Equity4Good, the impact investment vehicle managed by Ship2B and supported by the European Investment Fund (EIF), reinforces its commitment to the edtech sector and joins Smile and Learn with a 100.000 euros investment in a convertible note that, together with half a million already closed from other investors, will convert into a future round expected for the end of the year.
Smile and Learn is a platform that offers personalized education to improve children’s learning skills from 3 to 12 years old through interactive content. It already has more than 5.000 activities in five languages - Spanish, English, French, Italian and Portuguese – and reaches more than 10 million children worldwide, through its platform and YouTube’s open channels, and the collaborations that the company conducts with public televisions.
The company, which has been awarded by the European Commission’s Horizon 2030 program, BETT London and by MIT in Boston, is present in Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, Singapore and most Latin American countries. It is currently seeking to strengthen those markets, while expanding in different Asian countries.
Personalization and attention to diversity
The individualized attention to the needs of each child and the personalization of education allow improving children’s learning skills. The use of technology and interactive contents can be great facilitators, achieving a greater impact in children with a higher risk of school failure (it is estimated that almost 1 in 4 adolescents does not finish compulsory education in Spain) or in children with special educational needs.
Moreover, Smile and Learn supports the inclusion of children with special educational needs, since the platform has been designed by experts and offers them adapted content. The tales, for example, have different levels of difficulty and reading skills, and include pictograms, highly recommended for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), intellectual disability or specific language impairment (SLI).
Initiatives during Covid-19
During the health crisis caused by coronavirus and the need to confine the population and continue classes from home, Smile and Learn wanted to help teachers and parents and made its platform and its activities available on several means, such as podcasts in Spotify, educational videos in Clan and La 2 of Televisión Española, through an agreement with the Ministry of Education, the regional channel of Castilla y León or Canal Once in Mexico and free access for a month for families and schools, among others.