What is ROYBI?
ROYBI Robot is the first-ever toy to focus on language teaching & communication skills for children. It is designed to help children excel academically and learn through play anywhere in the world. ROYBI Robot helps children with language learning, communication skills, & creative thinking.
Current industry landscape
With the pandemic, there have been significant challenges in the education system. This showed us how crucial it is to implement technology advancement into the education system. The most significant need is to provide a way to deliver personalized learning experiences to children to focus on their skills, ability, and interest. With the growing number of students learning outside of classrooms, giving personalized attention to each child is becoming a big challenge that needs to be resolved through smart EdTech innovations.
Because of the pandemic, there are so many more discussions about how technology can help remote or hybrid learning. Educational robots are becoming the next big hit in the EdTech industry and are expected to grow significantly at homes and schools.
Why ROYBI was founded
ROYBI’s founder & CEO, Elnaz Sarraf, came to the United States when she was in her early twenties to start a new life. Knowing English and American culture helped her adjust to the new country and excel in her studies. So Elnaz experienced firsthand how learning a different language early on in life helped her reach her goals later in life. Exposure to multiple languages at an early age is significant for children’s future success. Still, not every family can afford to hire private tutors or sign up their child at a language immersion school. Parents Elnaz met at different research groups also often told her about their interest in an affordable and smart technology that can expose their children to multiple languages.
During a discussion Elnaz had with her co-founder, Ron Cheng, she learned about his shared interests as an engineer and a parent for a smart toy that can help his children with self-guided learning with fun stories and engaging lessons. Together, they decided to work on an education toy robot that can address this need for parents. With ROYBI Robot, they chose to utilize AI early on in our planning stage to ensure that teaching with the robot is interactive rather than passive. They want the experience of learning and interacting with ROYBI Robot to interest children more in STEM topics and be curious about innovations.
ROYBI'S mission
ROYBI’s idea started because they saw a huge gap in technology’s use in early childhood education and how critical this time is in children’s growth and future success. ROYBI’s mission is to provide a personalized learning experience to highlight every child’s ability and interest rather than one-size-fits-all. According to the World Bank, there are over 250 million children globally that are at risk of not reaching their potential by age five because in many cases their potentials are not really being discovered.
Now with the use of AI and machine learning, at ROYBI, they are working to address this critical matter by learning as much as they can about children’s interests and create strategies by using machine learning to implement this information into their learning experiences. At schools teachers are already overwhelmed, they already work hard, and it is really not easy to give individual attention to every child. Therefore, ROYBI can play a significant role as an assistant to use machine learning and understand where the child is strong and where needs more help academically then find the best solution.
ROYBI strongly focuses on creating a connected community where learners, parents, and educators can come together to make a larger ecosystem. This helps them to make ROYBI Robot and its technology available to as many children as possible and to provide a quality education through an interactive learning experience. ROYBI is currently working on its next-generation robot which will be smarter and comes with additional features. Also, they are continuously looking for ways to extend our presence globally such as working with schools, government entities, and distributors.
Customer experience
Almost every day, there are stories about how ROYBI is impacting children’s lives. For example, a child with ADHD that barely talks about her day with her parents, now talks every day to ROYBI just like a friend and simply tells ROYBI how her day was. Because through the content, ROYBI becomes a friendly and trusted companion that regularly engages with children in conversations.
Or a parent of a child on the Autism spectrum recently contacted ROYBI to tell them how ROYBI Robot has been very helpful with teaching her child concepts and social-emotional behaviors in combination with the child’s therapy and increased motivation. The child now goes to the therapy without hesitation because he takes his friend, ROYBI Robot with him. He does not feel alone anymore while attending the therapy sessions.
These stories obviously make the ROYBI team excited and motivated because it shows that they have successfully managed to make their robot educational, fun, and friendly. Also, they can see the positive impact they are making on children’s lives.
About the team
The culture at ROYBI is friendly but very fast-paced. At ROYBI, everyone is welcomed to make suggestions and discuss their opinion. There is an open-door policy that encourages the team members to speak openly. This helps the company to build trust within the team and also helps them to grow faster by allowing people to be creative and innovative without the fear of rejection.
Check them out: https://roybirobot.com