Revyze, the ‘TikTok for education’ startup, is drawing on Duolingo to add bite-sized learning.

Middle school and high school students are the easiest and most difficult audiences. If you develop a neat video game, they may be willing to download it immediately. But if, like the team behind Revyze, you’re working on a learning app, good luck.

And yet, the French startup defied the odds and attracted a million users over the past two years. In June, the Revyze app even reached the coveted #1 free download spot on Apple’s App Store.

One third of all 9th ​​graders in France turn to Revyze for last-minute homework before national middle school exams. Nearly 2,000 content creators have shared 40,000 videos and questions on the app. They attracted 150 million views in total.

All those delays helped the fundraising start. On Monday Revyze announced the close of a 5.5 million Euro ($6 million at current exchange rates) seed round led by Speedinvest and Moonfire.

Motier Ventures, Station F (where it is currently headquartered), Supercell founder Illka ​​Paananen, King co-founders Riccardo Zacconni and Sebastian Knusson, and Duolingo’s Nickey Skarstad they also participated.

Revyze previously raised a pre-seed round of $2 million (about $2.2 million) back in 2022.

Non-exam season

However, it has not been smooth sailing for Revyze in the US

When we first covered the startup its pitch was simple: building an educational TikTok. While there are great educational videos on TikTok, users’ feeds are littered with real-time crime stories, and, a lot everything (thought this writer waving his hand in the air).

In 2023, the group decided to launch the application in the US TikTok has various challenges in the market, and many American parents have concerns about content issues and local lawmakers are also following TikTok in terms of national security. So Revyze’s positioning as an alternative – an education-focused platform – could work. At least on paper.

“I moved to the US just one year ago and spent four months there,” co-founder Guillaume Perrot told TechCrunch. “The aim was to repeat what we did in France, to build a company in these times of stress and tests in the US, which is the SAT. [the main college admissions test].”

But they found that doesn’t necessarily lead to strong and consistent user growth. Maybe there wasn’t enough content or it wasn’t clear enough on the SAT tests. “What we really learned was that we had to rework the product before we tried to expand into the US,” he added.

In particular, while the app worked well before the worrisome test, US users didn’t open it during the year. So they went back to the drawing board to find ways to create consistent engagement.

The Revyze team tweaked the app experience to be more than just a straight video feed that pushes learning to people who are stressed enough about their upcoming exams to spend every minute studying. Now, the content is curated so you can access the app in a more organized or focused way. In other words, it now draws inspiration from both TikTok and Duolingo.

“We launched a product called capsules with the idea that we will try to get people to use the application every week when they are tested,” said Perrot.

Tablets designed by Revyze’s top content creators for a single topic. It is a collection of videos, quizzes and summary papers. It works a bit like a tutorial on Duolingo. There is a beginning, a middle and an end, which means you get a sense of accomplishment when you finish the capsule.

There are also other aspects of gamification around the capsules. “You open a capsule with coins that you earn by coming back every day — a bit like Duolingo with the streak sound — and by asking questions every day,” co-founder Florent Sciberras told TechCrunch.

“[Capsules] and allow top creators to monetize their content. We have launched a monetization program for our top 5% creators worldwide. Let’s say you live in Michigan and take your math test, which is a little Michigan-specific. You can say, ‘I know what they need, I can create content and I will earn a portion of the coins used in my cap,’” said Sciberras.

While everything is still free, Revyze plans to monetize its app at some point by adding paid access to additional features, such as personalized analytics and social features, as well as allowing users to pay to access content faster.

Currently, Revyze is still focused on finding the right product market and growing its communities of users and content creators. The community of top creators is incredibly diverse. There are high achievers who want to give back and share knowledge but there are also teachers who want to reach a wider audience.

It’s especially noticeable when a startup invites its community of creators to Station F. “You’ve got a 10th grader rubbing shoulders with a 45-year-old history teacher from Agen,” says Sciberras. “And they’re all here together with one goal in mind: to help students learn differently.”