EdTech Presence at CIIE 2023

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At the ninth International Conference on Educational Innovation (CIIE), the IFE EdTech Summit was held, an event for the EdTech ecosystem of Latin America. The Institute for the Future of Education at Tecnologico de Monterrey, in collaboration with Edlatam Alliance, provided a space to generate new valuable connections among entrepreneurs, investors, and decision-makers in educational institutions.

During the summit, relevant content about the educational technology industry and entrepreneurship was shared through lectures, panels, and a workshop given by HolonIQ. Guests also had the opportunity to interact with more than 20 startup entrepreneurs and do networking in the EdTech Park. The event included the finals of the TPrize Challenge and GESAwards, and the Demo Day of the IFE Launch initiative.

Winners of the TPrize Challenge 2022

TPrize is an open innovation initiative of the Institute for the Future of Education that invites startups to offer solutions to educational challenges in Latin America and the Caribbean. The winners receive up to $15,000 US and enter a stage of accompaniment, where they receive mentoring and national and international recognition.

In this edition, with 120 applications from 17 countries, the call focused on solving the following challenge: How can young people acquire skills and create personal and professional development plans to access better opportunities and actively participate in transforming their environments?

Each of the 10 finalists of the TPrize 2022 Challenge presented their initiative during the CIIE. Subsequently, the winning ventures were selected by the jury consisting of Elena Ortiz, senior education specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank; Félix López, Director of SEK Lab EdTech Accelerator; Cristina Nolasco, an expert in strategic linkages; Jordi Castells, Director of EduTECH Emprende at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC); Enzo Cavalie, an associate at Reach Capital; Agustín Porres, Regional Director for Latin America at the Varkey Foundation; Daniel Uribe, Director at VélezReyes+; Brenda Villegas, child and youth leader at Ashoka; and Ana María Aristizabal, managing partner of Winnipeg Ventures.

The five winning solutions of the TPrize 2022 Challenge were: 

• Swarmob | Felipe Prado (Chile)
• Skalo | Luisa Velez (Colombia)
• Wonderly | Leandro Finol (Venezuela)
• Kimple | María Alejandra Herrera (Argentina)
• 1Mentor | Esteban Veintimilla (Ecuador)

To learn more about the projects, click here.

GESAwards Global Winners

Global EdTech Startups Awards (GESAwards) is the world’s largest EdTech competition and community. The initiative is responsible for building educational technology ecosystems and boosting investment flows into educational technology alternative markets. This year, in the competition organized by MindCET, there were 23 solution proposals from 7,000 startups in 134 countries.

To create meaningful alliances and commercial opportunities, the International Conference on Educational Innovation (CIIE) hosted the global finals of the competition for the first time. During the event, the jury (comprised of investors, companies, unicorns, and industry leaders) chose the best startups in educational technology of 2022 based on their products, innovation, scalability, and social impact.

The competition awarded five categories: Best EdTech Solution, Emerging Markets, Innovation, Social Impact, and the People’s Choice Award (with public input).

The GESAwards 2022 winners were:

Best EdTech – Noodle Factory

With an AI assistant, students and educators in Singapore use mentoring programs.

Emerging Markets – InspireLearn

The innovation helps deliver lessons on mobile devices to children in villages in Malawi.

Innovation – Arcana Instruments 

The construction of a unique instrument where people with mobility problems can play music.

Social Impact – {Parças} Developers School

It allows prisoners in Brazil to learn to code and work in information technology.

People’s Choice – Storybook

It helps parents put their children to sleep using stories, music, and children’s massages, among others.

To learn more and see the map of the finalists and winners, click here.

IFE Launch: Each startup makes its pitch

IFE Launch is an educational entrepreneurship accelerator in Latin America. The program seeks to accompany early-stage startups focused on higher education and lifelong learning. Participants receive financial support, advice from experts, and networking connections to areas of Tecnologico de Monterrey, the ultimate goal being that the ventures will raise investment funds and continue to grow.

This year, after the training topics, the program culminated with presenting the progress reports in front of investors and people interested in educational technology. During the Demo Day, the six selected startups and other Latin American country guests participating in other Institute for the Future of Education programs issued a 3-minute pitch about their solution proposals.

A panel of experts provided feedback before each participant. The panel consisted of José García, Managing Partner at Winnipeg Ventures; Salomón Amkie, Director of Institutional Relations at Santander Universities; Mario García, Managing Partner of Angel Hub; Cristina Nolasco, an expert in strategic alliances; and Adam Freed, Partner at GSV Ventures.

The startups that demonstrated their ventures were:

Ŏzaru – Guillermo Garza, General Director

With data literacy as a focus of his service, Ŏzaru developed Yoriki, a real-time data coach. With this tool, one can ask questions about any technology through a chat and receive advice daily via WhatsApp.

Musa – Mónica Ramos, Co-Founder

Musa is a micro-learning solution on WhatsApp that offers metrics to companies and allows them to manage learning. The training is conducted in chat, and users can access a chatbot to help them complete their courses. 

Skills.tech – Ricardo Cevada, Co-Founder

Skills.tech is a live, online digital academy in data science, analytics, and data engineering. The seven-month learning experience using technical and soft skills is accredited by the Ministry of Public Education, which improves employability.

WeAreSix – Sebastian Marambio, Executive Director

The mobile application WeAreSix makes online learning social. Students who take the online courses can connect with their peers and feel the human connection of face-to-face experiences. The self-administered classes or groups improve teaching and student retention.

Nimbi – Juan Pablo Courbis, Executive Director

Nimbi is a student success management platform. Its methodology identifies students with some academic or financial risk and provides actionable data to all those linked to the student’s support ecosystem to improve their experience. The tool also offers student accompaniment and predictive models of education.

Scintia – Ricardo Chávez, Co-Founder

An educational platform that facilitates teaching, research, and innovation in biotechnology and synthetic biology, Scintia provides materials, laboratory equipment, and an online platform for educational institutions to train new generations of scientists.

ADA Intelligence – Josué Montero, Co-Founder (GESAwards finalist)

A team of psychologists, researchers, and specialists in EdTech, human talent, software development, and data science built an artificial intelligence model that helps people improve social-emotional skills. The ADA Intelligence platform measures data through tests about cooperation, work, self-esteem, and bullying in schools.

Annie Advisor – Miska Noponen, Executive Director (GESAwards finalist)

Using a chatbot, Annie Advisor identifies and helps resolve individual student needs during critical transition points in their educational path. With the solution, students can ask for help more efficiently and quickly.

Storybook – Andrés Arevalo, Executive Director (GESAwards finalist)

This solution for parents and children combines storytelling before bedtime with music and relaxation techniques (meditation and infant massage). With Storybook, adults can share more quality time with their children while improving their emotional and sleep health, elements that technology cannot replace.

To learn more about what happened in this edition of the International Conference on Educational Innovation (CIIE), click on this link. Enter each initiative’s webpage and be on the lookout for the launch of the calls to participate in the GESAwards, TPrize, and IFE Launch. What was your favorite winning solution this year?

Translation by Daniel Wetta

This article from Observatory of the Institute for the Future of Education may be shared under the terms of the license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0