"Creating the Best Learning Tools for Children Worldwide"

Interview with Isuin Enuma CEO
Co-founded education startup with programmer husband
Expanding business into developing countries

Enuma CEO Isuin

"We are developing software that enables children all over the world to learn reading and arithmetic on their own, regardless of disabilities or cultural and economic constraints, by utilizing the latest gaming technology." CEO Suin Lee of Enuma focused on the reality that 60% of children worldwide do not receive proper basic education. To address this issue, she co-founded an educational startup in 2012 in Berkeley, USA, with her husband and Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Gunho Lee, a former Technical Director at NCSoft. This year, by launching the Enuma School program in Indonesia, CEO Lee has taken a step closer to her goal.

On the 31st, CEO Lee stated, "Enuma plans to develop Enuma School equipped with various local language education programs and expand into countries that need digital solutions for basic education." The Enuma School program, recently launched in Indonesia for developing countries, offers a two-year curriculum covering local language literacy, English, and mathematics. Starting with Indonesia, the business plans to expand to Malaysia, the Philippines, and Latin America. CEO Lee envisions playing a role in solving educational challenges faced by developing countries after the COVID-19 pandemic.

CEO Lee is a game designer, and CTO Gunho Lee is a programmer; they worked together at NCSoft. Their interest in educational programs began when their child was born while studying in the United States. CEO Lee said, "I decided to develop basic educational software that allows children, who are often overlooked by traditional institutional education, to learn independently by applying techniques that create technology and fun in games." The first program developed was 'Todo Math.' Todo Math achieved the number one spot in the early childhood education category on the Apple App Store in 20 countries and is used in over 1,000 classrooms in U.S. elementary schools.

Enuma’s programs are designed with fun content and appropriate reward systems?essential elements of games?so that children can continue learning independently without a supervising teacher. 'Kitkit School,' developed with the goal of being a 'failure-free learning tool,' won first place in the 2019 Global Learning XPRIZE, an educational software competition assessing educational effectiveness among Tanzanian children. Sponsored by Tesla CEO Elon Musk, this victory proved Enuma’s technological capabilities worldwide. CEO Lee explained, "The greatest strength of Enuma’s programs is that children can learn independently in any environment," adding, "The Enuma development team has created many of Korea’s top games and applied the experience and technology learned there to education."

Enuma’s business is broadly divided into the ‘Todo’ series targeting Korea and East Asia, and the ‘Kitkit School’ and ‘Enuma School’ series targeting developing countries. From the start, CEO Lee was not interested in advanced markets. Her goal was "to create the best learning tools that even children with learning difficulties or disabilities can use independently and to make these tools available to all children worldwide." She explained that 610 million children attend school but have not achieved basic literacy and math skills. Moreover, due to shortened classes caused by COVID-19, young children who still struggle with reading and writing have been left to their families’ responsibility. This is why CEO Lee wants to grow Enuma quickly.

This summer, Enuma’s Japan branch was established, and the establishment process for the Indonesia branch will soon be completed. CEO Lee emphasized, "The failure rate of existing education worldwide reaches 60%. Through digital means, we must make it easier and cheaper for these children to receive help," adding, "We will strive to create a global brand and grow by expanding into new markets."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.