack of motivation and enthusiasm affects students' performance directly, and many of them can't achieve the expected academic levels.

Boki is an educational tool that democratizes high-quality educational content with challenging activities and entertaining exercises that helps students learn while enjoying it, returning the natural enthusiasm for learning. Also, using collaborative learning situations encourages soft skills, such as communication, decision making, negotiation, among others.

Boki is more affordable than printed books and compatible with existing devices. Once the content has been downloaded, it can be used without an Internet connection, making it easier to access students in low or lack connectivity areas.

Students' motivation at school decreases throughout the years, and many can't achieve the expected academic levels.

At the beginning of school, almost all students are enthusiastic about learning, they are highly motivated in class, but as the years go by, the enthusiasm decreases. According to studies by LtoJ Consulting Group, enthusiasm declines by almost 10% per year.

Inside the education center, they live a very different reality than the daily outside. They need more and better stimulation towards learning. This issue directly affects the most important educational challenges: students can reach expected academic levels and lower the heavily risen student drop-out rate.

This is a real problem in Latin America, but the problem is larger; it's a global issue. We are working in Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay, and according to statistical data from UNESCO, this market has more than 65 thousand schools and more than 16 million students. There are more than 90 million students in LATAM and the USA, and globally, there are more than 500 million students.

The correct use of technology in learning processes is a recognized factor of growth in student motivation since it brings class dynamics closer to their daily realities.

Boki is a digital educational tool that promotes enthusiasm in students and promotes meaningful learning through inclusive classroom dynamics, interactive activities, and didactic games. It also allows family members' involvement by "playing" with the students.

Our content is structured as a unit through a pedagogic sequence that generates curiosity and motivation to learn. Also, using collaborative learning situations encourages soft skills, such as communication, decision-making, and negotiation.

You can create a class selecting the units you consider appropriate. This selection can be made and modified throughout the year.

We use Unity, a world-class video game engine, to generate interactive games and activities. Its design using blocks allows Boki to have a flexible architecture to include new content easily and adapt quickly to different curricula in each market.

Boki is compatible with existing devices, and it works offline, making it easier to access students in low or lack connectivity areas.

Boki democratizes access to quality educational content to children between 6 and 12 years old, from diverse socioeconomic contexts, who attend public and private schools. These children are digital natives and exposed to many stimuli daily, so they need tools adapted to this reality.

It also helps teachers’ communities. Using Boki, they can reduce class preparation time, receive information about their student's progress, share experiences, feedback, and get recommendations from the community about addressing a certain topic in class.

Proper use of technology in learning processes is a recognized factor of growth in student motivation since it brings class dynamics closer to their daily realities. This greater enthusiasm and effective use of resources have a direct impact on achieving meaningful learning.

In addition to taking advantage of technological resources playfully and interactively, Boki adds experimentation activities that awaken students' curiosity, participative and collaborative class dynamics that make children more invested, encourage interaction with their peers, working as a team, integration with their families, and connect with the environment and their context.

Boki is more affordable than printed books and compatible with existing devices. In addition, once the content has been downloaded, it can be used without an Internet connection, making it easier to access students in low or lack connectivity areas.

Boki has educational units with activities that awaken students' curiosity and participative and collaborative dynamics that make children more engaged in learning, encouraging interaction with their peers, working as a team, integrating the families, and connecting with the environment and their context. Each unit has a guide that allows teachers or parents to guide the child and be stimulated for independent work.

In addition, Boki is compatible with face-to-face, remote, or hybrid classes since it can be used on the digital projector or classroom's computer, in the school computer room, or any device that the student has at home.

Boki has been validated and marketed in 63 schools in Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay, having 8,283 active users. 

The startup had support from Start-Up Chile, with the Huella program, Expo Dubai, with Expo Live Global Innovators program, and ANII (Uruguay), allowing us to grow in those markets.

In addition, Unesco, Plan Ceibal, and Unicef have trusted our books to benefit public education students from Panama (2019 Unesco), Uruguay (2019 Plan Ceibal), and from LATAM (2020 and 2021 Unicef).

In summary, we have a growing interactive high-quality content business with participative and collaborative activities that generate engagement in the students for learning.

Boki is an innovative tool because it includes original and high-quality content aligned with national curricula.

As was mentioned before, the contents are organized in units (blocks) of educational content, which contain a pedagogical sequence that includes experiments to increase the student's curiosity, activities for the notebook, readings, interactive exercise activities, and challenges to apply what they have learned in other contexts. Thanks to its block’s architecture, Boki can be adapted to national contexts and curricula easily.

Its participatory dynamics and activities with a high level of interactivity increase students' enthusiasm when learning and collaborate to achieve meaningful learning.

And for emotional and social development, we based on the "Seven complex lessons in education for the future" guide proposed by UNESCO, developed by Edgar Morin, and considered in many countries. 

In this way, Boki helps teach about the human condition, earthly identity, uncertainties, and understanding, contributing to big changes of the thought needed for the future and sustainable development.

Boki leverages the potential of technology in class or at home. You can use it on different devices: cellphones, tablets, desktop computers, digital boards, gaming consoles, and even without an internet connection. In addition, it evolves by collecting usage data and updating content.

Today Boki has 8382 active users in Chile, Mexico, and Uruguay.

Our growth plan focuses on growing in these markets this year. Next year, we are looking to expand to Argentina, Colombia, and Peru. In this new market, we seek to have more than 50 thousand users.

And consolidated in these markets, we seek to grow in the rest of LATAM and globally, including content in other languages, to exceed 10 million users in the next 5 years.

To measure the impact and virality of Boki, we use two essential usage metrics.

One metric is the number of active students. The more students access the application and learn with the educational units and do more activities, the greater impact we generate.

And the other metric is the active classes. We define an active class as the class in which you have 60% active students. This metric is key to achieving growth within the school and through referrals to new schools.

If we manage to have many active classes in a school, we will have many teachers and students engaged with Boki, and they will likely recommend us to other teachers and students to use it.

In addition, the more active classes there are in a school, the greater the probability that they will renew to use Boki next year.

Although these metrics allow us to reference how the impact of Boki has been and its potential virality in the schools that use it, we also understand that it is important to measure the progress of the impact in the number of schools.

As mentioned above, entry into schools through teachers is gradual since it allows us to enter more quickly and continue growing internally. Therefore, the greater the number of schools we have, the greater our impact on active students and active classes increase.

Full-time: 4

Part-time: 5

Contractors: 2

The startup has a multidisciplinary team, which complements each other greatly and has several years of experience working together in the educational technology sector.

This team is led by Nicolás, an entrepreneur who MIT has recognized for his innovative degree; Together with Mercedes (content manager), Francisco (illustration and animation manager), and Felipe (senior full-stack developer), they have been creating educational projects based on technology for more than 7 years with repercussions both nationally and regionally.

Three years ago, Diego, a specialist in digital marketing, Federico, an entrepreneur in the technology sector, and Roberto, a psychologist with a master's degree in education, joined the team. These strengthened the team from an educational and business perspective.

Last year Tatiana (a psychopedagogue), Marcela (a teacher with commercial experience), Julia (a specialist in UX and data analysis), and Maximiliano (a senior full-stack developer) joined the team, making a great contribution from a technical perspective to enhance and strengthen the products.

The great strength of this team is the passion and commitment to generate innovative products that positively impact children's education. 

We are a team that has achieved a blend of knowledge and experience from the educational sector, tech business, and relationships with publishers that enhance the growth possibilities of the startup.

Today the team has 4 women, and one of them is one of the co-founders. In the last year, we have incorporated 3 women into the team, contributing with complementary skills and knowledge, and we are committed to achieving greater inclusion at the team level.

We are applying to Solve since Boki solves a global problem with a high social impact, where millions of children are affected.

Boki is in a growth stage, and being part of the SOLVE community allows us to contact a large educational community, which are potential users. We can get important feedback and strategic advice from experts.

By interacting with the community, we can find key partnerships to enhance our growth, create new content, and connect with specialized teachers who can help us adjust content to other curricula and organizations interested in using the platform for their students.

And we can also connect with potential distributors with experience in the educational market that can complement us in commercial growth to scale with greater speed.

Finally, to continue growing, we need funds to supplement sales income. Being part of the community can also allow us to connect with potential investors.

At the moment, we do not have a particular partner identified. We would like to have feedback from the network of experts and connect with organizations that manage schools and commercial distributors since they are key to having a greater speed of growth.

And if there is a partner with an investor profile or an angel investor or if there is some possibility of accessing a grant, it will also be of great value.