Bolton鈥檚 Emile Education, a games-based learning platform used by teachers across the UK, has secured a 拢250,000 funding round from GC Angels and private investors to expand and develop its offering.听听
In 2013, Cyber Coach Smart was set up to deliver online dancing exercises to primary school children, giving them access to world-champion instructors.听听
Picked up by 15 per cent of primary schools across the UK, Cyber Coach Smart was the predecessor for Emile Education, which took this idea and adapted it for core curriculum subjects.听听
A collaboration between game developers and academics from Manchester Metropolitan University under a Knowledge Transfer Partnership funded by Innovate UK led to the development of Emile Education, which was initially focused on a pedagogical approach of 鈥楥ontent Language Integrated Learning鈥� and later expanded to other core subjects, now including maths and English.听听
Emile Education was launched to schools for free at the beginning of the first lockdown in March 2021. As a recommended source by the Department for Education, 5000 teachers signed up to the platform. In the same period, researchers at the University of Manchester found that in 4000 schools which used the platform, pupils experienced a 25 per cent increase in recalling their times tables.听听
Following the investment, Emile Education is seeking to make the platform available to parents at home through the app, 鈥楩un Maths Games with Emile鈥�, enabling them to support their children鈥檚 school learning with extracurricular activity.听听听
The 拢250,000 investment was driven by GC Angels, which invested 拢100,000. In addition to this, Emile Education received 拢150,000 from private angel investors, who were drawn to invest in the Greater Manchester-based business under the Innovator Visa.听听
Glen Jones, managing director at Emile Education, said: 鈥淗ome-schooling during lockdown has taught so many parents how important education is to our children.听听
鈥淲e know that education doesn鈥檛 stop at school, so we are really pleased to receive this investment thanks to GC Angels and the private investors to develop an app that parents can use at home to make extracurricular learning fun.听听
鈥淎t Emile Education, we鈥檙e committed to developing our offering based on extensive research, and we鈥檙e looking forward to working with more experts to expand our offering to cover the broader education curriculum.鈥澨�听
Jess Jackson, head of investment at GC Angels: 鈥淲e鈥檝e worked with Glen and the team at Emile Education for a long time, and this funding round is the result of years of hard work.听听
鈥淕reater Manchester has a host of innovative EdTech start-ups, and we were thrilled to draw investment from overseas to support the region and primary school children across the country.鈥�听