The world of social technology and impact investing revolves around startups seeking to contribute to society. An oft-used example to explain their difference from traditional startups involves the gaming industry, in which there are games designed for entertainment and games designed to improve the user’s quality of life.
The second class of social accelerator TechForGood Rally, which concluded on Monday at the Leumi Bank offices in Tel Aviv, included a gaming startup with a socially-oriented mission statement - to bridge the gender opportunity gap.
Anat Shperling and Yifat Anzelevich, the two co-founders of Toya, were short on tech experience when they started their journey. “Yifat and I have known each other for more than a decade,” said Shperling, “My background is social entrepreneurship aimed at encouraging women. I founded the International Women’s Film Festival and the Women in the Picture Association to promote female representation in cinema.
“I did my BA in cinema studies and my MA in gender studies. I met Yifat when she was branding and designing one of the festivals; she has a design studio. We are both mothers, we have daughters and sons. Coincidentally, our two boys were born on the same day; we are aware of the massive influence the media have on the aspirations of girls - meaning the role models they will face will be male, which makes it difficult for them to affiliate.”
Shperling says Toya is a digital gaming brand seeking to provide girls a wider toolbox to fulfill their potential. “We are creating digital games with specialized characteristics; Yifat develops them in the studio and I provide the content.”
Their first game, for example, follows a well-known female nature researcher. The game is based on the Minecraft platform - and not by accident. “It is the most popular platform of all time,” said Shperling, “Thirty percent of all players are girls despite the game’s apparent appeal to boys; it allows them to look at the bigger picture and challenges them with many aspects of construction. Because it is an open-source platform, we use it to tell our stories. While many games are ended by disqualification, we create games that provide new scenarios and thus progress.”
Are the games designed to be easier for girls?
“Not at all. The games are designed for boys and girls. There is currently a separation between games for boys and games for girls. Research shows that at the age of 4 both boys and girls say they want to be prime minister when they grow up. But by the age of 12, when the boys still repeat the answer, girls say they want to be models.
“From the fifties until now, there has remained a blue-pink separation. The game we develop will be intended for all; just as girls study revolutionary male figures, so will the boys learn about pioneering women. It will include nature games and space games, each game will have action, planning, strategy, entertainment and educational values. We are currently working on the first game, to be released in May.”
Shperling says the accelerator helped leverage their company. “We arrived at the first meeting with a different perspective and have since undergone a major transformation: we received business and marketing tools and learned about the ties between the social and business aspects of startups.”
Have you found investors?
“We wanted to be better prepared before seeking our initial round of investment. So far, we have invested $50,000 of our own money and we now are starting to seek investment.”
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on March 1, 2016
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