Mathematics can be a complex subject for many, and solving problems can become a painful task. To make Math easy and fun, Korean edtech startup Mathpresso has developed QANDA, a math app that allows students to solve complicated mathematical problems just by clicking its photos. The distinctive feature of the QANDA app has helped gain the startup a record of 30 million downloads in six months period. The app that solves math problems in a click had 15 million downloads in October 2020.

What is the QANDA app?

QANDA is Mathpresso’s flagship service, which provides students with math and science tutoring. QANDA app allows students to take a picture of a problem they cannot solve and upload it on the app. They can get the answer to the math problem for free within 5 seconds. The math app’s AI-based optical character recognition technology helps resolves complex math problems within seconds. It also recognizes Korean language and equations, at the same time, provides students with optimized search and solution results quickly. QANDA also provides a 1-on-1 Q&A feature (human-based) and auto-search (AI-based) feature. It solves any math problems ranging from equations to geometry.

QANDA recorded explosive growth since the launch of the full search service in October 2017, exceeding 5 million downloads in 2019 and 10 million downloads in July 2020. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, Mathpresso has seen a surge in demand for the e-learning platform. The math app is used by 8.6 million students every month worldwide, and more than 5 million questions are asked and searched on QANDA every day.

Since its launch in 2016, QANDA app has solved over 1.3 billion math problems submitted by students from over 50 countries. Of the 30 million downloads of QANDA, 80% came from overseas, including Southeast Asia, the USA, and South America. In November 2018, QANDA advanced overseas, starting with Japan, and took the top spot in the education charts in six countries, including Japan, Indonesia, and Vietnam. In Korea, it ranked first in the Google Play Store and App Store education charts for four consecutive years and was selected as the App of the Day App in April. In Korea, it is used by more than two-thirds of the entire grade K-12 student population.

Lee Yong-jae, CEO of Mathpresso, said in a media statement, “It is meaningful to have achieved 30 million downloads worldwide for QANDA, which started in Korea. We will continue to improve our services so that more and more students can enjoy effective education anytime, anywhere.”

Adding new features to QANDA

In the first half of 2021, to leap forward to a customized education platform beyond the solution search service, Mathpresso introduced a 1:1 intensive planning management group called ‘QANDA Class.’ a real-time lecture solution. It also introduced the QANDA community service, a communication channel for students, and a video lecture package.

Various new features, such as a subscription, ‘QANDA Premium,’ are also scheduled to be launched. Since 2015, Mathpresso has raised $55 million from investors, including Legend Capital, SoftBank Ventures Asia, and Samsung Ventures. Headquartered in Seoul, Mathpresso has offices in Tokyo and Hanoi.

Read more about Edtech startups, 

• Korean startup KnowRe makes learning mathematics interesting and fun
• Korean startup’s Mathrevolution.com making GMAT math easy for all
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• Korean EdTech CUBROID designs Coding learning solutions for children; develops compact AI-Coding Robot ARTIBO