The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) has revealed the eight EdTech initiatives selected to join the 2019-2020 WISE Accelerator programme. WISE is an initiative of Qatar Foundation (QF).
The programme will officially kick off during the WISE 2019 Summit on 20-21 November in Doha. During the summit, representatives of the selected initiatives will take part in workshops, attend master classes, and participate in pitching sessions.
According to WISE CEO Stavros Yiannouka, this year’s cohort is tackling tough challenges in education that range from helping teachers reduce planning time through peer-to-peer support to tackling the global labour shortage in the medical sector by providing scalable and quality content for training workers in the medical field.
The eight initiatives are: Kamkalima, a K-12 school platform that supports the teaching and learning of Arabic language; Teacherly, which aims to create teams of teachers with collaborative lesson planning and peer-to-peer coaching; Botter, a gamified and artificial intelligence (AI)-powered language teaching chatbot; Medics.Academy, which aims to address the needs of global health systems through scalable education; Wiloki, an adaptive platform that leverages artificial intelligence to support parents in teaching their children; OXED, which launched Wumbox, an online and offline adaptive educational platform for children; AskMyClass: an affordable social-emotional learning assistant for teachers; and Livox, an alternative communication software for non-verbal people to communicate and learn.
Teacherly Founder and CEO Atif Mahmood said the decision to actually start a startup is like a roller coaster – you have your ups and downs. But what has helped them remain focused, according to him, is believing that their product is the best.
Aldo de Pape, Founder and CEO of TeachPitch, from the programme’s 2015-2016 cohort and a member of the selection committee, said he learned a great deal from being on the selection committee this year.
I am very grateful for the opportunity to participate in the selection process of the 2019-2020 WISE Accelerator Committee. I take my hat off to all the team that applied. It is my sincere hope that all of them thrive in improving the global state of education. Please do not give up – the world needs people like you.’
For this year’s cohort, WISE and the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH) – another initiative of QF – have partnered to leverage their respective networks and expertise in supporting Medics.Academy, one of the selected ventures, which is at the intersection of EdTech and healthtech.
WISH CEO Sultana Afdhal said they are delighted to be working with WISE this year, to support Medics.Academy.
Within the diverse Qatar Foundation ecosystem, this collaboration presents us with a great opportunity to contribute to current knowledge at the intersection of health and medical education to support and optimise the delivery of health solutions around the world.’
WISE Accelerator supports the development of innovative education technology initiatives with high potential to make a positive impact. The selected initiatives receive support from mentors and WISE partners to scale up their startups, improve their international visibility, and identify potential partners, donors, and investors through networking opportunities organised by WISE. For more information visit wise-qatar.org/wise-accelerator.
