WASHINGTON, USA – The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is pleased to announce the ten finalists for the PLAY Challenge that were selected from a total of 296 proposals from 30 countries.
The PLAY Challenge, which was launched on July 2020, seeks to identify the most innovative global solutions from the education and the creative economy sectors, such as video games, platforms and digital products that use gamification for the development, measurement or certification of cognitive, socio-emotional or executive functioning abilities.
“With an annual growth of 13.5 percent, the videogame industry is the fastest-growing sector of the creative economy. We are excited to see the interest that this competition has generated. Gamification has an enormous potential to transform traditional industries like the education sector,” said Alejandra Luzardo, IDB lead specialist on innovation and creativity.
The finalists were chosen by a group of 14 jurors including IDB specialists, investors, experts in educational video games and members of the region’s innovation ecosystem. The evaluation criteria were fulfillment of pedagogical objectives, innovation, potential for scalability, operativity and promotion rate.
The finalists were:
- CodeMonkey Studios Studios (Israel): Led by Zack Isakow
- Towi (Mexico): Founded by Andrea Oviedo Villasana
- Toolbox Academy (Spain): Founded by Francisco Vico
- CodedArena (Spain): Founded by Jordi Rubio Moreno
- Elements ME SAPI de CV (Mexico): Founded by David Ahedo
- Dadbox (Mexico): Founded by Jennifer Reyna
- Escuela Superior Politécnica del Litoral (ESPOL) (Ecuador): Represented by Nayeth Solórzano
- PIXDEA (Honduras): Founded by Xavier Rubio
- Canal SI Televisión (Argentina): Founded by Luciano Zocola
- Instituto Empatizar (Brazil): Founded by Julio Cesar Teixeira de Freitas
The winner will receive a US$10,000 prize and the rest of the winning solutions may be considered for implementation in the region in the context of the 21st Century Skills Regional Project . There will also be other prizes awarded by key partners such as mentorships, the generation of promotional content and acceleration programs.
PLAY Challenge finalists will make their pitch to the jurors on November 5 at 9:30 AM EST The winners will be announced via livestream at the final event on Friday, November 6 at 10 AM EST. Click here to register for this free event.
