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- Personalised learning for children
Today's issue:
1. Stimy AI and Nurture. Personalised learning for children. AI maths tutor ($425K)
2. SIRIUS. Zoom for musicians. Online music school ($4M)
3. Business travel management- where revenue is growing 70% per year and valuation is already over 2 billion Managing travel and travel through one service ($140M)
4. Skincare. A chain of aesthetic skin care clinics ($1.6M)
5. Food and medicine for rubbish. Start making money from your waste ($5.4M)
6. 24/7 tutoring. Free online tutoring and counselling ($4M)
7. Self-optimising product catalogues. AI adjusts content in real time ($5M)
8. Mobile apps that adjust to posture. SDK to increase conversions and engagement based on 200 smartphone signals ($4M)
9. Marketplaces for ‘returns and surplus’ are gaining popularity. Service selling surplus items at a discount ($18M)
10. Find the best moments in video content and make them ‘viral’ or insert adverts. Video Analysis Services ($1M)
+ my Top10 AI tools
1. Stimy AI and Nurture. Personalised learning for children
Maths edtech company Stimy AI has raised a $425K seed investment. Stimy AI aims to help children between the ages of 10 and 18 around the world who are struggling to learn maths.
The app, available in seven languages, uses advanced artificial intelligence to provide personalised learning support to help students with homework and test preparation. The app not only solves complex maths problems, but also teaches through an engaging and personalised approach.
Nurture is another new app designed for children aged 4 to 7 years old that features interactive content and games. The company's mission is to teach children essential life skills such as communication, financial understanding, mindfulness, fitness, nutrition and more through story-based adventures in which children can actively participate. On Wednesday, Nurture announced a preliminary round of $2.8M.
The app also has a dual-screen component that requires parents to download the Nurture TV app on Fire TV or Google TV so kids can interact between the two screens. Kids can use their phone or tablet as a game controller while playing on the TV screen.
What's the trend? Millions of children struggle to learn maths. This problem is particularly pronounced in communities with limited access to education, but affects students around the world. And personalised learning for young children is one of the hottest trends, due to the advent of AI.
More examples.
ConveGenius is an Indian startup that teaches students online core subjects (K-12) using AI and conversational bots to make learning more fun.
Yeti Confetti Kids offers personalised learning for students from pre-school to third grade using generative AI.
Homer is a startup focused on early childhood education through gamification.
How to apply it. Build apps for children of different age groups. For older children, you can help with learning through gamification. For example, retell the plot of classic books or teach stories. And for younger kids, create games that teach basic social skills.
2. SIRIUS. Zoom for musicians
Berlin-based software for musicians SIRIUS has raised $4M in seed funding.
SIRIUS was founded in 2020 by data scientist and piano enthusiast Sebastian Riegelbauer. In collaboration with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra's Talent School, he developed SIRIUS as a SaaS video conferencing tool for musicians. But now it's a full-fledged online music school.
SIRIUS offers students and teachers a flexible and modern way to learn music. Students of all ages and backgrounds can find qualified music teachers for personalised online piano, guitar and singing lessons. The platform matches students with the right teachers. It schedules lessons, provides excellent sound quality in online lessons and offers virtual piano, sheet music, metronome, recordings and access to tuition.
What's the trend? 91% of music teachers are self-employed and suffer from job uncertainty, and students in urban areas face long waits. And the sound quality of online music lessons is very poor, as conventional video conferencing classifies musical tones as background noise. In Russia, almost every second Russian, or 46 per cent, according to VTsIOM, would like his or her children to receive a music education in a particular instrument
More examples.
Trala is an online violin teaching school. The app analyses the sound of the student's violin and gives instant feedback on pitch and rhythm.
Indaband is a platform for musicians to record videos of themselves performing on instruments and collaboratively create compositions with other users.
How to apply this? Build specialised video calling platforms. After all, there is also a large sector of online tutors and psychotherapists who also need certain features that conventional platforms don't have.
3. Business travel management- where revenue is growing 70% per year and valuation is already over 2 billion.
Two major rounds (out of the top 3 deals for 2024 in the travel industry) have taken place in recent days in startups in the travel industry and both are related to business travel organisation.
US-based service Engine has raised a record $140m for the industry this year, with the startup's valuation reaching $2.1bn. Engine is a feature-rich service that offers travel booking (connecting business travellers with a network of more than 750,000 hotels, 300 airlines and 40 car rental companies), includes a loyalty system and 24/7 support, and provides the necessary reports and documents on completed trips. It is important to note that according to Crunchbase Engine is profitable and increases its annual revenue by an average of 70%.
Italian service BizAway raised less - $39 million, but it is still a notable amount and the third largest round in the sector. The platform offers a one-click solution for booking and managing travel, saving time and money for businesses.
What's the trend? This investment is indicative of the ongoing recovery of the business travel sector, one of the sectors hardest hit by the COVID pandemic and which has taken longer to recover. Growth is also supported by the spreading post-COVID popularity of hybrid working models, where many companies envisage regular offline meetings in different parts of the world and need services to organise these meetings.
How to use it: create platforms that allow users to plan business trips and team outings, taking into account everything from travel to accommodation and meals.
More examples of business travel services:
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