Name of the Company: Erase All Kittens
Name of Founder
(s): Dee Saigal, Alex Dytrych, and Leonie Van Der Linde
City: London
Revenues: NA
Headcount: 3
Industry: Tech, Coding
Revenues: NA
Headcount: 3
Industry: Tech, Coding
Investors
Details & Amount raised: Crowdfunding campaign on Kickstarter
It is not only
disappointing, but also ironic to see women being left behind in the field of
computer engineering. It is ironic because the world's first team of coders had
no man, but only women - six of them.
It was during the Second World War, when the US army employed a team of six women mathematicians as "computers" to calculate ballistics trajectories. This number increased to 100 by 1945 - again, all women.
In fact, it is a woman who is regarded as the world's first computer programmer - Ada Lovelace. In an effort to recognise her contribution, the US Department of Defense named a programming language in her name. Ada, the computer language is still used by many industries including aviation, healthcare, space, among others.
Recently, the
Oscar nominated film Hidden Figures also highlighted the crucial contribution
of three black female mathematicians who worked at NASA during the space race
between the Soviet Union and the US.
Now, consider
the current scenario: A study undertaken by Childwise, a research agency
specialising in market research with children, asked 1000 children in UK between
the ages of 9 to 12 about computer technology. Most girls confessed to being
intimidated by the language of technology.
Only a quarter admitted to knowing anything about engineering and even they described engineering and coding as "more for boys" and "too difficult". This study was performed in January 2015.
It is this
dismal change in narrative that a London-based startup wants to correct by
introducing more girls to coding. "After finding that most children above
the age of eleven are put off by coding and engineering, we set ourselves a
challenge to invent the best way to inspire them - especially girls - to code
and create," explains cofounder Dee Saigal.
Saigal knows from personal experience how lack of professional women programmers acts as a strong deterrent for girls to accept computer engineering as a career choice. "I dreamed of being a game designer when I was younger, but there weren't really any female role models, so I grew up thinking it was not possible. Our developer Priya (who joined the team later) was asked repeatedly, even by her IT teacher at school, if she really wanted to get into computer science. We want to present the same opportunities to girls that boys get by default," narrates Saigal.
Coding
- interesting and fun
In order to counter the perception of being an extremely difficult field of study, the founders decided to create a game around coding, which can prove to the young ones that coding is not only like any other field but also fun.
"Our
approach has been to design a game that girls genuinely love - one that places
a huge emphasis on creativity and feels more like a mainstream game than a
coding tool. There are different ways to progress, girls can see instant
results as they code, and learning is seamlessly blended with storytelling. We
are also aiming for our platform to provide a spark of inspiration to the next
generation, to learn digital skills, think creatively, and address challenges
facing the world right now with tech for good," says Saigal.
For
the love of kittens
To make the game engaging, the team decided to use the ultimate weapon for inspiring mass affection - kittens. Called 'Erase All Kittens', the game calls on players to save these fluffy animals from getting murdered by other animals inhabiting the Internet universe.
'Kittens are
becoming increasingly popular in the Internet Universe, and the other cute,
fluffy animals are jealous. They form an adorable yet an evil rebellion
(Operation E.A.K.) and start capturing all of the internet's kittens, with the
intent to destroy them. Sadly, all kittens will soon be eliminated - unless you
learn the ancient, magical art of coding - which will allow you to journey
across the perilous Internet universe to save them,' is the call for
help.
It is a
Mario-style game created for children aged 8 plus through which the founders
intend to introduce their target audience to professional coding languages. As
players progress through the levels, they can edit the real code governing the
game environment - building and fixing levels as they play. The game is based
on HTML and the team has plans to introduce CSS and Java script in the near
future.
Getting
children future-ready
A study done by another organisation with a mission to get more girls to code, Girls Who Code, suggests that girls are being left behind in a world where tech jobs are amongst the fastest growing. The study found that while in 1984, 37% of all computer science graduates were women, that number has now reduced to just 18%. By 2020, there will be 1.4 million jobs available in computing related fields, and graduates are on track to fill 29% of those jobs. Women are on track to fill just 3%.
"Our goal
is to help close the gender gap in technology, which will in turn address the
chronic skills shortage in the UK tech market," says Saigal.
The company, Saigal
claims, has amassed over 120,000 players in over 100 countries.
"Amazingly, 55% of all those players learning to code are girls (average
is only 18% for other coding tools and clubs). And, 95% of all our players have
said they want to learn more about coding after they played the game,"
claims Saigal.
This reach has
been gained solely by word of mouth with parents and teachers talking about the
game on Twitter. The game is available to schools at 2 pounds/student and 4
pounds for home users. Presently, Erase All Kittens has only a desktop version
but the company has plans to launch an iPad version next year in order to
increase the reach and also to generate more revenue. The plan is also to
introduce a longer version of the game.
India, Saigal says, is an important market for the startup because of its booming IT industry. "Many companies outsource their IT work to India, parents encourage their children to software engineers because of the secure roles and higher wages. We are also a country of multi-lingual speakers - coding is a universal language and the earlier it is taught the stronger the grasp and interest in it," affirms Saigal.
In its aim to
"create a global tribe of confident, tech-savvy, super smart girls",
the startup has faced many issues but getting funding has been most
challenging. The company, informs Saigal, received an undisclosed small amount
of investment from angel investors in 2015 and has been meeting its needs through
bootstrapping. Very recently, the startup has launched a crowdfunding campaign
on Kickstarter with an aim to raise 15,000 pounds.
Funding
notwithstanding, the startup has garnered praise as well as won competitions
across the globe. Erase All Kittens was adjudged a finalist at Solve (an
initiate by MIT), winner at the European Youth Awards, the World Summit Award
for Young Innovators and was also selected as one of three finalists for the
'best tech startups' category of Talent Unleashed - a competition judged by
Richard Branson and Steve Wozniak.
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