RosieReality teaches children to program

The founders of RosieReality plan to teach young children about robotics. But because the hardware for a real robot would be too costly for parents of pre-school children, they have developed a virtual version named Rosie.

Once the startup company’s app has been downloaded, users see the virtual robot on their mobile phone in real surroundings, similar to Pokémon Go. The virtual robot can then be “programmed” using simple commands.

More than 1,000 children have tested the app over the last few months, with anonymous data on the users registered and deployed to develop the product further, reported the Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH) in a statement.

The Rosie project received initial funding from the Gebert Rüf-Stiftung, but subsequently the lion’s share of the capital has come from Silicon Valley. Alongside venture capital firms General Catalyst and Anorak Ventur from San Francisco, Akatsuki, a Japanese games developer, invested in RosieReality at the start of the year.

Now, the company has big growth plans. Within the next three years, it plans to reach 100 million users worldwide, which would make it one of the major players on the games scene. More imminently, the ETH spinoff plans to increase its staff to at least 15 people in the first quarter of 2019.