Literacy is fundamental, not only for our personal and social development but also for our ability to participate effectively in society. Our vision at Bookbot is that every child should have the opportunity to develop their reading, writing, and communication skills to lead a happy and successful life. 

The Bookbot app is a virtual reading assistant for children. The app helps young learners improve their literacy with speech recognition technology that listens to them and assists them as they read. 

In Indonesia, Bookbot has been designed to assist children speaking Bahasa Indonesia in a range of regional accents. Bookbot has been designed to work on mobile phones, even when they are offline, reaching communities where access to books and libraries is limited. 

Our reports app is designed to help teachers and families track progress at both an individual and class level. Students can then be rewarded for their achievements with certificates and other incentives. 

Our roadmap is to build other literacy products such as phonemic awareness programs for early childhood learners and writing apps to develop communication skills. We have also made our programs open source so that other innovators can build on our work and help even more children learn how to read. 

During the UNICEF Venture Fund investment period:

The prototype developed includes audio, video, practical quizzes, and class notes for all lessons based on curricula. To date, the company has developed a learning management system and has 12K users (including 10K students and 500 teachers and parents). They have 4,000 active subscriptions. 

During the investment period, the company will build out capabilities for Bahasa. The focus will be on improving the efficiency of collecting data, model training, and development of a Windows application. The company has a partnership with INOVASI and will conduct an efficacy study.  

The funding will be used to create an automated voice data collection and organization pipeline. This will remove adult voices, and splits information into smaller files that can be used in the speech recognition model training system. Our team is training a speech recognition model specifically designed for Indonesian children. We’re also running an efficacy study to monitor improvements in children’s reading and literacy skills using Bookbot.

Bookbot will make the speech recognition model and open-source code available to others so that they can take advantage of the technology. We’re building Bookbot for Windows laptops and Chromebooks, which are also common in Indonesia. In addition, we’re running an integration study with the Ministry of Education to see how Bookbot can work best in classrooms. Our work is funded by the UNICEF Venture Fund and INOVASI, and we are seeking more support from the Ministry to continue our programmes in Indonesia. In this period, proving the efficacy of Bookbot will help us raise further investment. 

The Team

Bookbot currently has a team of 16, brought together by a passion for literacy and giving all children the opportunity to learn to read. Team members are located across Asia, from Viet Nam and Indonesia to Singapore and Australia. Each member is at a different stage of their life, with some as young as 20 and still at university, while others have 20 or more years of experience in the industry. While they come from vastly diverse backgrounds and upbringings, they are united in their commitment to the Bookbot cause.  

Diversity is integral to every startup and Bookbot is no exception. Team members from different backgrounds bring with them their own unique skill sets and knowledge. It’s important to recognize that everyone brings different strengths to the table. These different perspectives promote increased creativity, innovation, problem-solving, and decision-making. In a broader business sense, the benefits include aspects such as intercultural fluency and knowledge of international markets, which are invaluable for startups looking to expand globally. 

Social Media: Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram

Email Address: team@bookbotkids.com

Website: https://www.bookbot.id/