Exclusive: This is why Evulpo is coming to Germany

Edtech ventures into the highly competitive German market. With its learning platform, the Swiss company relies on gamification like in video games. Will that be enough to win the day?

The market for student learning platforms in Germany actually appears saturated. Dozens of startups have entered the market in recent years, with well-known names like Sofatutor and Simpleclub just at the top. A look at the Startbase database reveals 68 edtechs with a B2C platform model. Of course, not all of them are focused on students, but it illustrates how fierce the competition is.

Christian Marty isn't deterred by any of this. The founder is currently working with his startup Evulpo to find a place in precisely this hotly contested market. Evulpo, 2021 and so far active in its Swiss home market, simply serves a gap, Marty is certain. And he can describe it in one word: Freemium.

The freemium business model has so far been familiar mainly from video games: The game is basically free, but if you want to progress faster, you can unlock extras with a subscription. Marty and his co-founders Jonas Fehlmann and Manuel Kant believe they can transfer this concept to an educational offering. "Students can learn with us at no cost," he explains. But only up to a certain point. After a certain number of summaries read or too many mistakes on tests, for example, all lives are used up - Marty actually talks about lives - and are not replenished until the next day. Unless you buy a subscription. Just like in a video game. The founder is keen to emphasize that this is not a "free-to-play" service that lures children into expensive cost traps. Evulpo's platform can also be used free of charge. The number of lives is so generous that normal learning progress can be achieved without a subscription.

A quarter of all Swiss students have already learned with Evulpo

Evulpo is fully committed to gamification. This allows students to track their progress and also compare it with others. "This is motivating and supportive," says the founder. According to the startup, a quarter of all students in Switzerland have already learned with Evulpo, and children and young people seem to be jumping at the concept.

So expansion seems only logical. Evulpo has now been available in Germany since the summer vacations. Since then, the platform has gained 120,000 users in this country. The edtech also launched in France this year. "And we are gaining 1,000 to 2,000 new users per day," Marty says. Good values, but also values he expected. "We talked extensively with parents before making the move to Germany," he says: "When we described the freemium model, they were excited."

For many parents, he says, easy access to the learning platform is a plus. "No one has to pull out a credit card first." In the long run, though, of course, some should do just that. But how well the conversion from users to paying customers works is still relatively unclear. Evulpo introduced the limitation to a few lives only a few weeks ago. And it's currently still very generous; students can get relatively far with five lives a day.

We don't want to revolutionize the school system

Christian Marty

In the end, parents will probably only pay if Evulpo really helps the children. That's why the Swiss have aligned their materials strictly with the learning plan, suitable for every Swiss canton and now every state. "We don't want to revolutionize the school system," Marty says. It's about preparing students for the existing system in the best possible way. "If you want to succeed in school, you have to pass exams, master homework and do other tasks."

Evulpo plans to take the next steps this year: Spain, Portugal and Italy are firmly planned as expansion targets, and next year South American and African countries could be added to the list. Which again brings special challenges. "In South America, the curricula are nowhere near as structured as in Germany," says Marty. But an increasing level of difficulty is part and parcel of any video game.