Israeli educational game creation platform TinyTap has announced that it has closed a $5 million funding round led by Aleph venture capital fund and with the participation of previous investors, including Inimiti, Radiant and ReInvent. Based in Tel Aviv, the company was founded in 2012 by CEO Yogev Shelley and Oren Elbaz and has raised $8 million to date including the latest financing round.
The funding will be used to launch learning plans in Mandarin, Arabic, and Spanish as well as to promote the company's partnership with Oxford University Press to start a learning plan for English language learners.
TinyTap enables educators to create custom material for their classes seamlessly. They may also share their games with other TinyTap users for free or sell their content as part of the Premium subscription in the TinyTap marketplace. Thus, the games become available for learners from all around the world.
TinyTap is not just an educational tool for teachers to use in the classroom. It also provides a second source of income thanks to TinyTap's original "Parents pay Teachers" business model. The revenue from the premium subscriptions is shared with the game creators, the payout based on user engagement. Since 2017, the company has distributed over $100,000 to teachers and plans to triple this amount by the end of 2018.
Shelly said, "TinyTap was created out of my own personal needs. I wanted to help my Dad, who was diagnosed with Dementia, hold on to his memories by turning his family photos into interactive, personalized activities. We quickly realized that TinyTap could offer a personalized learning experience for everyone. As a marketplace, we're cutting out the dependency on a local education system. TinyTap gives parents the tools to teach their kids any subject at home."
Aleph partner Eden Shochat said, "The sharing economy revolution is changing everything we do today, from the way we order a taxi to our travel habits. There is no reason teachers shouldn't benefit from this trend. TinyTap is Aleph's third investment in Educational technology after JoyTunes and Frank. I strongly believe in the democratization of education, enabling everyone to learn everything, everywhere, and at a minimal cost, regardless of the school they attend or whether they can afford a tutor."
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on June 20, 2018
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