Riiid, an educational technology startup has secured a Series A investment of US$1.7m (KRW 2b) from DSC Investment, DS Asset Investment, and Shinhan Capital. This successful investment comes as recognition of the potential for Riiid's 'Adaptive Learning' technology for delivering educational contents.
Lee Han Byul, the team leader from DSC Investment commented, "Although 'Adaptive Learning' is a relatively new concept in Korea, it has already proved popular in USA, China and India with rapid market expansions". "Riiid as an edutech startup we are fortunate to work in a market tested field to develop educational data mining technologies".
In May 2015, Riiid released 'Renote' which has been used to analyze more than 320 thousand different data. In October last year the data mining capabilities were combined with machine learning technologies to produce adaptive learning platform named 'Santa'. Through this technology, the company has released a TOEIC practice platform called 'Santa for TOEIC'.
Santa for TOEIC analyzes the status of an individual’s learning to provide visual analytics. The analysis data is processed by the platform to create customised educational content that fits the needs of an individuals learning requirements. The major advantage of machine learning over traditional educational assessments is the consistency in assessment which combines the best of human experience and intuition.
Santa for TOEIC has successfully managed deliver an effective mobile learning platform, a task that has been challenging for other technology startups. Two months prior to launching, a Closed Beta Test (CBT) was conducted where 24% of participants experienced an increase in their results. As a consequence of this success, the TOEIC app experienced an average of 1,000 new users a day through word of mouth and without additional marketing.
Jang Young Jun from Riiid commented, “With this investment we plan to develop TOEIC modules that will better prepare users before examinations”. “Additionally, we will continue research and development of adaptive learning technologies, develop new contents and prepare for expansions globally”,
