5 4 Agenda Insights and Actions from Entrepreneurs Wave 1 Opening Session Networking Intermission Conversation on Literacy Keynote Insights and Actions from Entrepreneurs Wave 2 Closing Remarks Fireside Chat VIP Reception 3:20 pm 3:00 pm 4:00 pm 4:50 pm 4:45 pm 5:05 pm 5:55 pm 5:40 pm 6:00 pm PEARSON and UNREASONABLE GROUP share a belief that entrepreneurs are well-positioned to come up with the new models and breakthrough technologies needed to close the global literacy gap. This is where Project Literacy Lab comes into focus. Entrepreneurs Tackling Illiteracy: A Look Inside the Project Literacy Lab is a unique opportunity for you to learn about the groundbreaking work of entrepreneurs who are tackling global illiteracy and its root causes. Over the past year, these change-makers have been working all over the globe to improve the well-being of millions and help end illiteracy. Illiteracy is a global crisis that spans all ages and geographies here and abroad, costing the world $1.19 trillion a year. Yet most people hardly give it a second thought. Today, more than 758 million individuals are not able to read this sentence.
Transcript
54
Agenda
Insights and Actions from Entrepreneurs Wave 1
Opening Session
Networking Intermission
Conversation on Literacy
Keynote Insights and Actions from Entrepreneurs Wave 2
Closing RemarksFireside Chat VIP Reception
3:20pm3:00pm 4:00pm
4:50pm4:45pm 5:05pm
5:55pm5:40pm 6:00pm
PEARSON and UNREASONABLE GROUP share a belief that entrepreneurs are well-positioned to come up with the new models and breakthrough technologies needed to close the global literacy gap. This is where Project Literacy Lab comes into focus.
Entrepreneurs Tackling Illiteracy: A Look Inside the Project Literacy Lab is a unique opportunity for you to learn about the groundbreaking work of entrepreneurs who are tackling global illiteracy and its root causes. Over the past year, these change-makers have been working all over the globe to improve the well-being of millions and help end illiteracy.
Illiteracy is a global
crisis that spans all ages and geographies here and abroad, costing the world
$1.19 trillion a year.
Yet most people hardly give it a second thought.
Today, more than 758 million individuals are not able to read this sentence.
76
Project Literacy Lab is the world’s first international partnership, founded by Pearson and Unreasonable Group, focused on supporting rapid growth ventures that are positioned to close the global literacy gap by 2030. Last year, the inaugural Literacy Lab brought together for-profit ventures, headquartered across five continents at a private venue just outside of San Francisco. Over the course of a two-week program, we aligned these entrepreneurs with the resources, mentorship, access to financing, and the global network of support needed to help them scale faster, both internationally and intercontinentally. Over time, this cohort will become an R&D and insights engine into the rest of the world, highlighting patterns around what is and isn’t working in our shared effort to help close the global literacy gap by 2030.
What is Project Literacy Lab?
Project Literacy is a global movement that aims to make significant and sustainable advances in the fight against illiteracy so that all people—regardless of geography, language, race, class, or gender—have the opportunity to fulfill their potential through the power of words. Founded and convened by Pearson, the world’s learning company, Project Literacy brings together a diverse and global cross-section of people and organisations to help unlock the potential of individuals, families and communities everywhere so that by 2030, no child will be born at risk of poor literacy.
What is Project Literacy?
Today, over 758 million people lack basic reading and writing skills. And yet, since 2000, progress on literacy has stalled. In some parts of Sub-Saharan Africa, it has even declined. Something needs to change. With one out of every ten people on this planet locked out of the opportunities that literacy can bring to improve their lives and livelihoods, progress requires all of us to be part of the solution. Pearson convened the global campaign Project Literacy in the belief that now more than ever, tackling illiteracy should be on everyone’s agenda. Additionally, it is only through cross-sector action that we can accelerate progress on sustainable development and put our global community on a path of economic, environmental and social prosperity.
Why Literacy?
Progress to DateThe Project
Literacy Lab 2016
collectively
operates across
30 countries,
reaching a total of
over 10m PEOPLE.
98
SECTOR
Education & Entertainment
COUNTRIES
Tanzania, Kenya,
Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi
Creating engaging
and locally relevant
edutainment for
learners in East
Africa, watched
by over 5 million
children per week.
Ubongo
NISHA LIGONCo-Founder & CEO
Nisha is the co-founder and CEO of Ubongo. She is a Thai-
American entrepreneur with a background in media and science
and a passion for education. She’s also passionate about human-
centred design and has led the development of Ubongo’s multi-
platform learning brands – “Ubongo Kids” and “Akili and Me” –
from first prototypes to multi-country growth. She is hands-on in product development, writing and research, while also
setting big picture strategy. Nisha has produced content for the
BBC, the Guardian, London Science Museum’s online learning
platforms, and an award-winning documentary, Twiga Stars. She
was formerly Content Maestro at the Virtual School, and she has
worked as a consultant on eLearning and media projects for GIZ,
African Managers Initiative, and Save the Children. She has an
MSc. from Imperial College London and a BSc. from Yale University.
Ubongo creates engaging and locally relevant edutainment for learners in Africa. Their multi-platform and fun learning programs “Ubongo Kids” and “Akili and Me” help millions of kids find the fun in learning on whatever technology they have, whether radio, TV, mobile or web. Ubongo’s edutainment TV series and radio programme teach mathematics, science and reading skills to approximately 5 million children in East Africa every week. By leveraging localised media on accessible technology, Ubongo has created an extremely cost-effective and high-reach solution to help close the literacy gap for millions of children at the base of the pyramid in Africa.
UBONGO.CO
1110
SECTOR
Education
COUNTRY
India
Providing the world’s
first gamified app for
teachers to help them
discover better tools
and lesson plans,
reaching over 5,000
teachers in 500 schools.
Guru-G
AMRUTH RAVINDRANATHFounder & CEO
Amruth is the founder and CEO of Guru-G, a teaching innovations
company focused on empowering teachers through the world’s
first gamified platform for teaching. His first startup (Vita Beans) has designed over 100 applications, games and products for
some of the largest education and assessment companies in India
and North America. Amruth is an alumnus of BITS Pilani, a Sauve
Scholar at EdTech Lab of McGill University, and an alumnus of
Unreasonable@Sea. His inventions have won several awards, including a Grand Award and a NASA Award at Intel International
Science & Engineering Fair. He has worked with several startups as well as Fortune 500 companies to help them design and
launch products. He has been featured in media internationally and has had speaking invitations at events in over a dozen
countries, including TEDxMcGill, Serious Games and Social
Connect 2012, Borderless World Conference and GSV Summit.
Guru-G believes teachers matter more than tools when it comes to a child’s learning experience. The company addresses global high-quality teachers by empowering them with a mentor in the form of an app. Guru-G is obsessed with improving the learning experience in schools by making good teaching fun. Their app helps teachers discover how they can use different curriculum-aligned teaching techniques and lesson plans. It also provides evidence-based feedback on what is working well. The app works without internet, has multilingual capabilities and adapts to student moods. Guru-G has reached over 500 schools, and over 5,000 teachers use the app to teach over 120,000 students across India.
GURU-G.COM
1312
SECTOR
Education & Health
COUNTRY
Global
Leading a new era of
artificial intelligence
with empathy, using
technology to predict
human emotion and
behavior in order to
personalise education.
Robbie AI
KAREN MARQUEZCo-Founder
Karen is the co-founder of Robbie AI, a multi-award winning
startup using deep learning to assess, predict and track human
emotion and behaviour with computer vision and wearable
technology. Robbie has a grant from the European Commission’s
Horizon 2020, a program for science, research and innovation. Karen has been awarded an MIT Young Innovator Under 35,
with special mention as social innovator of the year. She’s a
Singularity University Alumnus and was named “Entrepreneur of
the Year” by the Professional Association of Computer Engineers.
She’s also a World Economic Forum Young Leader. Now, in
addition to running Robbie AI, she serves as Global Entrepreneur
in Residence for the University of Massachusetts Boston, a highly
competitive programme to attract international talent to the U.S. -
specifically entrepreneurs with highly innovative global companies.
Robbie AI is assessing and predicting human emotion and behaviour with artificial intelligence. Its computer vision and wearable technology can recognise facial expressions and track measures of the nervous system in real time. This helps to provide personalised education for students by analysing how they interact with content, assessing key variables like motivation, engagement or boredom. Through a video feed of a person’s face, Robbie Vision performs automatic inference of emotional and attentional states from facial expressions, posture, blink rates, and more. According to Robbie AI, we have arrived at a new era of personalisation through the internet of emotional things: the new era of AI with empathy.
ROBBIE.AI
1514
Angaza
SECTOR
Clean Energy
COUNTRIES
20 countries
Making solar products
affordable for millions
of people who live off
the grid, so that even
when it’s dark, they
have the ability to
work, study, and learn.
LESLEY MARINCOLAFounder & CEO
Lesley is the founder and CEO of Angaza. A product designer
(B.S.) and mechanical engineer (M.S.) from Stanford University, Lesley has also worked at Amazon (Lab126) with the Kindle design team, and at Bay Area design consultancy, D2M
Inc. with clients including DirecTV, Genentech, Qualcomm,
and Volkswagen. Lesley received the Santa Clara University
Global Social Benefit Incubator (GSBI) scholarship and was named a 2012 Tech Awards Laureate. She was recognised by
Businessweek as one of “America’s Best Young Entrepreneurs,”
she’s a World Economic Forum Young Global Shaper, she was
named a Forbes “30 Under 30” Entrepreneur, and she’s a 2013
Echoing Green Fellow. Lesley’s vision is to solve the world’s
most widespread problems with market-driven technology
innovation developed using human-centred design.
Over 1 billion people live without access to the electric grid, and they cannot afford solar lighting products. In many emerging markets, access to reliable light at night is a critical step in achieving universal literacy. Angaza’s Pay-As-You-Go solar technology revolutionises access to clean energy by removing the price barrier, enabling off-grid customers to pre-pay for clean energy in small, flexible amounts. Manufacturers and distributors across 20 countries use Angaza to make solar lighting financially accessible. With Angaza, off-grid families take the first step toward a healthy, effective, affordable education for their children.
ANGAZA.COM
1716
SECTOR
Education
COUNTRY
United Kingdom
Using telepractice and
artificial intelligence
to digitise speech and
language therapy for
the 1 in 10 children
with speech, language
and communication
needs globally.
Iris Speaks
ZOE PEDENFounder
Zoe is an award winning, experienced entrepreneur who has
spent the last twenty years building educational software
products for children and adults. She has helped over 100,000
people with learning disabilities across the UK to communicate
with her product MyChoicePad. Now, with Iris Speaks, she
aims to help millions access effective speech and language therapy services. With the powerful combination of Iris Speaks
Experts and AI, she plans to reduce the cost of provision and
increase the impact with more intense, shorter and effective therapy interventions. Zoe has an MBA from Henley Business School and was Elle Magazine’s UK Social Entrepreneur of
the Year in 2016. She is also a trustee for KIDS, a charity for disabled children and their families, and she is chair of
governors for a special school in Tower Hamlets.
Iris Speaks leverages technology to tackle one of the biggest barriers to literacy: speech and language development. Iris Speaks is on a mission to change the way speech and language therapy is delivered, making it more affordable and accessible. By using artificial intelligence and machine learning combined with a human touch, Iris Speaks aims to make therapy interventions more intensive, shorter and impactful. The objective of Iris Speaks is two-fold: 1) reach the one in ten children who enter school with a speech, language and communication need, and 2) help adults who have had a stroke to regain their communication as quickly as possible.
IRISSPEAKS.COM
1918
SECTOR
Health, Food & Agriculture
COUNTRIES
Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania
Nourishing nearly
three million children
every month using
food products fortified
with moringa, so they
can attend and excel
in school across
Sub-Saharan Africa.
Edom Malnutrition is a debilitating issue in Sub-Saharan Africa, contributing to the vicious cycle of poverty-disease-illiteracy. At least 40% of children in rural and suburban areas struggle to attend school because of insufficient or nonexistent meals. Based in Kenya, Edom sources moringa oleifera —one of the most nutritious plants in the world—from local farmers. Using moringa, Edom fortifies staple flours, manufactures food products and sells them at affordable prices for people living on $1-3 a day. Edom helps nourish nearly 3 million children back to health every month, increasing school attendance and performance.
WINSTONE EDWARD ODHIAMBO Founder & CEO
Winstone is the founder and CEO of Edom Nutritional Solutions,
with a focus on developing solutions to address the debilitating
effects of malnutrition, such as loss of economic output and increased spending on health. He has vast experience in managing cost-effective micronutrient interventions, which involve primary health programmes. He has been able to gain in-depth details of the existing integrated micronutrient delivery
systems (supplementation & nutrition programmes), their yearly unit costs per person, and their specific benefit-cost ratio. He is a firm believer in the growing recognition that the status quo is no longer an option, and that malnutrition often falls between the
cracks both in government and development assistance agencies.
His core interest is engaging in poor communities with the goal of long-term social impact, not short-term financial gain.
SunCulture Based in East Africa, SunCulture designs, manufactures, sells, and distributes solar-powered irrigation solutions to improve farmer livelihoods and environmental sustainability. By removing recurring fuel costs, farmers increase annual profits by US $14,000 per acre, conserve up to 80% of water, and increase crop yield by 300%. Over 61% of SunCulture farmers farm in order to increase income and better support their families. Over half specifically mention paying school fees as their motivation. By growing healthy and fresh produce, SunCulture farmers also help to prevent malnutrition, which is associated with hindered childhood education.
SUNCULTURE.COM
SAMIR IBRAHIMCo-Founder & CEO
Samir Ibrahim is the CEO and co-founder of SunCulture,
headquartered in Kenya. SunCulture sells affordable solar-powered irrigation solutions to smallholder
farmers in East Africa. Prior to SunCulture, Samir
studied finance and international business at NYU’s
Undergraduate Stern School of Business and joined
PwC’s Financial Services, Structured Products, and Real
Estate Group. He has spoken about the private sector’s role in development and on financing climate compatible
development to a number of audiences such as the
Vienna Energy Forum, International Parliamentary
Conference, COP21, and the World Energy Congress.
Samir is also recognised as a World Energy Council
Future Energy Leader and a Forbes 30 Under 30.
2322
SECTOR
Education
COUNTRY
United States
Decreasing recidivism
for the 2.25 million
incarcerated adults in
the U.S. by providing
daily access to
educational and
vocational programming
via tablet technology.
Edovo
BRIAN HILLFounder & CEO
Brian is the founder and CEO of Edovo, which seeks to reduce
recidivism, improve correctional operations, and increase
opportunities for inmates and officers through tablet technology. This passion was planted at an early age, as he would listen to
the stories and challenges of inmates from his father who taught
at Folsom Prison. It was rekindled in his first year of a JD/MBA program at Northwestern University when he began work on a
Social Impact Bond initiative for America’s largest single-site jail
in Chicago. This exposure enabled him to formulate the Edovo
platform, which is successfully operating in correctional facilities
across the country and has won first place awards such as Chicago Tech Week 2014, Kellogg Innovation Network, as well as
grants from the MacArthur Foundation and others. He earned a B.S. in Economics and Business from Brigham Young University.
Edovo uses tablets and technology to tactically reduce recidivism by ensuring those affected by incarceration have daily access to educational and rehabilitative programming as well as affordable, unfettered communication with family and support networks. Edovo’s tablet technology provides access to education and self-improvement tools to unlock the potential of every person affected by incarceration. To date, Edovo learners have completed over 20,000 lessons. Over 75% of Edovo users access it weekly, with an average of two lessons completed per day.
EDOVO.COM
2524
SECTOR
Education
COUNTRY
Brazil
Fostering literacy
and reading mastery
with age appropriate,
news-related digital
content for over
30,000 Brazilian
students every week.
Guten
DANIELLE BRANTSFounder & CEO
Danielle Brants is the founder and CEO of Guten, a Brazilian
edtech startup focused on helping students become proficient, engaged readers. Prior to founding Guten in 2014, she was
an associate director at General Electric, responsible for M&A
in Latin America, focusing on the Transportation, Energy
Management and Renewables segments. From 2005 until 2011,
Danielle worked in corporate finance, holding positions as an investment banking analyst at Morgan Stanley and as a senior
associate at G5 Advisors/Evercore Partners. She holds a B.A. in Business Administration from Fundação Getulio Vargas. In 2015,
she was awarded one of the top ten “Innovators under 35” in
Brazil, and Guten was also awarded “Social Innovation of 2015,”
both by the MIT Tech Review. Danielle was also recognised by
the Goldman Sachs Global Leaders Program in 2004 and has
received the Latam Excellence Award by General Electric in 2012.
Guten develops applications and software to foster reading proficiency and engagement for K-12 students across Brazil. By providing news articles in the appropriate language for youth, paired with fun games and tasks to accomplish, Guten News connects children to the world while providing reading achievement data to teachers. Educators also receive weekly lesson plans aimed at addressing students’ needs. Through engaging content, assessment, and computational linguistics, Guten’s solutions allow teachers to personalise interventions and learning pathways according to every single student’s needs. Over 30,000 students use Guten News as part of their weekly school curriculum.
GUTENNEWS.COM.BR
2726
SECTOR
Health
COUNTRIES
Uganda, Kenya, Malawi
Manufacturing
affordable, reusable
sanitary pads
for women and
schoolgirls across
East Africa, with
over 1.4 million
menstrual kits sold.
AFRIpads
SOPHIA GRINVALDSCo-Founder & Co-Director
Sophia Grinvalds is the co-founder and co-director of
AFRIpads. Established in 2010 in Uganda, AFRIpads has
impacted the lives of over 1.4 million girls and women,
while providing employment to over 150 Ugandans. Sophia
is leading the commercial expansion of the company
within East Africa, with a focus on scaling its retail trade
and distribution to reach 1 million customers a year by
2020. Sophia is a graduate of McGill University, holding
a B.A. in Environment & Development. She is passionate
about market-based solutions to development and
human-centred design and is a firm believer that simple
innovations can have a powerful and profound impact on
people’s lives. Sophia has lived in Uganda for nearly 10
years with her husband and one-year-old daughter.
According to UNICEF, one out of ten African schoolgirls skips school or drops out due to a lack of menstrual products. AFRIpads is a local manufacturer and global supplier of reusable sanitary pads for women and girls, providing complete menstrual protection for 12+ months at approximately 30% of the cost of disposable sanitary pads. AFRIpads offers schoolgirls a long-lasting solution of the protection, comfort and dignity to attend school without hesitation or distraction during their monthly periods. With over 1.4 million Menstrual Kits sold, AFRIpads helps hundreds of thousands of women and girls live more hygienic, comfortable and productive lives.
AFRIPADS.COM
2928
SECTOR
Education
COUNTRY
India
Enabling fast language
acquisition with a 100% experiential
curriculum for
over half a million
students across 1,800+
institutions in India.
Karadi Path
C.P. VISWANATH Co-Founder & CEO
Vish is an educator, entrepreneur, musician, co-inventor
and CEO of the unique Karadi Path methodology, which is possibly the world’s only 100% derivative formal language
learning process. The Karadi Path approach has been
proven to be 11 times more impactful than conventional
language teaching processes. Vish specialises in pedagogy
for language acquisition, as well as children’s content, school education, and music. Prior to founding Karadi
Path, Vish spent 13 years as an international business
professional, setting up and running operations in diverse
markets such as the United States, India, Russia, and
South Africa.
The Karadi Path curriculum evolved over 16 years of R&D from the everyday language experience of the most successful multilingual country in the world – India. The methodology enables language acquisition without teaching words or grammar; it is 100% experiential. Karadi Path makes language learning easy, effective and fun at a low-cost, with minimal infrastructure, and even with under-qualified (but dedicated) teachers. Studies have shown that one hour of Karadi Path delivers higher language outcomes than 11 hours of conventional study, and students go from zero to functional proficiency in 96 hours for under $10 USD. The impact has been validated with over half a million students across 1800+ institutions.
KARADIPATH.COM
3130
SECTOR
Education
COUNTRIES
Global
Teaching students
critical thinking skills
for the 21st century
through a web-based,
personalized literacy
platform, reaching
schools across all 50
U.S. states and users
in 130 countries.
ThinkCERCA ThinkCERCA’s personalised literacy platform helps educators teach critical thinking skills through argumentative writing. Through standards-aligned close reading and academic writing lessons for English language arts, science, social studies, and mathematics, its schoolwide approach prepares students aged 9-18 for post-secondary life by building up their analytical skills in every subject. Entire school teams use the platform to challenge and inspire classrooms of diverse learners while closing the gap between basic literacy and 21st-century literacy skills. ThinkCERCA has students and teachers using its platform in all 50 U.S. states and 130 countries. In 2013, ThinkCERCA was the recipient of a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Literacy Courseware Challenge grant.
THINKCERCA.COM
EILEEN MURPHYFounder & CEO
Eileen Murphy Buckley is the founder and CEO of ThinkCERCA, a
web-based literacy platform that helps educators teach critical
thinking. She taught English for 15 years and was the founding English
Department Chair at Walter Payton College Prep as well as the author
of 360 Degrees of Text (NCTE, 2011). As the Director of Curriculum and Instruction for over 100 of Chicago’s highest performing schools,
she became passionate about the role technology could play in
democratising education in the 21st century. In 2012, she developed
ThinkCERCA to help all students achieve career and college readiness.
ThinkCERCA is one of the top Literacy Courseware Challenge winners
(Gates Foundation) and has reached users in 130 countries. Eileen is passionate about unleashing vast untapped human potential by
enabling everyone to consume information, think about it critically,
and express one’s point of view effectively and civilly.
3332
SECTOR
Education & Health
COUNTRIES
Brazil, USA, Peru,
Djibouti, Saudi Arabia
Developing the world’s
first customisable
machine learning app
to unlock learning
opportunities otherwise
unavailable for the
one billion people
with disabilities.
Livox
CARLOS PEREIRAFounder & CEO
Carlos Pereira is the founder and CEO of Livox, a company
focused on creating innovative solutions for people with
disabilities. Carlos is the father of 9-year-old Clara who, due to
a medical mistake during his wife’s labor, has cerebral palsy.
Since his daughter’s birth, Carlos has looked for alternatives to
help her and other people with disabilities in order to create
a more equitable society. Livox is the evolution of alternative communication, adjusting to the user’s disability and enabling
them to do much more than just speaking—all through a
tablet. Livox has already reached 20,000 people with disabilities
in Brazil and is ready for the Spanish and English speaking
markets. The company received a grant from Google.org, and
Carlos was recently awarded as a 2017 Social Entrepreneur of
the Year from the Schwab Foundation.
Livox was founded by a mother and father who wanted to better communicate with their physically handicapped daughter. According to the WHO, people with disabilities comprise the largest minority group on the planet. Livox develops products, services, and training that enable social inclusion for people with disabilities – enabling them to learn how to read, write and communicate. The team of technologists, speech therapists, and occupational therapists developed the first intelligent alternative communication software for tablets. Features include a smart virtual keyboard, an algorithm that dynamically adjusts “incorrect touch,” and adjustments for motor, cognitive, and visual impairments. Livox has over 20,000 users across multiple continents.
LIVOX.COM.BR
3534
We’re the world’s learning company, with 35,000 employees across 70 countries worldwide. Our unique insight and world-class expertise comes from our long history of working closely with teachers, learners, researchers, authors, and thought leaders. Our products and services are used by millions of teachers and learners around the world every day. In everything we do, we aspire to be brave, imaginative, decent and accountable. These values describe what is important to all of us, and guide us to do what is right for the world around us. Pearson founded and convened Project Literacy, a global campaign to make significant and sustainable advances in the fight against illiteracy so that all people—regardless of geography, language, race, class, or gender—have the opportunity to fulfill their potential through the power of words.
What is Pearson?
We scale for-profit businesses solving humanity’s most pressing challenges through a network of global accelerators, a fund, and a media arm. Specifically, we drive resources to and break down barriers for entrepreneurs solving the world’s largest social and environmental issues (such as climate change, the 663 million people in the world without clean water, and the 758 million people who can’t read this sentence).
