What They Do:
Sila is a game development studio that transforms educational content into fun video games. They develop an immersive role-playing experience that incorporates the educational lessons that need to be conveyed along with interactive game elements. Students can choose the difficulty of the game, learn from their mistakes, and play with their friends for increased motivation. These games not only teach academic subjects, but they train soft skills such as decision making, teamwork, strategic thinking, creativity, working under stress, and analysis.
Startup Experience:
“We are educators with a love for video games, with a mission to combine both. Our solution was a response to the pandemic, and we are anticipating the new equilibrium in the post-covid educational system. Unfortunately, the pandemic had to occur for innovation to be accepted in the rigid educational industry. Humans learn by playing, and we aim to turn all subjects into educational video games.
We have gained 2 years of experience since the beginning of the pandemic and as the rules of the industry are changing, we have the capability to innovate against big players in the field.
Our market is currently educational institutions such as schools, training centers and universities. We reached out to schools to build our portfolio of games. However, innovation is not a priority when basic needs such as electricity and internet are rationed to the teachers and students. This is why we tested our solution outside of Lebanon.
The financial crisis on the other hand caused many funding problems, which led to the loss of talent and the inability to hire new talent. Eventually, to overcome such problems, I learned software development so I can put in the needed hours for every task. Currently, we finished our first prototype which can be viewed on our website.
At the end of the e-softlanding, we are looking to reach product-market fit. We will most definitely pivot many times with every new piece of information we gain. The educational market is a tricky business since the business model is not as profitable as other industries. However, we hope that this mission will help us to reach the right conclusions for our startup.”
The SILA startup is part of the Innovation Factory program allowing researchers and novel entrepreneurs in Lebanon to develop their innovation in any technology-based sector into commercially viable products and applications. The program, based on technology transfer, gives participants international exposure with access to local and global markets, B2B networks, and a pool of seasoned experts, mentors, and investors.
It is funded by the European Union under THE NEXT SOCIETY project and is organized in Lebanon by Berytech and ANIMA, and in Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Palestine and Tunisia by THE NEXT SOCIETY national partners under the Tech Booster program.
