VideoBit

We believe we comply with multiple categories:

• ( Enable and improve personalized learning and individualized instruction for learners who have experienced disruptions in schooling and missed foundational milestones.) 

At the fundamental level, our product is a self-paced video exchange, which educators can use to catch up with their students about anything. It becomes increasingly useful to those students who have missed time out of school, because educators can not only provide learning but also emotional support through videos (body language, feeling of connectedness, etc). Additionally, VideoBit is available on a web browser from basically any device, so it is very accessible. 

• (Support timely and manageable assessments to help under-resourced communities better plan, monitor, and evaluate learning.)

Through self-paced video exchange we give educators and learners a multi-faceted way to do assignments at their convenience (they record when they want/can, and they access the app from a web browser from any device. The app is designed with simplicity in mind so that anyone can use it. 

While we focus on language learners first (almost 25% of the Worlds population), our solution is usable in any subject or setting. 

At the same time, we are starting to serve refugees – people who had to leave their homes against their will. For them, we want to serve not only as a language learning tool, but also as a tool to meet the local community and get a sense of belonging. 

VideoBit is a web app where users can record videos and send them to others. They can receive video answers, where they can further go into back-and-forth video exchange. You can think of it as a well-organized WhatsApp for video exchange. We are designing it for education with its UX and security. 

We pay attention to security and the app is developed under European Commission`s IMPACT EdTech program. 

Accessibility is another thing, by using the most modern components, we provide a web app that does not require any installations, anyone can open it on their web browser of any device – mobile, laptop, tablet, etc. 

Our focus on video is with language learning in mind but extends to other subjects and educational elements. Videos provide a chance for educators to track mouth movement, mimics, body language, and other important elements while having 1:1 conversations gives a sense of connection to everyone. Self-paced aspect also makes sure that the participant can take their time to gather the courage to speak up and formulate their speech before saying something. 

We focus on 2 groups out of the gate:

a) English as foreign language learners, which are 375 million in the World. For many, it is just for convenience, but for many it is a question of survival, to be able to advance in their life and/or career. We help them by giving them a chance to practice speaking, which is a very often underlooked category in language learning. It is not enough to know the words and phrases, learners need to be able to speak as well. 

b) Refugees that are adopting in their new countries and communities. There are around 30M refugees in the World. For them, we want to serve as not only a language learning tool where they could learn local languages, but also as a tool to connect them with the local communities and help them get a sense of belonging. 

We are a team of 3 right now, we have been working on digital educational solutions for 2 years. 

We have experience in designing user-friendly tools, and experience in global communication companies that enables us to make user-friendly communication technologies. 

One of our team members had to leave his country with his family, so the problem is very well understood. Addtionally, we do learn more about these problems by speaking to the people affected. We use regular communication and feedback loops.

Other than funds, we would be very interested in connecting with the right partner organizations to advance our app for refugee help and learning. Refugees are a global issue, and no matter how good the solution is, unfortunately, we think that partnerships are as crucial as anything. 

Funds could be used to visit refugee centers around the world to learn deeper about the problem and promote our service. 

We enable a video-first chat. With how the world has changed in the past few years, people are much more connected with their electronic devices, but the old communication methods in text chats, voice calls, real-time video conversations, etc are not the most convenient for many people anymore. Rather, we enable a self-paced video exchange where people still can feel connected but are not pressured in being online or active at specific times. 

Additionally, the technology is very easy on users, there is almost no device limitation. No installs, just open it on your browser in a tablet, mobile, or computer. 

We believe the World is ready to move to more self-paced video conversations, because real-time video conferencing is not efficient anymore (or ever?) where most of the call will not engage, have their cameras off, etc. 

We want to help people feel at home wherever they are. Through language learning, culture learning, and through a sense of connection. 

We want to achieve it by helping language learners to learn actual speaking, and refugees to learn languages, culture, and assimilate in their new environments by having self-paced 1:1 video conversations. 

At the current level we are measuring registered users and videos created to understand the impact we have on communities. In the future with more active users, we would like to be much more precise with our measurements to be able to track how much we have helped to how many people. 

1. Working with pilot users (happening now) – we learn about the impact we are doing and what we can do to improve it
2. Expanding into new communities – in order to be able to scale the most efficient way we are doing the ''atomic networks'' where we start with small niches, but learn as much as possible
3. Expanding globally

Theory of change:

1. We are helping language learners to practice speaking languages they want or need to learn
2. These people are able to assimilate into their new communities
3. Those people are making their new communities culturally ritcher 
4. Making the World more accepting and inclusive

We use a web-based app built mainly on ReactJS. This is allows the app to be as accessible as possible on any smart device, as long as it has a camera, microphone, and a web browser. 

Currently, we are just a core team that met in a hackathon, and in order to stay focused, we have decided to not hire anyone new. Once we do, we will have no boundaries of gender, race, or other elements. As we are a male-founder team, we would be even preferring to hire female personnel

Currently we are focusing on building our critical user base. We are closely observing
them and will come up with monetization plan in the future, based on our observations.

We want everyone to be able to master new languages, so our monetization model will be
Freemium. As potential monetization objects:
● Video amount or length
● Storage space or longevity
● Additional features
● Other

It will be a combination of grants and equity funding to get us cash flow positive. Eventually, we will monetize our solution to businesses and government institutions, but we are currently too early to lay out details. 

We have raised 80,000 € in equity funding, 90,000 € in grants, and around 10,000 € in competitions. We are currently active in the grant program and might receive additional funding.