Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based company advancing digital property rights for gaming and the metaverse, announced the acquisition of TinyTap, an Israeli education technology platform for a consideration of $38.88 million in cash and shares.
Following the acquisition, Animoca Brands now holds a 84.13 percent stake in TinyTap. Other shareholders of TinyTap include Mario Ghio and Guilherme Mélega, respectively the Chief Executive Officer and the Vice President – K12 of Somos Educação, which is part of the Brazilian high-growth K-12 education company Vasta Educação group, as well as current and former TinyTap team members, according to the company's statement.
Animoca Brands will leverage the acquisition of TinyTap to establish a new business segment for blockchain-based UGC educational content that will allow educators worldwide to generate their own equity. Animoca Brands holds portfolio investments worth $1.5 billion in crypto and blockchain gaming across 340 companies.
Founded in 2012, TinyTap is a user-generated content (UGC) EdTech company that provides a no-code platform enabling educators to create and distribute interactive educational content while earning a usage-based revenue share. The platform offers educators an alternative channel to generate revenue. When a subscription is purchased or renewed, the subscription profit is shared with content creators. The earnings of individual content creators are determined by the engagement generated by their content.
TinyTap is on a mission to decentralize education by connecting teachers and families worldwide, to enable them to fulfil their learning needs independently of governments and businesses.
Speaking on the partnership with Animoca Brands, Chief Executive Officer of TinyTap, Yogev Shelly, said:
"Since inception, TinyTap has worked to free educators from the limitations of traditional education systems and inadequate budgets. We empower educators to create engaging learning activities that can reach millions of kids directly and that enable them to earn based on the success of their creations. By becoming a part of Animoca Brands, we will leverage blockchain to advance this vision and build a new education system that is independent of schools and governments, and that is owned and led by educators themselves."
The startup claims to have more than 8.2 million families registered on TinyTap, with more than 200,000 interactive lessons and educational games created by publishers such as Oxford University Press, The Learning Company, and Sesame Street. In addition, 100,000+ other publishers and independent contributors, on the platform. It currently employs 30 staff.
Animoca Brands, started in 2014, with a mission to deliver digital property rights to the world's gamers and Internet users, thereby creating a new asset class, play-to-earn economies, and a more equitable digital framework contributing to the building of the open metaverse. The company aims to leverage blockchain tech to provide educators with the opportunity to tokenize digital content and rent or sell their content instead of licensing content temporarily. Additionally, blockchain-based assets have the potential to be interoperable, opening up opportunities for collaborations with other companies and allowing creators to provide their content on different platforms.
Commenting on the acquisition, Co-founder and Executive chairman of Animoca Brands, Yat Siu, said in a statement:
"Educators number among the most prolific creators and traders of content. Despite the fact that teaching is among the most important professions, educators generally struggle with funding and resources. Our goal is to mitigate some of the challenges faced by teachers everywhere. With our acquisition of TinyTap – a strong and proven leader in the field of UGC education – we will leverage blockchain to make new opportunities available to educators worldwide, allowing them to generate equity from their creations while offering parents enhanced learning opportunities for their kids."
TinyTap content is currently aimed primarily at young learners from pre-kindergarten to grade 6, and the company is working on expanding its offering to learners of all ages. It has generated revenues of $17.6 million from 2019 through 30 April 2022. The iOS version is one of the top 10 grossing kids’ apps in the US App Store.
TinyTap previously raised $13 million from investors including Aleph Venture Capital, Inimiti, Reinvent VC, Omega Group Enterprises, Radiant Ventures HK, and others.
