TinyTap Wins $1M in Verizon Prize for Education

January 12, 2014 at 7:06 pm

This blog post is dedicated to the TinyTap community for their unconditional support and teaching us more than we could ever hope to learn, and to Verizon CEO Lowell McAdam, for believing that great ideas can change the world and that we could become one of them.

The only thing better than coming up with an innovative idea, is being given the opportunity to make it a reality.

On January 8th, 2014, TinyTap was announced the first prize winner of $1M in Verizon’s Powerful Answers Award in the education category, along with Mosaic, in the sustainability category, and Smart Vision Labs in the healthcare category.

TinyTap was awarded for being the most innovative education idea, bringing forward solutions to a big problem facing education today: personalization.

See the full event

The Birth of An Idea

After learning that his dad had developed a memory disorder, Yogev started a relentless search for an iPad application that could help them interact and communicate in a fun and familiar way.

Unable to find what he was looking for, he decided to create the tool himself. A few days later, he approached his close friend and fellow classmate at Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, Oren Elbaz.

The engaging interactivity of the product reminded them of the simple and engaging way children create and interact with each other.

Oren tried the product on his 3 year old son to see what happened…

With amazing feedback, TinyTap launched in the App Store on May 2012 as a free iPad application that enabled anyone to create and play personalized educational games for kids.

The Verizon Powerful Answers Award

Nearly a year ago, Verizon announced the beginning of its Powerful Answers Award, an open-call competition for individuals and companies to come up with the most innovative solutions to present day problems in the areas of education, healthcare and sustainability.

Shortly after, TinyTap CEO Yogev Shelly entered the competition, and the following five months were filled with buzz and excitement, as our team of 6 people did their best to develop an idea we believed in wholeheartedly.

And on October, the 10 finalists in each category were announced…

Weeks of preparation, a thousand cups of coffee, a series of all-nighters in a 10×10 office, and loads of encouragement later, Yogev flew off to California to present TinyTap before a blue-ribbon panel of judges – experts from academia, the media and the venture capital community.

TinyTap Makes the Top 5!

On December 9th, Verizon announced TinyTap as one of the top 5 finalists in the Education category, and we were off to Las Vegas to CES 2014, where the winners would be announced!