March 3, 2021

Boddle Learning Selected for Google for Startups Founders Academy

Boddle Learning has been selected to join the second cohort of the Google for Startups Founders Academy, a nationwide 6 month, equity free program designed to help promising founders and their startups grow revenues and obtain access to capital. 

The Founders Academy will begin on March 3, 2021 and consist of hands-on workshops across a range of topics including customer acquisition, hiring, and fundraising. Boddle Learning, a gamified education platform, is one of only 50 high potential startups that the Google for Startups team has selected for the first nationwide cohort. The founders Academy model was piloted in Atlanta last year with 45 Georgia based companies.

“As an edtech startup, we believe in leveraging the power of technology to accomplish goals in a transformative way that will positively impact communities in need on a larger scope. We have seen first-hand how our platform benefits students and teachers, especially during remote learning, by creating an engaging environment for personalized and interactive learning. To have a major player in the tech scene, such as Google, believe in our mission and impact is a great privilege” says Edna Martinson, Co-Founder of Boddle Learning. “This support from Google for Startups comes at a critical time as we ramp up our production of new features and tools that would further support students and teachers in coping with today’s education needs and expand our resources to even more communities.”

“85 percent of participants from Google for Startups Founders Academy that we ran in Georgia reported that the program helped grow their startup, whether that be through job creation, fresh pathways to capital, new strategic partnerships, or increased brand and marketing exposure,” says Jewel Burks Solomon, Head of Google for Startups US. “By expanding the program nationally, we’re hopeful that we can continue to level the playing field for underrepresented founders and their startups, like Boddle Learning by connecting them to the best Google has to offer.”

Using a gamified assessment approach, Boddle is creating a virtual environment that allows for effective remote learning and enjoyable immersion for young children to master math skills. Additionally, Boddle’s unique AI operates on an adaptive algorithm that easily identifies each student’s individual learning gaps before adjusting assessment questions to target the skills that need reinforcement and are necessary to advance. Boddle also has another positive message for students. Students’ game characters have unique bottle-heads that fill up as they learn, which was designed to encourage them to fill up on knowledge, as well as to value themselves and others for what they see on the inside. When these bottle-heads are all filled up, they pour back out to water plants and trees in the game, which lets students know that they have the ability and power to change their environment for the better.