Colmakers elevates learning by empowering children, parents, and educators to learn, code, and create through robots. With KINI, their programmable educational robot with sensor-driven technology lets kids of all ages explore the world around them while developing skills in coding, mathematics, science, and physics. KINI comes with various age-specific video activities and challenges that tie into the Ontario Curriculum, building critical problem-solving, science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills.
Colmakers’ founders Fernando Vega and Juliana Montoya shared the exciting news of the partnered workshop for a Bank of Montreal branch in the local Toronto community this September and January. During a time when children are experiencing longer screen times due to the pandemic – Colmakers’ hands-on learning experience couldn’t be more appreciated and enjoyed both by children and parents alike.
“We believe in our way to empower children for society, by teaching technology. Our focus has been hands-on and not being an everything-on-screen experience. We provide real-life tools like robots to build mindfulness of the environment…It’s about making things where consumers can be creators.” – Fernando Vega, Co-founder of Colmakers
Created back home in Colombia four years ago, Colmakers has come a long way. Expanding your business to a new market is never easy. More so for these founders, coming to Canada at the beginning of March 2020 when the pandemic had become a harsh reality to adjust to for many. Montoya shared that the pandemic made it a tough yet rewarding experience. They needed to make changes to the website, activities, lessons and much more to consider the difference in what learning looked like in a pandemic. Despite the challenges for Vega and Montoya, the pandemic came with a silver lining – the ability to focus and make progress for their company in this new market.
“At the same time, it was great as well, because we were able to discover what we wanted to do. If we had a lot of free time, we might have been doing other things, and perhaps we may not have been able to develop the activities at the level that we did.” – Juliana Montoya, Co-founder of Colmakers
Following their vision to expand and touch as many lives as possible with their technology, Colmakers needed to strategize to address two markets – direct to consumers like parents and also organizations. Vega and Montoya noticed that in Canada, banks had a significant presence and reach. Montoya sent hundreds of emails, recognizing this opportunity, knocking on the doors of organizations where Colmakers could add value. These efforts opened doors, shown through the successful planning of a workshop for BMO’s King & Church Branch in Toronto. Vega and Montoya shared their plans of partnering with university communities, already working a partnership with InnovED, the education entrepreneurship community at OISE, University of Toronto.
With the support of LatAm Startups and also the Accelerator Centre, Vega, Montoya, and the Colmakers team have come far entering this new market in the face of a pandemic with flexibility and resilience. Colmakers aims to continue its growth and increase its presence in the Canadian market, creating a fun and memorable learning experience through its technology.
On September 29th, join BMO’s King & Church Branch in this free, fun for the whole family, hands-on workshop. Get your free tickets to “Learning How to Code with Kini the Robot” here: www.universe.com/kinirobot1
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