This Hungarian EdTech startup is creating educational apps based on storytelling.
2020 has been the year of EdTech. Educators and students have become more reliant on technology than ever before. With the transition to this learning environment, there is a surge in the number of EdTech companies.
BOOKR Kids, an award-winning EdTech company that aims to present education in a fun and interactive way, is creating educational apps based on storytelling. BOOKR apps encourage young users to read, learn, and connect with the stories. They also build contemporary children’s literature and illustration trends.
A recent study shows that children raised in a literacy-rich environment hear one million more words than children who are never read to
“A recent study shows that children raised in a literacy-rich environment hear one million more words than children who are never read to (Ohio State University). Obviously, those children who hear one million fewer words than their fellows start at a huge disadvantage at school, and it makes it more difficult to pick up reading skills,” says BOOKR Co-founder Dorka Horvath, who is also a new media expert.
BOOKR Class
In 2019, BOOKR Kids launched its flagship product, BOOKR Class, an easy-to-use gamified library app to teach and improve English language skills. The app is designed to teach English as a second language.
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It includes more than 1000 books, educational games, and flashcards. It also provides a Teacher’s Dashboard with real-time reading statistics and book assignments. It includes titles from the classics of world literature to the original stories, songs, and more. It´s an attempt to change the standard way of English lessons with a more engaging approach.
BOOKR Kids focuses on interactive education, while the BOOKR Class app is designed for English as a second language.
The BOOKR USP
BOOKR’s methodology is validated by European Universities (ELTE, SZTE, BCE). It uses techniques like animated e-books for students, interactive learning methods, native narrations, text highlights, and educational games.
Its Teachers Dashboard comes with a virtual classroom, which provides live statistics and supporting materials for teachers, such as lessons plan, activity tips, and reading plans.
Origin Story
Founders, Dorka Horvath, a new media expert, and her entrepreneur husband, Dani Karanyi, believe that literacy must be one of the most crucial development areas in K-12 education. It is essential for reading comprehension, critical thinking, creativity, cognitive and social-emotional skills. They founded the startup in 2015 with a vision of creating a bridge between storybooks and screens.
Dorka Horvath and Dani Karanyi
If a child has a low level of ability to interpret text, both in terms of decoding and understanding the text, he or she usually compensates by using other cognitive processes while reading
“If a child has a low level of ability to interpret text, both in terms of decoding and understanding the text, he or she usually compensates by using other cognitive processes while reading. Thus, if you are unable to use automatic text recognition, you can activate an additional ´knowledge base´, such as calling additional illustrations to help interpret the context. If these illustrations are even moving, they can stimulate additional receptors and be even more effective at supporting the extra resource,” Horvath says.
“Researchers also argue for reading comprehension in interactive books because the range of functions can be so rich that the child can benefit from the most appropriate and least energy-consuming compensation process. So personalization and differentiated education can also be achieved,” she adds.
Growing up with publisher parents and being a young mother-to-be, Horvath wanted the love of reading to inspire her child, just like other children. But the world is changing, and young generations need smart and interactive solutions to read and learn. With BOOKR, she launched an innovative solution to connect beautiful literature and engaging digital books to develop the love for reading among children.
Growth Story
BOOKR Kids is partnered with Oxford University Press. After a year of negotiation, they contracted with Oxford University Press, allowing BOOKR to digitize and redraw a selection of classic stories specially adapted for English learning, such as Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
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BOOKR Class is now recognized as an official textbook in Hungary, with more than 100,000 Hungarian students using the app. BOOKR Kids also has educational partners in Turkey, Greece, South Korea, Singapore, Germany, and the US. BOOKR’s revenue in 2019 was US$500,000, and it is expected to increase to around US$1 million in 2020.
BOOKR Kids recently disclosed €2 million in new funding and a further €2 million in convertible notes. The round is led by Bonitas, a Private VC owned by Sándor Csányi, the only Hungarian member of the Forbes World’s Billionaires list.
