As part of its ongoing series of pitch events jointly organised with LaunchVic, Startup Victoria last week hosted the latest edition of its EdTech Pitch Night. Facilitated by General Assembly, Weploy, Marketing Entourage and VUInnovations, a quick audience survey at the start of the evening revealed that for 50% of attendees, this was their first Startup Vic event.

The panel of expert judges was drawn from Impact Generation Partners, Xplor, MAP and Education Changemakers.

The pitches in order of appearance were (websites links embedded in the names):

Studychatr

Tag line: “Improving student experience and graduate recruitment”

Many students report that they feel isolated, confused, and lack both a sense of community and a clear career direction. On the latter point, traditional recruitment firms and employers want to target emerging graduate talent, which can be expensive. Studychatr wants to make the hiring process easier for both employers and students.
Users gain access to a knowledge hub, through which students can earn Kudos points and StudyCoins for helping other students, and acquire micro-credentialing credits for their course work.

The service is free to students, whereas recruiters and employers need to pay via job ads, advertising, talent search, and student consultancy (essentially a Sideracket/Upwork/Freelancer/Airtasker-type service that enables companies to commission students to undertake research and other tasks).

With students wary of using existing college-provides LMS and campus portals, and placing less trust and reliance on “free” social media services, Studychatr has managed to strike partnerships with student societies as the key to on-boarding users, with 1,000 user sign-ups in the past 6 months.

Part of the employer/recruiter strategy is help them overcome the challenge of filtering candidates.

The judges were keen to know more about what the app measures – e.g., number of user posts, level of engagement, quality of study materials, depth of the collaboration – and how the AI model works in this context, and to what degree the platform moderates content, collaboration and communication. They also commented that the founding team and their advisors could probably benefit from some further diversity

InquiBox

Tag line: “Experiential learning through play”

How do parents access STEM tools? For InquiBox, the answer is a subscription service to curated educational activity boxes, plus a web platform. Costing A$29.95 per month, and launched in December 2018, the business is experiencing MoM active subscriber growth of 47%.

The judges wondered whether the content comprised unique materials or a compilation of preexisting components, what was in the online content, and what % of the items were Australian made? They also asked if there were any teachers on advisory board, and whether the STEM themes are integrated, given that the core subjects are taught as separate disciplines.

Based on subscriber feedback and the churn rate, some parents felt that the product was too early in their child’s education, or the boxes were too frequent, so there is an option to skip a month and to only select the topics of specific relevance. In future, there may be on option to track a child’s progress via the web application.

Sales have largely come from word of mouth referrals, but the team are planning to forge partnerships with schools, and link content to the curriculum, and develop engagement with the parent community.

RocketShoes

Tag line: “A next-generation education platform”

The founder pitched this as “an education platform where students own their own content”. Using a combination of Blockchain technologies (primarily IPFS for file storage, and NEM for assignment submission and time stamping) students can upload and manage their own content, and retain ownership of their data (unlike other open-source tools, some proprietary LMS and most social media platforms).

The judges asked who is responsible for moderating the content. While it can vary by jurisdiction, the obligation can largely lies with parents and education institutions, although in some cases it may be the students themselves.

The judges were also keen to understand the revenue model – in essence the schools pay, but if content proves to be more popular as measured by IPFS usage, the fees can be reduced. While something of a personal mission for the founder (hence the lack of detail on the commercials), a sensible decision has been made to adopt an API approach, whereby RocketShoes can plug into an existing LMS, and bridge different applications and platforms.

TALi

Tag line: “Happier kids start here”

This is a game-based cognitive training tool for children with learning difficulties, such as ADHD, ASD etc. It is designed to enable early detection and prevention. The tool has been patented, and uses touch-screen access and gamification to leverage the principles of brain plasticity muscle memory.

Key areas of focus are core cognitive functions of Selection, Inhibition, Focus and Control. The process is designed to be both repetitive and intensive. The game adapts to the child’s individual level. Claiming to be clinically proven via medical trials (of which TALi owns the research data), the TALi Train application has been classified as a Grade 2 medical device in the USA. Next up are TALi Detect (pre-school) and TALi Maintain (to extend the child’s development levels).

Distribution is via parents, healthcare and other service providers, and schools; it also has NDIS status in Australia. The tool is designed to be used 25 minutes per day for 5 weeks and can be implemented direct in schools, or in the home (under parents supervision). The key age group is 3-8 years old, before children with relevant learning difficulties are typically prescribed medication such as Methylphenidate (Ritalin).

After the votes were in, and once the judges had deliberated, the people’s choice was TALi, while the overall winner was InquiBox.

P.S. Startup Vic and Victoria University Innovations departments have joined forces on “Found”, a survey-based research project designed to “uncover hidden truths of the founder experience”, the results of which should influence the overall eco-system. Interested founders can apply to participate here: www.found-ed.com.

Next week: Pre-election Musings