Tilli is a play-based, Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) tool designed for 5-10 year olds. We create fun learning experiences for both homes and classrooms.  This helps parents have meaningful conversations with their children and teachers to deliver powerful learning to their students.

Tilli uses games and storytelling to help parents and teachers facilitate fun conversations about life changing topics. Social Emotional Learning can be difficult to measure. Parents and teachers currently lack critical data and insights about their child’s learning and development. Tilli uses machine learning and behavioral change frameworks to measure, analyze and improve a child’s social-emotional well-being.

IMPACT

One out of two children globally suffer some form of violence each year. At the same time, the social emotional well-being of their children is the second biggest concern for parents. Yet 4 out of 5 parents say they feel unsupported in talking with their children and avoid or postpone life changing discussions.

This is one of the key issues Tilli is well poised to address. Tilli is also positioned to address post-COVID Learning los caused by repeated school closures and limited contact with teachers and peers. 

The platform was initially conceptualized and incubated at the Stanford School of Education by Kavindya. Due to the continued interest and demand from schools that were first part of the pilot implementation, Vidya and Kavindya decided to come together to build and scale.

At Tilli, we know that for learning to be done effectively, outcomes need to be measured. This is why we have been at the forefront of bringing together emerging technologies like machine learning and natural language processing to design fun, play-based ways to track and access social-emotional learning outcomes and cognitive growth. Our aim is to ultimately design personalized learning geared to each child’s learning pathway and to equip teachers and parents with data-backed learning tips and tactics to better support their children.

TECHNOLOGY

So, why does Tilli stand out? A majority of SEL tools and materials are focused on passive content consumption and we want to change how social emotional learning is designed and delivered. Besides our use of machine learning to measure SEL outcomes, our secret sauce is our expertise in game design and razor-sharp focus on ensuring that each learning experience we design leads to a measurable, meaningful behavioral change in learners.

At the heart of our work is our community. We fiercely believe that for high quality outcomes-driven education to be made affordable and accessible, we need to work together to share learnings, knowledge and technology. This is why we intend to keep both our technology and design systems open source so that we collaborate with other educators and learning designers in building this global learning ecosystem together. 

TEAM

Our team led by two female founders, brings together award winning experts in Learning & Game Design, Cognitive Sciences, and Machine Learning. We live and work in the markets and communities we serve. We are diverse in geographic location, years of experience, and type of perspective.

 Diversity is at the heart of our problem-solving success. Listening and learning from diverse perspectives within our team ensures that we are creative and bold in our decision-making process. We share collective learnings and cultural experiences that inform a unique knowledge base and propels the drive to build Tilli in an equitable and inclusive manner. Collectively, we have successfully co-founded multiple social impact organizations.

WAY AHEAD

UNICEF's Venture Fund investment came at an ideal time. We plan on completing the build of our first three learning modules and delivering them to schools and parents who have already signed up and are awaiting delivery. This will deepen the community of stakeholders who will ethically co-create and validate Tilli. We will use this to leverage raising follow-on investment by building a critical mass of Tilli consumers; documenting their user journey; and reporting key performance indicators.

We are passionate about bridging learning and connectivity gaps for young people. This is a core part of our mission with Tilli. We consistently co-create Tilli with teachers, parents, and kids to ensure high quality learning outcomes and engagement levels. We listened to our community and designed Tilli as an experience that is not dependent on internet access or the ability to pay. This is central to our values and product delivery channels. Schools are in person one week and remote the next. Tilli works consistently across formats and settings to ensure a consistent experience. 

Bridging the rural and urban divide is something we would like to work on collectively with the Fund’s larger cohort of startups. The pandemic has greatly increased this divide and deepened inequities of learning. There is an urgent need for low and medium tech along with high tech solutions that can form a comprehensive solution. We are listening to our communities of consumers who are informing us of the need to have specific and measurable content across media and communication platforms.