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Munich, October 2 – EDURINO, the innovative hybrid learning and play app designed for children aged three to eight, has been deemed eligible for funding under the German federal ‘Startchancen’ program. This significant development enables schools located in challenging social environments to utilize federal funds to finance the digital learning system, thereby providing targeted and individualized support to their students.
Individualized Support Where It’s Needed Most
The ‘Startchancen’ program is a landmark educational initiative, targeting approximately 4,000 schools across Germany with a high proportion of socially disadvantaged students. Representing the largest educational program in the history of the Federal Republic, it involves a joint investment of 20 billion euros by the federal and state governments over a decade. The program’s primary goal is to break the correlation between social background and educational success, with a particular emphasis on strengthening foundational skills such as reading, writing, and arithmetic. Overall, more than one million students are expected to benefit from this funding.
EDURINO’s digital learning system is strategically aligned with these objectives. It integrates tangible play figures, an ergonomic stylus, and a dedicated app, all developed in collaboration with speech therapists, primary school teachers, and educators. The adaptive nature of the system allows it to adjust to each child’s individual learning pace, fostering independent learning. Crucially, the system operates without requiring parental support and functions offline, ensuring accessibility for children irrespective of their home resources. This feature makes a concrete contribution to enhancing equal opportunities in the school environment.
Flexible Implementation in the Classroom
Franziska Meyer, co-founder of EDURINO, emphasized the system’s pedagogical approach: “Children learn best when they are intrinsically motivated and can progress at their own pace. EDURINO was developed precisely for this purpose. The ‘Startchancen’ program now creates the framework to make this approach accessible to schools in particularly challenging situations.” EDURINO offers versatile application in the classroom, suitable for station learning, support groups, or independent work. Its adaptive design caters especially to heterogeneous classes, providing an engaging extension for faster learners and targeted, pressure-free support for children needing additional assistance or those learning German as a second language. This integration minimizes additional workload for teachers.
EDURINO Already Adopted by 2,000 ‘Startchancen’ Schools
The digital adaptive learning system is currently implemented in over 2,000 educational institutions throughout Germany. ‘Startchancen’ schools in various cities, including Dortmund, Duisburg, Oberhausen, Siegen, Bensheim, and Würzburg, are already benefiting from EDURINO through the ‘Chancenbudget’ (Pillar II: for school and teaching development).
Scientifically Proven Impact
The effectiveness of EDURINO is substantiated by multiple independent studies. A randomized controlled study conducted by the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and the University of Vienna (research project “Apps4Kids,” Prof. Dr. Frank Niklas / Prof. Dr. Astrid Wirth) demonstrated significant improvements: after just four weeks, with only two ten-minute sessions per week, preschoolers improved their rhyming ability by 15 percent, letter recognition by 9 percent, and letter naming by 21 percent.
Further studies, validated by Prof. Nicola Clayton, Professor of Psychology at the University of Cambridge, have confirmed additional learning benefits. Children showed an improvement of up to 34 percent in problem-solving skills and up to 48 percent in arithmetic and mathematical knowledge. Furthermore, 98 percent of surveyed parents affirmed that EDURINO transforms screen time into valuable learning time, and 95 percent observed an enhancement in their child’s overall school readiness.
Interested schools are encouraged to contact [email protected] for more information.
About EDURINO
Founded in 2021 by Irene Klemm and Franziska Meyer, the Munich-based EdTech company EDURINO aims to provide children with a responsible and playful introduction to the digital world of education. The platform combines learning games, ergonomic input tools, and animated characters that teach essential school and future skills such as reading, logical thinking, coding, and environmental awareness. EDURINO has successfully sold over one million products in the DACH region (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) and the UK. Its digital learning environments are currently utilized in more than 3,500 educational institutions and libraries.
EDURINO products are available through retail partners such as MediaMarkt, Saturn, and Müller. The startup has received numerous accolades, including the Pedagogical Media Award, the TOMMI Kindersoftwarepreis, the Digital Startup Award from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, and the Founder’s Award 2025 from the Startup Association. Its investors include Ravensburger Next Ventures, DN Capital, Tengelmann Ventures, b2venture, Summiteer, Emerge Education, FJ Labs, Verena Pausder, and Jens Begemann.
Source: EDURINO Press Release, News4teachers.de
