AMIRA LEARNING ACQUIRES WITHIN'S AWARD-WINNING CHILDREN'S READING APP, WONDERSCOPE

Within's groundbreaking AR storytelling app, Wonderscope joins Amira Learning's AI-powered tutoring app to build confidence and reading skills in children through interactive learning games and stories.

LOS ANGELES, Sept. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Within today announced that Amira Learning has acquired its BAFTA and Kidscreen award-winning AR storytelling app, Wonderscope. With six AR storybooks designed to fire-up kids' imaginations while cultivating lifelong literacy skills, Wonderscope has received rave reviews from parents and teachers since its 2018 launch. Joining forces with Amira Learning, which uses AI to foster lasting enthusiasm for reading, represents an exciting natural progression for both apps.

"One of Within's core missions is to inspire joy, awe, and wonder, and Wonderscope is one of our proudest accomplishments," said Within co-founder and CEO, Chris Milk. "We're thrilled that Amira Learning is channeling Wonderscope's potential by folding it into its own mission of facilitating learning in children through innovative technology."

Mark Angel and Pete Jungwirth founded Amira Learning in 2018, using AI to make education both fun and enlightening. The Amira and the StoryCraft app features a reading tutor named Amira who can assess a child's reading skills and offer level-appropriate stories. Amira uses machine learning to analyze oral reading fluency and provides personalized interventions, as well as regular diagnostic reports on a child's progress. Based on Columbia Teachers College's and others' studies, Amira accelerates learning as much as the best human tutors.

Wonderscope uses the power of AR to transform ordinary spaces into extraordinary stories by offering creative, narrative-driven experiences that change the way kids engage with mobile devices. Static watching is out, replaced by movement, reading aloud, and interactive play. Wonderscope uses Apple's ARKit and proprietary software to create an active screen time experience for children that improves reading skills, confidence, and empathy. In Wonderscope stories, children read dialogue lines aloud to converse with and help characters through their narrative journeys, which take place in augmented reality. Within also created an interactive toolkit and story editor that enables creative storytellers and developers to create stories that can be shared on the platform.

"Wonderscope and its AR stories fit perfectly into Amira Learning's cutting-edge AI tutoring platform, with its growing stable of award-winning interactive reading apps," says Amira Learning CEO, Mark Angel. "As we continue to grow, we hope to reach more children, schools, parents, and teachers with our language learning products powered by these remarkable technologies."

Pairing Amira's Intelligent Tutoring with Wonderscope's Immersive Reading allows children to learn in immersive multi-sensory environments that expand according to skill. This innovative combination of AR and AI technologies is poised to transform education at home and at school. Amira's software is already in use by nearly 1 million students in over 5,000 schools worldwide.

The Wonderscope app and all six stories can currently be accessed for free on devices running on iOS 11 or newer: iPhone 6S or newer, 2017 iPad or newer, and iPad Pro.

Co-founded in 2014 by Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin, Within is a leader in the development of innovative AR and VR products, and has transformed the fast-moving field in the process.

In 2020, Within released Supernatural, the first subscription-based, full-body fitness service for virtual reality with the mission of transforming lives by making exercise fun. Featuring personalized, on-demand workouts that transport users to some of the world's most beautiful destinations, Supernatural was named a TIME Best Invention and Within a Fast Company Most Innovative Company.

Investors include Andreessen Horowitz, Temasek, Emerson Collective, 21st Century Fox, Disney, WPP, Translink Capital, Raine Ventures, WME, Live Nation, Vice Media, Tribeca Enterprises, Annapurna Pictures, and Legendary Pictures.

Amira Learning has developed the first intelligent reading assistant that listens to students as they read out loud, assesses mastery, and delivers personalized tutoring to accelerate reading mastery.  The company was founded by a team of former engineers and executives from Pearson, IBM, ACT, and Renaissance and built from a foundation of 20 years of research from Carnegie Mellon University. Amira Learning's mission is to help close the 43 million person literacy gap in America by creating personalized and engaging reading experiences for children. Headquartered in San Francisco, the company has raised more than $40M from investors, including Owl Ventures, Authentic Ventures, Vertical Venture Partners, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, Outcomes Collective, Google Assistant Fund, Amazon Alexa Fund, ReThink Education, and GSV AcceleraTE. It is currently being used by more than 2,500 schools, reaching nearly one million students across the United States and worldwide. To learn more about Amira Learning, visit amiralearning.com.

Amira and the StoryCraft, the company's offering for families, was named one of the Best Inventions of 2021 by Time Magazine. The app is available for free in the Apple App Store

SOURCE Within