Meet Revyze, a French startup developing mobile apps for iOS and Android for education and social media. In many ways, Revyze is similar to TikTok. But it focuses on educational content especially for teenagers.
“We talked to kids at 30 or 35 different high schools,” co-founder Florent Sciberas told me. “What do you think about school and what is the best way to learn?” We asked them. And they told us that no one had ever asked these questions.
At first glance, the answer was very simple and obvious. They said that they prefer to learn from their friends rather than their teachers. “They said it’s because they talk like us and are like us,” Sciberas said.
And that’s why educational videos are so popular on YouTube and TikTok – the hashtag #LearnOnTikTok, for example, is widely popular.
But there is an issue with major social platforms. They are not specifically designed for education. If you watch a cute video on Tik Tok, when you jump to the next video, the social app may recommend something completely different. You end up jumping from math to cat dancing to physics to magic tricks…
Revyze aims to be an educational TikTok – a community-powered app with a strong focus on secondary education. Basically, Revyze wants to unlock educational videos from TikTok – a huge social platform – so they get the attention they deserve.
Initially, the Revyze team focused on the French baccalaureate, the exam you have to pass at the end of high school. They built a quick version of the app, gathered a Discord community to spread the word, and shared a few videos on TikTok and Instagram.
Within a few weeks, Revyze managed to attract 35,000 downloads. They reached the #2 spot in the App Store’s top free apps – behind Doctolib.
Image Credits: Review
This summer, Revyze raised a $2 million pre-seed round (€2 million) from more than a hundred business angels, such as Nate Blecharczyk, Jean-Charles Samuelian, Charles Gorintin, Mathilde Colin, Lenny Rachitsky, Thomas France, Julia Bijauy. Roxanne Varza, Arion (Jacques Attali Fund), Olivier Dacourt, Varsha Rao and others. First Minute Capital, Kima Ventures, AirAngels, Nomad Capital and Ligature VC also invested.
Now, the company wants to turn this small experiment into a larger social/learning app. “Our goal is to reach 500,000 users by the end of the year and expand to the US within 6 to 12 months,” co-founder Guillaume Perot told me.
Building the community behind the app
So how does Revyze feel? When you open the app, you get a video feed that looks like Tiki Tok. These videos fill the entire screen and you can skip to the next video with a simple swipe gesture. There is a three minute limit on video length.
On the second tab, you can browse the video library more granularly. You can choose a subject such as mathematics or literature and even choose a chapter in the curriculum. Revyze started with French high school students in their final year and is gradually expanding to other classes.
And since we’re talking about educational content, Revyze pays close attention to videos uploaded to the app. When a user submits a video, it is not immediately uploaded to the platform.
“Videos are verified by us and the community,” Perrot said. “We want to ensure high-quality content, accurate and not off-topic. Eventually there will be a peer moderation system and then we’ll add a bit of machine learning.
What do you get when you post on Revyze? A warm throbbing sensation. In more technical terms, you’ll collect reward points right on Stack Overflow. These reward points are called EDU. You get 20 points when you post a video and one point when someone thanks you for the video.
Some young people post videos because it’s the best way to know for sure if they’ve really understood a concept. Others want to climb the leaderboard.
In the long run, if web3 becomes obsolete, Revyze could also convert EDU into a currency to reward the community for their contributions. But that’s not the next item on the roadmap.
Next, Revyze plans to expand to more countries and more educational systems. There are also many opportunities to customize the app for each user.
It plans to algorithmically sort videos to be relevant to your level and learning style – an algorithm that focuses on learning outcomes rather than viewing time. This way, users don’t have to waste time skipping videos to find useful content.
“We’re not a social network,” Sciberras said. “Our goal is to spend as little time as possible in the application to learn as much as possible.”
Image Credits: Review
