Robo Wunderkind: K-5 students build & code robots

We play a role in changing the trajectory of the lives of K-5 students, specifically girls and students in low-income communities, to build equity in STEM education and career attainment. Our solution supports the aims of the Gender Equality in STEM Challenge by helping K-5 educators effectively teach and engage girls in STEM in classroom settings.

Women and minorities are drastically underrepresented in STEM. Women currently make up 51% of the US population but comprise only 35% of employees in STEM jobs. Underrepresented minorities – Hispanics, Black Americans, and American Indians – made up 31% of the total population but only 24% of STEM workers in 2021. 

Data from the National Center for Educational Statistics show that, while the number of post-secondary STEM degrees/certificates awarded to women have increased from approximately 169,000 in 2011-12 to over 276,000 in 2020-21, women have not increased their share of the total, earning only 35% of the total post-secondary STEM degrees/certificates in 2020-21. Of the degrees/certificates awarded to women in 2020-21, white women accounted for 52.7% while Black and Hispanic women accounted for 31.6%.

Gender and racial equality in the STEM fields is held back by three issues that start in elementary school. 

First, research supports the importance of introducing science as early as possible in childhood to maximize brain development and to support curiosity, problem-solving, and social interaction. Exposure to meaningful science experiences in early childhood can nurture positive attitudes toward STEM that last into adulthood. The 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study indicated that 38% of eighth graders were not confident in science, twice the percentage of fourth graders. Since many female and underrepresented minority students lose a sense of “science identity” in early adolescence, providing opportunities for meaningful, real-world experiences in science before students reach middle school is crucial.

Second, schools’ competing priorities consume resources and attention. According to the 2018 National Survey of Science and Mathematics, teachers in grades K-3 reported spending an average of 18 minutes per week on science, a 22% drop from reported levels in 2000. It is no surprise that 78% of high school graduates in the US are not meeting readiness benchmarks in science and mathematics. Post-pandemic, reading and math proficiency levels have dropped, leading schools to devote more time and resources to these subjects.

Third, schools lack a cohesive plan and trained teachers for elementary STEM programs. Teaching STEM can be daunting, especially as new technologies emerge. Districts try to avoid this challenge by consolidating efforts into STEM centers or special classes. These approaches are typically limited by the capacity of a few teachers and a piecemeal approach. Schools implementing STEM for the first time typically buy a range of products for different grades and ask teachers to create their own curriculum. Programs like this suffer from inconsistency and no clear learning path for students. In these situations, students are unable to build upon enthusiasm developed in limited and disparate experiences.

Our robotics kit places real-world robotics components like motors, lights, and sensors (distance, light, and motion sensors; accelerometer, collision detector, and push buttons) in sturdy plastic blocks. The blocks use an innovative connection system that allows a single central block to supply power and control to all blocks attached, no matter their configuration or orientation. The size, shape, and simple snap-together mechanical connections of the blocks are perfect for the small hands and developing motor skills of elementary school students. Our coding app includes three leveled programming interfaces to scaffold coding concepts and skills in a developmentally appropriate way. The app allows robots to be controlled in real-time via a remote control style interface, coded using a custom visual coding system that makes complex computer science concepts accessible to young students, and a Blockly coding interface that provides a transitional step between visual programming and text-heavy programming languages. Our modular robotics kit is simple enough to be used in any grade, is designed to scaffold up robotic and coding complexity as students’ skills grow. Schools get replacement parts and upgrades as needed, which means our schools have a product for any grade that they can trust to work over time, making it easier to provide a consistent K-5 STEM experience. 

Early engagement in real-world, cross-curricular STEM: Quick successes, like custom robots built and coded in under 15 minutes, engage students of any age, encourage creative problem solving, and motivate them to keep learning. Our coding app makes coding accessible to students of any age and is simple enough to integrate coding into learning in any subject area. This means that, all with the same kit, Kindergartners can independently build and code a robot to act out a daily routine or retell a story, 3rd graders can design an autonomous robot that avoids obstacles, and 5th graders can create a custom robot coded to act as a solution to a real-world problem. Our curriculum integrates robotics, coding, and a wide range of STEM topics into the core subject areas of reading and math.

Building STEM teacher capacity: We use a collaborative implementation planning process with school partners, along with training and coaching, to raise all teachers’ comfort and competency in STEM. Additionally, our curriculum is designed to support teachers new to teaching STEM by providing detailed lesson plans, classroom resources, assessments, and on-demand professional development.

K-5 STEM education continuity: We provide schools with a K-5 pathway through STEM. Our online curriculum library hosts standards-aligned lessons that integrate STEM experiences into the core subject areas, along with creative projects and skill-building challenges. Consistent exposure to STEM through meaningful learning opportunities starting in Kindergarten, like using robotics to create solutions to real-world challenges, helps students view themselves as STEM practitioners, build 21st century skills, and develop a sense of ownership over their own learning and life trajectory.

Our solution serves elementary teachers and their students. We work with schools, prioritizing those in low-income communities, to build equity for all children in STEM education and careers.

We address the needs of girls by directly engaging common barriers that contribute to the decline in interest and confidence in science as they grow. The playful and gender-neutral design of our robotics kit was designed to drive early engagement in young children as exposure to meaningful science experiences in early childhood can generate positive attitudes and lasting connections to STEM fields. But research also shows that early positive attitudes often take a hit as students reach middle school. However, this data comes in an era where teachers in grades K-3 report spending an average of 18 minutes per week on science. We make STEM easy to integrate into core subject areas so students not only get far more science instruction, but that this time is spent on hands-on STEM that asks students to tackle real-world STEM problems and generate practical solutions as if they are real scientists or engineers. These strategies take aim at the “being-doing divide”, a disparity found between the number of students with positive attitudes about “doing” science in school and the smaller subset of students with real ambitions to “become” a scientist. As girls progress into late adolescence, a critical period for the formation of science aspirations, they should already have a strong foundation and practical experience in STEM. We see a robust STEM experience that starts in Kindergarten as an essential step in creating a “pipeline” that builds long-lasting ambitions to pursue STEM education and careers.

Our products allow teachers to deliver a high-quality lesson with ease and confidence - key factors in the experience of their students. We pay close attention to the way our teacher-facing products affect students, starting with an intention to fully support the “twice new” teacher. Our products make it easy for the teacher new to teaching and new to STEM to deliver engaging, student-centered lessons on topics the “twice new” teacher may not be familiar with, given the wide world of STEM-related disciplines. 

We begin working with schools through small pilots that allow us to make personal connections with teachers. This has paid dividends in our ability to access teachers’ experiences with and feedback about our products. Interviews, surveys, and visits to active classrooms are instrumental in our work to understand their needs and create products to match. Classroom observation of pilot teachers has already allowed us to improve our products to fit their needs. We have changed the way we develop curriculum to create shorter lessons with more ready-to-use slideshows, videos, and printable resources that require less preparation by the teacher. Pilots have allowed us to better understand the varied use cases for our products in schools so we can design learning experiences and targeted content that fit the variety of teachers that use Robo Wunderkind: classroom teachers, STEM specialists, librarians, enrichment teachers, and special education teachers.

Our team is majority female and led by Anna Iarotska, our CEO. She founded Robo Wunderkind with the vision of helping every child realize their potential. While growing up in post-Soviet Ukraine, Anna was limited from exploring her STEM interests due to her gender and economic circumstances. Majoring in business, Anna came into contact with the world of technology startups later in life through her consulting work. Those experiences made her wonder why she never considered a STEM career for herself despite being academically successful in STEM subjects while in school. It made her question what factors influence the career choices of young girls and ultimately led to her starting Robo Wunderkind. 

As we serve elementary school teachers and students, key members of our team are career educators with deep experience and close connections to these target populations. Matthew Bannon, head of content development on our Product team, is a career educator and curriculum developer. As a STEM teacher, he found himself in the situation that many elementary teachers do, with random tools purchased by the school and no curriculum. Through writing his own curriculum and serving as a mentor to new teachers in his school’s science department, he learned what it takes to write and teach STEM lessons that engage all students. Working with K-5 students over many years, he saw the power of engaging students in STEM starting in Kindergarten. By fifth grade, students develop unique areas of interest in STEM fields and years of facing authentic, real-world STEM problem-solving situations build their self-efficacy and creativity.

Jamie Guidry, another invaluable member of our team, brings eight years of experience in the classroom. She is passionate about innovative and engaging teaching methods. Her expertise in project-based learning and focus on incorporating the latest teaching methods have made her a valuable asset. Jamie has a proven track record of helping teachers improve their craft and excel in their roles.

These team members, along with other content development and educator success professionals, collectively possess extensive experience in teaching, teacher training, and STEM education. Their deep understanding of the challenges and needs of elementary school teachers and students allows us to create impactful products that align with the requirements of modern education.

Past experience is not the only thing that guides our work. Through pilots in schools and districts of varying sizes and student population, we build close relationships with actual teacher and student users of our products to understand their needs and ensure that our product development is guided by experience in real classrooms. Piloting our product helps us access teachers and students through classroom observations, coteaching, interviews, and surveys. Data gathered from these sources reveals what teachers and students want, what works about our products, and what needs improvement. We plan to use the results of student STEM interest surveys to target future content development around the STEM topics, technology, and role models that excite students, girls in particular, in order to create lessons that build on their true interests.

As a B2C company operating in Europe, we have successfully sold over 25,000 units of our modular robotics kit. Following our strategic decision to cater to the US education market in 2022, we secured implementations in four school districts in North Carolina, serving 11,000 students. It is worth noting that 70% of schools in North Carolina where our solution is implemented are Title I schools. This decision allows us to significantly impact students who may not have the opportunity to access a tool like ours from their background at home. In total, our solution has already reached over 300,000 children.

At Robo Wunderkind, the spirit of MIT embodies our core values of hands-on learning, exploration, and the pursuit of technology that betters our world. We are thrilled at the opportunity to partner with MIT Solve, an organization renowned for fostering innovation and addressing global challenges. We aspire to leverage this partnership to gain greater exposure to our innovative STEM education solution through the provided networks of partners and experts.

Partnering with MIT Solve would provide us with valuable knowledge and expertise from the MIT network. As we approach a crucial period of growth for our company, access to targeted business support and coaching resources will enable us to refine our business model and optimize our operations, positioning us for effective scaling and wider impact. Our next steps in product development include creating tools to evaluate student progress in learning computer science and efforts to assess how long-lasting attitudes toward STEM fields and careers are nurtured and sustained as children grow. Access to experts in assessment and program evaluation from across MIT’s networks will be invaluable as we undertake these efforts. We know that this partnership will support us as we work to extend our reach, develop key products to make a deeper impact, and inspire more K-5 students, particularly young girls and those in underserved communities, to pursue education and careers in STEM.

Starting a robotics company as a female founder gave Anna first-hand experience with tech’s predominantly white male culture and drove her interest in opening up the worlds of technology and engineering to diverse talents, backgrounds, and perspectives.

While growing up in Ukraine in the 1990s, Anna discovered that the only after school computer science program available to her was run as a “boys club” where girls were not welcome. As the child of a single mother in a country in the midst of unstable economic conditions due to the transitioning economy, Anna did not have the opportunities to pursue her interests in computer science and STEM. These experiences ultimately helped her realize a desire to found a company with a vision of helping every child realize their potential. Through Robo Wunderkind, she is excited to give a new generation of children equitable access to computer science and STEM education that will prepare them for the jobs of the future.

In the early stages of her Robo Wunderkind journey, Anna spent an extended period of time in Silicon Valley developing the concept and building community while preparing a crowdfunding campaign. The Robo Wunderkind Kickstarter campaign launched on the stage of TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco and raised 250,000 USD, with the majority of backers coming from the US. Schools that tested our first prototypes and were featured in our Kickstarter video were located in Berkeley, California. We launched a subscription based solution for US schools in mid-2022 and, within a year, grew our user base of students in schools using Robo Wunderkind to over 11,000. Since launching our US efforts, Anna has been dividing her time between Austria and the US. From Fall 2023 onwards, Anna and her family will be residing in the Washington, DC area to oversee school district implementations and continue building the profile of Robo Wunderkind.

We heard about the Gender Equity in STEM Challenge through our CEO's involvement in an edtech network for women called DOLS. As a female-founded company, our CEO actively seeks out and participates in networks that support and promote women in STEM and edtech. 

The modularity of our robotics kit allows students to express their own interests through engineering and coding and gives teachers the flexibility to adapt the kit to any learning situation. A wheeled Robo is never just a car; it is something unique and personal to the student building it. For teachers, a wheeled Robo can become a spaceship carrying passengers along a number line in a math lesson or decorated as the character of a book that students code to aid in their retelling of the story. The flexibility and creativity made possible through modularity, along with the purposefully playful and gender-neutral design of the kit are key innovations in this space, but not the only significant ways in which our product differentiates itself from our competitors and establishes a new way to integrate STEM.  

In the educational coding and robotics space, companies that offer one-piece robots with no modularity have a limited impact on classroom learning beyond coding. Other robotics kits with a building element have many small pieces and complex builds, making them a poor fit for young students and classroom time constraints. Additionally, screenless robotics kits aimed at young students offer an attractive simplicity but the limit of what can be learned through these products is reached quickly, often within a single grade level.

Our combination of product and business model could spur changes in the edtech space. Schools are often left behind by the rapid pace of advancement in technology, both in school-focused tech and more broadly. Because of this, teachers are rarely trained to use new tech tools and can feel hesitant about integrating STEM topics they are unfamiliar with into their classroom. Fixing issues of equity in STEM education is central to our mission, so rather than making a sale and moving on, we feel a responsibility to help remove systemic barriers to meaningfully change the experience of teachers and students. To do this, we offer a subscription model that builds partnerships and provides increasing value for our customers year-over-year by:

• Training and coaching teachers beyond a one-time orientation so they can successfully teach with our products, improve their STEM instruction capacity, and integrate STEM throughout the curriculum.

• Collaborating with administrators to find the use case for our products that fits their goals, then make plans to help them expand initiatives and build capacity to create sustainable STEM ecosystems.

• Continuously upgrading and adding emerging technologies to our products. Subscribers receive updated versions of our products on a regular schedule and can swap out broken pieces as needed so our product always works. Schools consider Robo as an investment with the lifespan to match their students’ K-5 careers and as a learning tool flexible enough to engage and teach both Kindergartners and Fifth Graders. We are planning new modules for our robotics kit that utilize the latest technology to offer more dynamic and customizable robots, along with regular updates and new features in our coding app to maintain an up-to-date and customized STEM experience.

Short-term (1 year) impact goals 

Our objective is for all young learners, but especially girls and those living in low-income communities, to change from receiving less than an hour of STEM instruction a month to engaging in an hour or more of student-centered STEM instruction biweekly by addressing in-school obstacles that make STEM instruction a challenge to deliver.

Our objective is for all young learners, but especially girls and those living in low-income communities, to change from having little awareness of STEM fields and careers to seeing themselves as life-long practitioners of STEM by increasing access to local role models and meaningful STEM experiences rooted in solving real-world problems.

Our objective is for all young learners, but especially girls and those living in low-income communities, to change from receiving no practical, hands-on, and student-centered instruction in coding and problem solving to meeting annual standardized development benchmarks in these areas by developing quality instructional resources and delivering targeted professional development and coaching to teachers building their skills in STEM instruction.

Long-term (5 years) impact goals

Our objective is for all young learners, but especially girls and those living in low-income communities, to demonstrate increased interest in and identification with STEM topics and careers over the course of their elementary and middle school years by supporting their schools to create cohesive K-5 STEM programs that consistently engage and educate students.

Our objective is for all young learners, but especially girls and those living in low-income communities, to demonstrate growth in their math and science standardized test scores over the course of their elementary and middle school years by supporting their schools to create cohesive K-5 STEM programs that consistently engage and educate students.

We track our impact through the following metrics.

Students reached. We are in the process of rolling out our program for 11,000 students, with 70% in Title I schools. Over the next 12 months, we expect to grow to 30,000 students served, continuing to keep the level of Title 1 students at 70% of the total user number. In the long term, we expect to continually increase the proportion of students in Title I schools served to at least 80% of our total and reach 100,000 students by the end of 2024. We prioritize working with Title I schools where possible as part of our mission to ensure equitable access to high-quality STEM education for low-income and minority groups.

Hours of STEM instruction in schools. When starting with a district or school implementation, we survey staff to find the number of hours an average elementary student received in STEM instruction in the prior year. We survey schools again at the end of the school year to see how our program has impacted the amount of STEM instruction students receive. As we develop our online learning platform, we will be using analytics to gather a more comprehensive picture of what types of lessons and activities are used the most and how much time is spent on them.

Coding and problem solving proficiency. We are developing our online learning platform’s functionality in order to administer coding and problem solving progress monitoring assessments directly to students. We plan to implement these at the beginning, middle, and end of each school year to gather data on student proficiency and growth in core skills.

Student interest in STEM and self-efficacy. As students progress through content on our online learning platform, we will collect data on students’ interest in STEM and their feelings of self-efficacy. We expect to see students report an increased interest in and enjoyment of STEM topics, as well as improved attitudes regarding their own ability to persevere and solve problems independently when engaged in leveled robotics, coding, and debugging challenges.

Teacher confidence in their ability to use our products and their beliefs and attitudes around STEM instruction. Teacher confidence in their ability to use our products and their attitudes toward STEM are key metrics in understanding the extent to which our products and training are making a difference and increasing capacity in schools. We plan to survey teachers at the beginning of the school year to establish baseline levels of confidence and attitudes, then survey them at the end of the year to look for growth in these areas and solicit feedback on our products.

We expect our solution to help build gender equity in STEM. Our robotics kit, software products, and theory of change are informed by research touching on robotics, STEM, student engagement, and gender. At our core, we aim to provide a holistic solution to districts and schools that address systemic barriers to high-quality STEM education for children to address an unmet need for elementary school-focused pipeline programs for STEM disciplines. This study found that “exposure to meaningful science experiences in early childhood can nurture positive attitudes toward E-STEM and E-STEM professions that last into adulthood. Since many female and underrepresented minority students lose a sense of ‘science identity’ in early adolescence, providing opportunities for positive experiences in science before students reach middle school, through elementary-level pipeline programs for example, is one entry point for promoting equity in E-STEM.” Another study showed that “children’s attitudes toward STEM were significantly improved [by instruction in robotics]”.

Our theory of change has three input features:

• An innovative robotics and coding solution introduced to students as early as Kindergarten

• Student-centered and cross-curricular lesson plans, projects, and challenges

• In-app assessments and surveys

In a school that uses Robo Wunderkind, students will:

• Build and code custom robots

• Engage in creative problem solving challenges grounded in real-world STEM problems and scenarios

• Receive consistent instruction and exposure to STEM topics, careers, and role models over their elementary school years

• Rate their interest in STEM topics and careers

These activities generate data such as:

• Hours of STEM instruction received

• Students’ proficiency in engineering design thinking, as rated by a standardized rubric

• Growth in developmentally-appropriate robotics and computer science skills, as rated by in-app assessment

• Proficiency data on coding and problem solving skills, as rated by in-app assessment

• Students’ STEM topic and career interest, as rated by in-app survey

We plan to use this data to evaluate short-term outcomes such as:

• Students engaging in an hour or more of student-centered STEM instruction on a biweekly basis

• Student growth in coding and problem solving proficiency

• Increased student interest in STEM topics and careers, with a focus on growth in girls identifying themselves as life-long practitioners of STEM

We will evaluate outcomes in the long-term such as:

• Increased interest in and identification with STEM topics and careers in girls over the course of their elementary and middle school experience

• Higher math and science scores (on available standardized tests) for girls whose schools used Robo Wunderkind when compared to others

Robo Wunderkind’s hardware, mobile app, and STEAM Hub are a complex system of electromechanics, bare metal firmware, modern application software, and enterprise content delivery software. Together, the product offering is unparalleled in the K-5 educational market.

Our hardware, at its core, is a dynamic I2C communication bus to facilitate the construction and programming of any device or robot with the ability to connect to external devices via Bluetooth and/or wifi. The modular robotics kit’s main system block provides power and data to all the other modules and the wireless connection to the app with the help of an ESP32 microcontroller programmed using C and freeRTOS. FreeRTOS is a real-time operating system for constrained systems like 32-bit microcontrollers that helps run parallel processes. Each of the other modules has its own 8051 microcontrollers programmed in C, which is responsible for receiving commands from the system and carrying out the work specific to its own functionality.

The Robo Wunderkind Mobile app combines 3 programming interfaces: Robo Live, Robo Code, and Robo Blockly. Each interface provides progressively more functionality than the last to encourage users to grow with the product to reach their full potential. Robo Live introduces the user to each of the robotics kit’s modules by providing real-time controls for them to actuate or sense the blocks. Robo Code introduces the users to programming via a simple drag-and-drop interface that forms a state machine. The actions, such as lights blinking or motors driving, occur within a state, and values from sensor modules can trigger the transition from one state to another. Robo Blockly brings new concepts, such as variables and functions, to the user. This interface uses blocks of code to form a hybrid of visual and syntax programming, making it easier for the user to transition to a fully-fledged programming language such as Python or C++. The Robo Wunderkind app uses the Unity development framework to be compiled on MacOS, iOS, Android, and Windows platforms.

The STEAM Hub centralizes all content relating to Robo Wunderkind and provides access to authorized users through a content delivery network (CDN). The STEAM Hub allows for packaged content based on grade level, subscription type, subject, and much more, thanks to the flexible implementation on the backend of STEAM HUB to manage many aspects of the user and the content. Other core technologies of STEAM Hub include Node.JS, StoryBook, PostgreSQL, Jenkins, and graphQL.

We have a team of nine full-time employees and three part-time staff. Our company is divided into two main teams: Product Development and Growth. The Product Development team, led by CTO John Morley, includes the Hardware, Software, and Learning Design sub-teams. The Hardware team focuses on physical components, while the Software team handles software development. The Learning Design sub-team creates educational content. The Growth team, led by Mathias Kutschera, consists of Marketing and Sales, currently hiring new members, and Customer Success, which currently has one member and plans to hire another in July.

We have been diligently developing our modular robotics kit and establishing our business for a span of seven years. Initially introduced as a Kickstarter product in 2015, we experienced significant success during our B2C phase across Europe and the United States. Recognizing a potential opportunity within the US education market, we strategically pivoted towards a subscription-based business model, concentrating on K-5 STEM education. To facilitate this new direction, a US-based company assumed ownership of all intellectual property associated with our products, and this education-focused venture was officially launched in 2022.

We are proud of Robo Wunderkind’s diversity, even as a small team. Among our team members, six different nationalities and languages are represented. The majority of our team is female, making us unique in the predominantly male fields of tech and robotics. We believe that cultural diversity and the unique experiences of each team member are what contribute to our success.

As an educational organization focused on impacting low-SES and minority student populations, DEI is fundamental to our mission as a company and as individuals. As we grow, we aim to represent the communities we serve and increase the share of BIPOC team members with our next hires by tapping into BIPOC professional communities to spread the word about our vacancies and attract a diverse pool of applicants.

We aim to continue building a diverse and inclusive team and involve all team members in developing and owning the DEI initiatives to create “a collective why" and not rely on staff that fit into a definition of diversity to be the only DEI leaders. As we grow, we plan to incorporate the goals of DEI and anti-racism initiatives into new hire training. Another aspect of DEI in our work is understanding our impact on students. We plan to use an ongoing process of data collection and reflection to analyze how our products impact students from diverse backgrounds. We will create a process to seek out bias and privilege in our educational content. Our educational content is designed with DEI in mind. We prioritize “hidden figures” and modern, diverse practitioners in STEM fields, avoid examples and assumptions about topics rooted in the dominant culture, and use examples representing an array of teacher and student identities. We also strive to make our product accessible to children with different abilities and learning needs. Through continuous product testing, we are making sure that our product is accessible to users with fine motor skill challenges, color blindness, sight impairments, and other needs.

We recognize that our DEI journey as a company and as individuals is ongoing and ever-evolving. We know that there will always be more work to do, more perspectives to consider, and more voices to amplify. But we believe that the endless diversity of humanity is what makes it beautiful, and we are committed to doing our part to create a more equitable and inclusive world.

Our business model is a subscription-based approach that provides STEM education solutions to early elementary grade levels. We recognize that STEM education is a significant challenge in these grade levels and there is a high demand for effective solutions from school districts across the United States.

Our primary customers are school districts, and we partner with them to help establish and grow a robust STEM ecosystem within their educational institutions. We aim to equip these districts with the best hands-on tools specifically designed for K-5 education. By partnering with us, school districts gain access to our comprehensive suite of products and services that cater to their STEM education needs.

Unlike traditional companies in our category that primarily sell hardware and leave the schools to navigate the implementation on their own, we take a proactive approach. We actively partner and nurture our own product ecosystem, continually evolving and improving our offerings to enable our partner school districts to grow alongside the advancing technology landscape.

Our value to our customers lies in our comprehensive support and partnership approach. We understand that our customers require more than hardware; they need ongoing assistance, guidance, and capacity-building initiatives to ensure successful implementation and impactful outcomes. Therefore, we not only provide the necessary tools but also work closely with teachers to build their capacity to deliver effective STEM education. We offer training programs, workshops, and resources to empower educators with the knowledge and skills required to create engaging learning experiences for their students.

Furthermore, we emphasize the importance of evaluation and assessment to measure the effectiveness of our programs. We conduct regular evaluations of the STEM education initiatives in our partner school districts and deliver detailed evaluation reports every year. This feedback enables the districts to gauge the impact of their investment and make informed decisions about their STEM programs moving forward.

Our average deal size is $5000 per school. This amount reflects the value of the comprehensive support and high-end assistance we provide to our partner school districts.

Our primary plan for becoming financially sustainable is to generate revenue through our yearly subscription model. We have already gone through the initial stages of proving the concept of our product and are now in the growth phase. This has allowed us to secure partnerships with more than five school districts in three different states. 

The large scale of implementation in these school districts presents us with the opportunity to close significant deals in the range of six to seven figures. This revenue from our core product offering provides a strong foundation for financial sustainability.

Currently, we are making substantial investments in the software development of our product. This focus on software development serves two key purposes. First, it aims to enhance the intuitiveness of our product, making it easier and more user-friendly for educators and students. This, in turn, will drive higher adoption rates and customer satisfaction.

Second, we are actively developing new features and functionalities on the software side of our product. These new features will enable us to offer individualized subscriptions to our users, providing personalized learning experiences tailored to the unique needs of each student. This expansion into individualized subscriptions opens new revenue streams and allows us to capture a larger market share.

While we are currently investing heavily in software development, our long-term strategy is to ensure that our revenue streams cover our expenses. As we continue to grow and scale, we anticipate that the revenue generated from our yearly subscriptions and individualized offerings will become the primary funding source for our operations. This financial sustainability will enable us to further invest in product improvement, customer support, and market expansion.

In addition to generating revenue through our product, we also plan to raise investment capital. This combination of revenue generation and investment will provide the necessary financial resources to support our growth and expansion plans. We will seek strategic investors who share our vision for transforming education through technology and can provide capital and expertise to help us accelerate our growth trajectory.

By leveraging our proven product concept, securing partnerships with school districts, investing in software development, and establishing a combination of revenue streams and investment capital, we are confident in our ability to achieve financial sustainability by 2025. Our goal is to build a strong and thriving business that continues to provide valuable educational solutions to schools and students while creating long-term value for our stakeholders.

Our plan to achieve financial sustainability has been successful, and we have achieved several milestones that validate our approach. Here are some examples of our achievements.

We secured a significant investment of 1.75 million euros from the European Union's Horizon 2020 program. This investment was specifically obtained to advance the development of our hardware to the next level. The funding has allowed us to conduct extensive research and development, upgrade our hardware components, and enhance the overall functionality and performance of our product. This investment has not only provided us with the necessary resources to improve our offerings but also validated the potential of our technology in the eyes of reputable institutions.

We were selected to participate in the LearnLaunch Program, an accelerator program that provides guidance, mentorship, and access to investors. Joining this program in 2022 has been instrumental in our growth and success. Through LearnLaunch, we have received expert advice and support, gained valuable industry connections, and accessed additional investment opportunities. The program has helped us refine our business strategy, accelerate our product development, and strengthen our overall position in the ed-tech market.

In addition to the investments secured from external sources, we have also successfully attracted further investment from our existing investors. Their continued confidence and support in our business demonstrate the progress we have made and the potential they see in our long-term financial sustainability. These additional investments have provided us with the necessary capital to expand our operations, scale our sales and marketing efforts, and invest in research and development to stay at the forefront of technological advancements.

Since our inception in 2022, we have generated significant annual recurring revenue of 370,000 USD. This revenue has been generated through sales of our yearly subscriptions to various educational institutions. The fact that schools and districts are willing to invest in our product demonstrates its value and the demand for our solutions in the market. This revenue stream not only supports our ongoing operations but also allows us to invest in further product development, customer support, and market expansion.

We recently received a 900,000 USD purchase order for a five-year contract with a school district in North Carolina. This significant contract validates the scalability and sustainability of our business model. It not only provides us with substantial revenue over the long term but also establishes a strong foothold in the North Carolina market, paving the way for further expansion and partnership opportunities.

Overall, the combination of securing substantial investments from prestigious programs and investors, generating significant revenue since our inception, and securing long-term contracts demonstrates the success of our plan to achieve financial sustainability. These achievements highlight the market acceptance of our product, the strength of our business model, and the potential for continued growth and profitability in the ed-tech sector. With these foundations in place, we are confident in our ability to achieve long-term financial stability and make a lasting impact in the education industry.