Working with MIT Solve to demonstrate impact

In 2018, CENTURY was chosen as a Solver by MIT Solve, an initiative of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) with a mission to solve world challenges. Applicants pitch their work and are assessed for their impact – successful teams join the MIT-backed network and receive 9 months of support from Solve’s community of peers, funders, and experts to advance their work.

We were chosen as part of the ‘Teachers & Educators Challenge’, which sought solutions to the question ‘How can teachers and educators provide accessible, personalized, and creative learning experiences for all?’

Our Founder CEO Priya Lakhani OBE has written for Solve’s blog about why impact initiatives like Solve are so important for social entrepreneurs.

In 2013, I founded CENTURY Tech to harness the power of artificial intelligence to improve education, which, back then, was one of the few industries that technology had yet to revolutionize. My team built a product that combined AI, neuroscience, and learning science to personalize learning while empowering teachers to perform even better as educators. But more fundamentally, as a social impact enterprise, we simply wanted to make the world a better place.

 

However, as we all know, nothing in the world comes for free—and this is especially true in the cut-throat world of investment. How do you convince seasoned investors that your vision is worthy of their time, attention, and funds—one that will deliver a strong return on their investment? Any impactful, long-term solution starts as a bright-eyed, optimistic dream, but this means nothing if you fail to persuade investors that you can deliver results.

 

It can be very challenging to convince partners and investors that your solution is the real deal. Investors welcome visionaries, but fundamentally they want proof: Does it work? How do you know? Who can vouch for you? From an investor’s perspective, education is far from the sexiest sector—returns can be lower and can take longer to materialize. Therefore, it was even more vital for us to validate our impact.

Read more on MIT Solve.