Enzyme, The Disruptive Education Startup

Quality educational systems are the root of many challenges. Governments have ensured school coverage, yet quality has not been reached. Institutions and universities constantly offer innovative and advanced programs. Educational coverage is escalating, but so are the poor educational practices.

Enzyme is a disruptive education startup specialized in informal education. Our technology focus and flat structure creates agile methodologies giving an unmatched project execution and data control. We take part in the education communities and we ensure ideas happen, quickly and efficiently.

In Guanajuato, Mexico, the school dropout levels were increasing. We studied the problem and discovered the importance of aspirational figures, which led to E-Mentoring, our first success story for bright high-school students in vulnerable situations. 

We are at a crossroads to transform future generations. We believe Enzyme can crack the code to tailored projects that meet the demands of the communities while injecting new and alternative learning models.

Latin American and Caribbean countries know that education is the answer to reduce poverty and build better communities. Proof of this, every year, Latin American and Caribbean countries spend on average about 5% of their GDP, which is as much as other developing countries in percentage points. 

However, this means that even Latin countries who spend the most on education like Chile, 8.400 USD per student annually, are considerably behind compared to others like the U.S, who spends about 30,000 USD per student. The gap becomes abysmal everyday:

• 73% of Latin Americans can’t solve basic math problems according to their age and educational level.
• A Latin American student is on average 2.5 years of schooling behind the average OECD student.

There is a systematic need to make wiser decisions to solve highly complex educational challenges. The rise of social entrepreneurship is an opportunity for governments to look at alternate players to tackle the resisting issues in the system. While money is crucial to improve the educational systems, the real problems are the resources allocation, the lack of technology adoption and the deficient teaching practices which hardly intervene in the educational demand crisis in our communities. 

Customers:

1. Developing Countries Governments
2. Private Socially Responsible Companies

Beneficiaries:

1. Educational systems

   Students

   Faculty

   Parents

   Public and private institutions

   Hiring companies

   Communities

   Governments local, state, federal

We are Enzyme, an informal education disruptive startup that provides consulting services that transform communities. We detect challenges using big data and other innovative practices. We study the problems to find powerful, scalable, and tailored solutions. We execute solutions bringing government and communities together. 

Enzyme is currently executing the E-Mentoring program to alleviate the high school school dropout challenge in the State of Guanajuato in Mexico. We use English classes to advance language skills, develop professional plans and create social projects that inspire high-school students to aim higher. Just with this project, Enzyme is changing more than 1,000 lives.

Tech Company

We use a flat organizational structure that reduces costs and encourages innovation with outstanding talent and the use of agile methodologies like scrum.

Distinctive Interventions

We tailor, replicate, scale and standarize innovative solutions that tackle the expensive challenges of the educational systems.

Social Entrepreneurship

We take up social macro and micro challenges appealing to international talented professionals. Competitive wages and benefits will debunk the idea that only governments or private company initiatives have the means and resources to attack challenges.

Community Building

We mature educational communities by accompanying them during the transformational process. From students to government officials, everyone learns and participates in our initiatives. 

Progress Driven

Our goal is to efficiently and effectively solve problems with long lasting transformations that benefit communities and governments in the shortest possible time.

Hard work, perseverance, discipline and humbleness lead our work. We are never scared to accept the facts and we are up for the challenge. Enzyme’s projects expand the education experience by going beyond the classroom and continuously building talent. 

E-Mentoring, our first success case, exponentially grew just in one year going from 44 mentors to more than 90 candidates, from 655 students to more than 800. From the first generation, 20 students were accepted at different public and private Mexican universities, while 5 were awarded full-ride scholarships for an undergraduate program. 

Enzyme is the opportunity to do successful social entrepreneurship, to find new and fresh players that tackle education challenges that transform the future generations.

Current Impact:

• 1 state project contract
• 1650 direct beneficiaries
• 3 employees
• 13 collaborators

By 2021, we plan to impact:

• 2 state project contracts
• 2 national projects
• 2 international projects
• More than 8,000 direct beneficiaries
• 5 employees
• 21 collaborators

In 5 years, Enzyme will have:

• 4 state project contracts
• 4 national projects
• 4 international projects
• More than 20,000 direct beneficiaries
• 25 employees
• More than 100 collaborators

For the next year, Enzyme will operate at least five state projects. In addition, an internal platform to develop research, trace common problems and implement projects like E-Mentoring will be consolidated. 

In five years, Enzyme will offer educational interventions on the field, disruptive expertise inside the educational systems and institutions, and educational research for challenge detection. We would have reached at least one national-level program and one international institution or government. On statistics, we aim to be present in at least 35 Mexican cities.

For the upcoming year, our main barrier is the lack of financial freedom since we are currently funded by a state-government institution. If Enzyme gains financial independence, we could explore other agile methodologies and technologies within and for our projects. Also, we would expand our current work to other regions and revolutionize social entrepreneurship in Latin America.

Enzyme has a noble cause, which attracts people naturally. Still, we will have to overcome the common dull representation of social projects. Within the next five years, we need to develop a solid structure that keeps everyone engaged, from the employees to the volunteers and can boost disruptive interventions in traditional institutions. A focus on engagement and civic participation will ensure our success.

We are making strategic partnerships with different institutions in our region to expand our resources and develop other activities together. Also, we are working on data compilation to find better answers for the needs of our beneficiaries while also offering a benefit to our customers.

In five years, the results from our current work and research will be even more solid to decide the next steps for Enzyme, this as well will enhance our schools and clients network. We will develop digital and physical showrooms to improve the social entrepreneurship experience and attract more participants. 

Latin American countries share many of same problems in education. We understand the individuality in each society. We hope to expand to Colombia and Chile in our first international adventure. We plan to achieve this by growing our network and research opportunities in these countries, specially with institutions similar to those we have worked with so far. We expect to achieve this in a short period of time. 

• 3 employees.
• 13 collaborators.
• 46 mentors.
• 30 social volunteers

Our team comes from different backgrounds and different professions. We work convinced that there is much more we can do for education. While diversity is a key aspect to our value, being a leader is a common characteristic among the Enzyme’s directive board, and most have experience working on educational projects and public policies.

Our team is conformed by people that have not only had experience working on social projects in Mexico but also have both studied and/or worked abroad in projects related to innovation, social volunteering, leadership, and international businesses. These backgrounds and acquired skills allow us to have a wider vision and the ability to not only plan but to execute and deliver this solution. 

We are committed people who want other people in our society to have the same or better opportunities than the ones we had.

The Department of Education Policy and Social Leadership from the Institute of Financing and Information for Education of the Government of the State of Guanajuato. Enzyme was created by our General Coordinator, Alan Medina. He was entrusted by the State of Guanajuato to plan and execute a project to train and encourage high school students from Guanajuato’s municipalities to pursue competitive positions in the international market later to be called E-Mentoring. So far, EDUCAFIN funds the program while our team develops a network of resources external to the institution.

We have students from Tecnológico de Monterrey, Universidad Iberoamericana, UNITEC, La Salle who are volunteers or do their social service in Enzyme. We have plans to collaborate with the Social Sciences Department from Tecnológico de Monterrey. 

Having funds to consolidate the inner structure and financing our full-time employees will launch the next steps of the startup. Our clients will pay per project depending on the activity and the scale of the impact to be carried out. From the total cost of each developed program, a percentage will be destined to support our employees and our collaborators’ scholarships, as well as our research platform and the administrative work.

We are a group of people working together with a common mindset, feeling the same responsibility to improve our environment. We truly believe and we are proving that this improvement in education can make a difference in people's lives.  We want to go further, to impact lives all over Latin America and TPrize can be the answer to our Know-How.

We would like to have partnerships in which we will both benefit according to the possibilities of each one. Either way Enzyme has the ability to collaborate with all sorts of actors and parties, but we would like to work side by side with those who are empowered by their community and take action in problems that the government cannot solve. As well as a lively and efficient use of resources. An example, UNESCO. It has several programs and triangular cooperation around latin America where we know we can help them execute their agenda.