TinyTap raises $8.5 million to revolutionize education with Web3
TinyTap, a company under Animoca Brands and a leading EdTech platform for user-generated educational games, has secured $8.5 million from investors such as Sequoia China, Liberty City Ventures, Kingsway Capital, Shima Capital, Polygon, GameFi Ventures, and others.
Technology for a better education
The funds will be utilized to support TinyTap’s business expansion and hasten development in the EdTech industry. The company’s objective is to extend its flourishing Web2 platform, which currently serves more than 9.2 million registered members, into an alternative Web3 education system.
In 2022, TinyTap unveiled its Web3 strategy with two successful auctions of Publisher NFTs, which earned 243 ETH or about $352,000 during the auction periods. TinyTap’s Publisher NFTs, which sold out on their first batch, is a novel concept that enhances educational content and empowers creators and publishers with rewards and incentives.
Introducing Publisher NFTs
Publisher NFTs sold out on their first batch. They represent co-publishing rights to a TinyTap Course, a curated set of educational games developed by one teacher on a specific subject on the TinyTap platform.
The funds generated from the sale of these NFTs are shared with the course creators, while the buyers take on the role of co-publishers. In exchange for promoting and marketing the associated courses, co-publishers benefit from the income generated from their co-publishing efforts.
According to the data, since Q4 of 2022, the average income to NFT buyers resulting from their co-publishing efforts was around 8.2% (or 19.7% annualized) of the purchase price of the Publisher NFTs.
By leveraging this investment, TinyTap intends to better value teachers by providing them with enhanced earning opportunities while linking them up with co-publishers to promote their courses. This new approach aims to empower parents and communities to support and promote the best educational materials.
Misa Matsuzaki, a TinyTap client, has two Publisher NFTs, and she earned approximately $7,823 between November 2022 and March 2024 from her co-publishing activities with the associated courses. She shared her experience, stating that TinyTap helps teachers to actualize great ideas into educational content that can be accessed regardless of location.
In the words of Yogev Shelly, TinyTap’s CEO:
“The Publisher NFTs genesis auctions have shown that the Web3 community is ready and able to support educational content and educators via an innovative, fair incentive system. By connecting educational content creators with potential promoters, we can ensure that everyone benefits and make significant progress towards our vision of empowering educators, students, and the community with control over the learning process.”
Web3 can provide a fairer remuneration model for teachers and professionals
Yat Siu, the co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, expressed his enthusiasm for TinyTap’s exploration of Web3 opportunities in education, emphasizing the critical importance of teachers and educators as content creators and contributors in society.
Siu highlighted the fact that the wages of educators do not typically reflect their importance and expressed excitement at the potential of TinyTap’s efforts to supercharge its Web2 education platform using NFTs. He emphasized that the use of NFTs will enable educators to generate more equity from their work and connect with co-publishers who can help promote their courses.
