Swedish ed-tech company Binogi has opened a mobile app and animated content creation facility at Volta, Halifax's startup hub. The new space will support its e-learning platform. The company is also hiring staff, aiming to raise its three-person Halifax operation to 40 people by early in 2020.

Binogi is recruiting writers, animators, developers and voice actors to help in the creation of their animated content and expand the capabilities of the online platform through their site and mobile applications, it said in a statement.

“This is an exciting expansion of our company that will help us to truly establish ourselves here in Canada. Binogi is now offered in 12 different languages and opening its fifth international operation,” said CEO Linus Gunnarson in the statement.

Gunnarson, who has spent years in the venture capital industry in Sweden, has moved with his family to Halifax to lead the company's operation in Canada. He is joined by another C-level executive The founder Linus Gunnarson and another C level executive Johan Gustaf, who is also immigrating to Halifax with his family. 

Binogi is an online tool that allows students to study and learn in their language of choice. The platform provides curriculum based, localised, animated lessons along with interactive quizzes, diagnostics and analytics.

Binogi allows students to develop their knowledge in the subject matter simultaneously with their language skills, the company said. It has been proven effective for both native speakers and second language learners.

“Halifax stood out as being able to offer a culturally diverse and highly educated workforce, which is paramount to create global content," said Binogi Director of Production Johan Grafstrom. 

Late last year, Binogi signed a partnership with educational group First Mobile Education of Fredericton.

In a statement at the time, the companies said the partnership would create a multi-linguistic, multi-year educational curriculum delivered via 2D animated digital video, to be offered across Canada and world-wide.

The partnership aims to assist immigrants and support agencies, both in Atlantic and Central Canada through the use of smart technologies such as interactive video and AI to improve the social inclusion of refugees.

Binogi was started in 2011 by two students and a serial entrepreneur/investor who aimed to make school curricula more engaging by putting the lessons on film.  

By 2015, Binogi had produced 1,000 video lessons and written 16,000 quiz questions. Sweden has given refuge to many Syrian refugees and Binogi has worked to put the whole secondary school curriculum on film and dub it into Arabic.

Binogi has also partnered with the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Ontario to continue to validate the platform’s content and methodology.