SXSW EDU 2024 Launch Startup Competition Winners Announced

Women won big tonight! SXSW EDU is proud to announce our talented winners for the 2024 Launch Startup Competition, presented by the Walton Family Foundation, all of them being women-led. With multiple award offerings, we are excited to highlight some of the newest innovators in the education landscape who are addressing issues like bridging the digital divide in cultural education, mental health, literacy and more.

Maro, a company that created a tool for screening youth mental health, has been announced as this year’s Launch Startup Competition winner. NaTakallam, a company that hires displaced persons as online teachers and translators, has also been announced as this year’s Impact Award winner. The Community Choice Award winner, Struggly, is integrating neuroscience, math education research and behavioral game design into engaging and challenging mathematical tasks.

Maro
Bozeman, Montana

Maro’s mission is to eliminate the 11-year gap between first symptom and first intervention when it comes to youth mental health. We've built the most efficient tool for screening students ages 7-18 for anxiety and depression at school & referring their families to care.

NaTakallam
New York, New York

NaTakallam leverages the digital economy to provide meaningful income for displaced persons by hiring them as online teachers & translators, connecting them to individuals & companies worldwide.

Struggly
Austin, Texas

Struggly is an online math learning program for students in grades K-8 integrating neuroscience, math education research and behavioral game design into engaging and challenging mathematical tasks that teachers love and students beg to play! Our tasks contain no instructions meaning no language or literacy barriers. Instead, students are immediately put into an active thinking role to make sense of how the task works.

The Launch Startup Competition allows companies seeking investment opportunities, market exposure, and strategic partnerships to showcase their innovative products. These seven early-stage startups were selected to compete as finalists:

• Cuentologia (Delaware)
• Culture Crate (Cambridge, Massachusetts)
• Keenious (Tromsø, Troms, Norway)
• Maro (Bozeman, Montana)
• NaTakallam (New York, New York)
• Shoelace Learning (Lake Loon, Nova Scotia, Canada)
• Struggly (Austin, Texas)

The competition was emceed by Evan Baehr, Managing Partner at Learn Capital, and Taniya Mishra, Founder and CEO at SureStart. The competition was judged by Kristen DiCerbo, Chief Learning Officer at Khan Academy; Joanna Cannon, Fellow at the Walton Family Foundation; and Carlos Moreno, Co-Executive Director at Big Picture Learning. Coaches, Varun Gulati and Kavindya Thennakoon, helped Launch finalists refine and perfect their pitch in the months leading up to the live competition.

Congrats to Maro, NaTakallam, and Struggly!

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Photo By Andy Wenstrand