Innovamat, a Barcelona-based startup seeking to transform mathematics education, has secured $21 million in Series A funding. The funding round included edtech giant Reach Capital, Kibo Ventures, Bonsai Partners, Axon Partners, 10x (also backer of Udemy), and Dozen Investments. Innovamat plans to utilize the funds to further develop its engaging and interactive math learning materials designed for kindergarten to Grade 12 students.
Founded in 2017, Innovamat initially launched in Spain before expanding to Italy and several Latin American countries, including Mexico, Colombia, Chile, Ecuador, Brazil, and Peru. The company now counts over 15,000 teachers from 2,000 schools, teaching 350,000 students using its unique tools. Recently, Innovamat started K-5 pilots in New Jersey, USA.
By reimagining the way math is taught right from kindergarten, Innovamat aims to address global struggles with math skills (as revealed by ongoing research from OECD). Their approach involves designing guides for teachers and replacing conventional textbooks with interactive learning materials based on a new kind of curriculum. The ultimate goal is to help students thrive and work in today's ever-changing economy and society, while also gaining valuable reasoning and knowledge acquisition skills through effective math learning.
Innovamat's team consists of two academics, Cecilia Calvo and Laura Morera, using guidelines from institutions like the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM), Freudenthal Institute from Utrecht University, the NRICH Project from Cambridge University, and the OECD's PISA Framework, as well as 40 teachers and 11 PhDs with expertise in math didactics. Most team members continue to work in schools, teaching math alongside their role at Innovamat. Their curriculum is then tailored to individual countries' and school districts' requirements, as set by public education departments.
Instead of solely focusing on e-learning, Innovamat centers on aiding teachers in devising, distributing, and teaching content both in the classroom and online. Problem solving plays a significant role in the approach from the outset, as it often requires students to connect numerical methods with verbal descriptions and demands more conceptual leaps.
Innovamat's innovative method has already produced promising results, with students scoring, on average, 11% higher on standardized tests. Key challenges going forward include maintaining these gains, persuading large numbers of schools to adopt their systems, and assessing whether the company can deliver its ambitious solutions using alternative methods.
Esteban Sosnik, general partner of Reach Capital, mentioned the critical need for a more effective approach to mathematics education. He stated, "There has been a global problem with mathematics education for decades. It often follows a transmissive model that focuses on rote memorization, which is ineffective and generates anxiety for many students."
With the support of Reach Capital, Innovamat aims to offer a more engaging and student-friendly teaching model, based on research and tailored to the needs of the 21st-century learner. Tools such as AppMaster.io's no-code platform are increasingly being utilized in inclusive and interactive education, supporting approaches like the one proposed by Innovamat.
