Educational tech start-up Robotical has raised £43,291 through its Kickstarter campaign after setting a target of £30,000.
Almost 200 backers pledged cash in return for a variety of Marty v2 product bundles, ranging from a single robot up to the whole school/council pack of 50 Marty v2 units. Robotical also won a Global Innovators Grant from Expo 2020 Dubai just last week. The total will be used to finalise development of Marty v2 and begin mass production, with the first units in schools from March 2020.
Marty was designed to inspire children into taking up careers in science, technology engineering and mathematics (STEM), by make lessons more fun.
Jami Shields, a primary school teacher at La Villita Elementary, Texas, backed the Kickstarter and said: “I backed Marty v2 because my students love coding, and he is a very versatile robot that is easy to use. They were able to code from day one, right out of the box, using skills that build on what we are doing in our classroom coding lessons.
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“My students got so excited about v1, backing v2 was the logical next step. We are particularly interested in the grabbing hand and the additional sensors, and of course the lights sound exciting. I can’t wait until he arrives in my classroom and the students literally cheered when I told them I backed the robot on Kickstarter and that he was fully funded.”
Thousands of the original Marty are being used in over 150 schools across more than 50 countries. Version 2’s new features include smart sensors that allow Marty to copy your movements, motors that allow grabbing hands, obstacle detection, Bluetooth compatibility, sound capability and the Disco Marty setting.
The Kickstarter funding will help Robotical to finesse these new features and begin rollout of the product. It will also help to finalise v2 and to scale up operations, with a target of 6,000 new students reached in the next year and further growth for 2021. It will also help to create additional learning materials and metrics and allow Robotical to initiate a robotics competition.
Robotical is also developing a new learning platform to make Marty as user friendly as possible, which is expected to be available before the end of 2020.
Sandy Enoch, founder and CEO of Robotical, said: “Firstly, I want to thank all of our Kickstarter backers and Expo 2020 Dubai for awarding us the grant. This money will really allow us to accelerate production of Marty v2, scale up our operations and start some great new initiatives including a robotics competition.
“Having witnessed the joy that Marty has spread in schools, I am looking forward to seeing how pupils and teachers respond to the new features we have been working on for v2. We hope that by making STEM subjects as engaging as possible, we can inspire children into taking up careers in these industries and plugging the skills gap in the job market. Failing to do so will have serious repercussions on the UK in the long term, so hopefully our ongoing product development will be able to help create excitement in these subjects at a young age.”
Yousuf Caires, Senior Vice President, Expo Live, Expo 2020 Dubai said: “We are delighted to support Expo Live Global Innovator Robotical, which is making learning about robotics and STEM subjects fun – helping to future proof the next generation with the education and skills required to succeed in the modern economy. We look forward to seeing the launch of Marty v2 which promises to further inspire and equip children with the tools they need to reach their full potential.”
