Excuela, a mobile education system for base-of-pyramid workers, receives $400K from BID, targeting broader reach and improved workplace productivity.

While the digital education market has expanded, offering a plethora of resources like MOOCs and microlearning platforms for ‘office workers,’ Excuela identified a gap for frontline workers, who represent a significant portion of the global workforce. The startup’s mobile education system is tailored for low-bandwidth, basic smartphones, prioritizing interactive, error-based learning to ensure active cognitive engagement. The app combines short, Duolingo-style animations with a question-driven learning approach, contextualized to each organization’s specifics.

Excuela’s courses are developed by a team of educators, sociologists, and content creators, translating complex subjects into accessible content and ensuring that courses are relevant and practical. The platform boasts impressive completion rates, slightly over 86%, compared to the high abandonment rates of traditional learning methods.

With the recent funding, Excuela plans to triple its billing in 2024 and further its relationship with AI to create behavior-based courses. Commercially, the startup aims to penetrate markets like Mexico, Colombia, and Spain, where it recently won the Spain LatAm Scale Up Program. The integration with BID’s blockchain network will enable Excuela to issue immutable certificates, enhancing job prospects for base-of-the-pyramid workers.

Excuela’s journey reflects a profound understanding of the educational needs of the workforce majority, aligning technological innovation with practical, impactful learning. As it strides towards becoming the “Duolingo of productivity,” Excuela is setting a new standard for workplace learning, focusing on inclusivity, engagement, and tangible improvements in productivity.