This Malaysian Edtech Startup is Solving Hard Math Equations With Games Zapzapmath co-founder talks about how their tutoring app is changing the way children think about the subject
By Ritu Marya
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Does your child hate math? Often, we hear students complaining about mathematics and how it is one of the most difficult subjects in school. Thanks to the advent of apps, learning the subject has become fun and easy.
Founded by Wei Chong, Max Teh and Adam Goh in 2015, Zapzapmath is helping children solve math problems, from kindergarten to Grade 6, through skill games. The Malaysia-based company is now on a mission to bring new games to make math more fun and engaging.
In an interview at RISE Conference in Hong Kong last month, Hong Kong-based Teh talked about how their tutoring app is changing the way children think about math.
"The education system is very challenging and the majority of children face anxiety and fear. They don't want to do homework especially practicing math. Also, the math standards have been declining in the world, particularly in the west because kids have got other options. After discussing all these factors, we came to a conclusion that we want to save the world by bringing kids back to enjoying math. We thought of creating something fun and engaging and we came up with the idea of game-based learning," said Teh.
The Growth Journey of Zapzapmath
Within a span of three months after launching, Zapzapmath app had tons of downloads from the US. Soon, the company started engaging the US market by talking to teachers and schools.
"It was something that the teachers liked and they gave us a lot of encouragement. They also told us how we can improve. Then we went into hiding for another six months and came up with the full product. From there on we never looked back. From there on our numbers, downloads and users kept climbing," added Teh.
At present, Zapzapmath app has over three million downloads.
The Way Forward
Investors play a really important role in a startup journey. The founders of Zapzapmath are working hard to gain investors' interest that can further help them grow faster. Though the company was privately funded for the first three years of its inception, they are looking for funding this year to expand.
"We recently raised $2 million funding to get where we are now from where we were three and a half years ago. And, now we are now looking to raise the next round of funds to help us deliver the results and hopefully achieve profitability," said Teh.
At present, Zapzapmath has B2B version which involves schools and then there is B2C version which caters to parents.
