Coming to a student’s iPad near you: Boddle launches in Apple App Store as edtech startup celebrates third birthday
February 14, 2021 | Startland News Staff
A Kansas City-generated gamified math education platform is expanding its user base this weekend as Boddle Learning debuts the high-profile startup’s long-awaited iOS app version.
The move is expected to most immediately benefit schools that use iPads, as well as parents at home who can now more-easily access the technology on mobile devices, said Edna Martinson, co-founder of Boddle.
What is Boddle Learning?
Boddle offers a gamified approach to increasing student engagement while creating a virtual, immersive math environment. The technology’s unique AI operates on an adaptive algorithm that easily identifies each student’s individual learning gaps before adjusting assessment questions to target the skills that need reinforcement and are necessary to advance.
Boddle was designed for positive reinforcement. Students’ game characters feature bottle-heads that fill up as they learn, which was designed to encourage them to fill up on knowledge, as well as to value themselves and others for what they see on the inside.
Click here to learn more about Boddle.
“This app launch is a pivotal milestone for Boddle, and it fits perfectly with our commitment to increasing accessibility to engaging math practice for all students,” she said. “By releasing the app, we hope that Boddle can support more students during both remote and in-person learning and make it super fun for kids to practice and master math anywhere.”
Launching Boddle in the Apple App Store coincides with the startup’s third anniversary — Feb. 14, a fitting day for Martinson and co-founder/husband Clarence Tan — and comes as demands for remote learning resources and tools continue during the COVID-19 pandemic and ongoing restrictions of in-person learning, she said.
Click here to download the app in the Apple App Store.
Identified as one of Startland News’ Kansas City Startups to Watch in 2020, Boddle experienced a surge in user adoption during the pandemic and expanded its reach to 50,000-plus student sign-ups across all 50 U.S. states and 100 countries globally.
In July, Boddle announced a $350,000 investment by Atento Capital — an infusion that required the leading Kansas City edtech startup to relocate to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to work more closely with the funder. Boddle previously received significant funding from AT&T and was a $50,000 finalist in the OHUB.KC accelerator.
Click here to read more about the Atento investment.
Boddle, however, remains connected to the Kansas City metro, Martinson told Startland News. Co-founder Tan on Thursday was announced as one of 13 new fellows for Kansas City-based Pipeline Entrepreneurs.
Click here to see the other five Kansas City founders entering Pipeline in 2021.
This story is possible thanks to support from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, a private, nonpartisan foundation that works together with communities in education and entrepreneurship to create uncommon solutions and empower people to shape their futures and be successful.
For more information, visit www.kauffman.org and connect at www.twitter.com/kauffmanfdn and www.facebook.com/kauffmanfdn
Featured Business

2021 Startups to Watch
stats here
Related Posts on Startland News
Fund Me, KC: Vegan founder hopes to build Plant Powered Community from KCK
Editor’s note: Startland News is continuing its “Fund Me, KC” feature to highlight area entrepreneurial efforts to accelerate businesses or projects. If you or your startup is running a crowdfunding campaign, let us know by contacting news@startlandnews.com. Today’s featured campaign is from Kansas City, Kansas-based Plant Powered Community. Your name and title with the business?…
1 Million Cups credits its six-year run to the strength of its volunteers, entrepreneurs
After six years, the connectivity at 1 Million Cups remains as strong as the coffee, organizers said. The Kansas City-born event series is celebrating the anniversary of its first pour 9 a.m. May 2 with the program’s trademark brew — two startups delivering 10-minute pitches to an audience with the intent to educate, engage and…
Duo creates app-based audio tour exploring KC’s history of segregation
Most Kansas Citians are uninformed on the area’s segregated past, Nathaniel Bozarth said. “To be quite honest, I’m convinced that this ignorance is by design,” said Bozarth, a Kansas City ethnographer and host of the Wide Ruled podcast. “White America does not want to deal with the sins of our fathers and our own sins…


