As it begins its tenure in the Communitech’s Rev accelerator, educational technology company Knowledgehook is preparing to close a $200,000 strategic investment from a major European corporation.

The funding and the entry into Rev are the latest steps forward for the two-year-old Waterloo-based company, which uses technology to help teach children math and make the lessons more effective.

Rev Names Four Startups to Cohort 2

The four founders -- Travis Ratnam, Lambo Jayapalan, James Francis and Arthur Lui – started the company with the goal of producing technology that would make teens want to do math. They perceived that education would be enhanced through gamification because students would want to join in and have fun while learning.

“There is a paradox that as students get older the ability for adults to influence them goes down,” Francis, the company’s Chief Operating Officer, said in an interview. “We actually leverage peer networks and show students what their peers were doing. We wanted to make it very visible and make it the norm. I guess you could call it social mechanics.”

The origins of the company date back a few years when Ratnam and Jayapalan, both of whom have Sri Lankan lineage, began to work together of a range of humanitarian projects. But they wanted to do something bigger, more sustainable.

The son of a math tutor, Ratnam was struck by his own breakthrough in math as a high school student and they began to focus on a project that would help kids enjoy learning math.

“If we could use technology to engage students and use technology to enhance activity among the students, would that improve student outcomes?” asked Francis. “We felt that gamification had a role.”

The quartet set out to try.

They launched the minimum viable product of their first game, called HomeWork, in 2013 and they soon got the attention of the Toronto Catholic Schoolboard.

HomeWork allows teachers to assign studies that students can work on individually. It has built-in gamification and support functions that excite and motivate students to try and move their learning forward.

In September, the company launched a second product, GameShow.It employs the Ontario math curriculum in a game that all students in a class can play on any mobile device, phone or computer. It poses problems for the students, and the combination of fun and competition means students are drawn into the game because their peers are playing it.

It now covers curriculum from Grades 3 to 10.

As well as encouraging students to delve into their math lessons, the system collects and analyses data so the teacher can assess where problems are developing, both with individuals and the group as a whole.

With funding from angel investors, including a $100,000 investment from Boston Scientific Co-Founder John Abele, Knoweldgehook has been able to sell its products to several Ontario school boards. It is now in talks with a further 12 boards.

As it developed, the company entered the Waterloo Accelerator Centre, which nurtures its clients over a period of years. And now it is in the six-month Rev program.

Francis said the company has expansion plans and hopes to move beyond Ontario, but its focus will continue to be math in the near term rather than other subjects.

“As John Abele told us, ‘Get repeat customers before you scale,’” said Francis. “We’ve always taken that approach.”