History

Learn more about Mainbot, who we are, and where we came from.

Basic Statement

Mainbot is first and foremost an observation: robotics will change the world, so we must prepare the new generation for its arrival. People are usually not well informed about robotics, how robots work and what they are made of. Same goes with new technologies in general.

Yet, in the last few years robots have been taking an increasingly role in the world, and even in everyday life.

Partnership with Ecole Polytechnique

By working with Ecole Polytechnique, the most famous engineering school in France (equivalent of French MIT), and almost 4,000 families, we could see that children have more facilities to learn computing and robotics with an actual device, rather than just on a screen. Lots of studies also show that kids learn faster if they are learning by playing.

Parents from all over the world are also looking for more concrete, innovative and effective teaching practices for their children.

Mainbot's Birth

After these preliminary observations the concept of Mainbot came to us, with the aim of democratizing the use of robots, and preparing kids & their parents for tomorrow's world.

We wanted Mainbot to offer parents a beautiful and long lasting high end robot for their kids to play with, while boosting their cognitive abilities, skills and knowledge in programming and robotics.

Our first Product, the Winky robot

So Mainbot created Winky, an edutainment robot designed in France. Winky is positioned as the first robotic platform for children's learning. Winky teaches robotics and computer programming today and thanks to its evolutive approach will teach many other things tomorrow (foreign languages, math, nutrition, etc.)

Winky combines educational content and emotional behavior. Its morphology makes it a popular object for kids. Its body language, eye expressions and emotional dialect allow for easy communication. Winky connects with Bluetooth and works with 2 companion apps, Winky Play and Winky Code, which you can learn more about here.

Pre-launch Success

Mainbot launched its pre-commercialization in May 2019 via a pre-order campaign that reached €240,000 on the crowdfunding platform Ulule. This campaign in the "technology product" category is the largest funding in the 9-year history of the Ulule site.

In 30 days of campaigning, the Winky robot has been ordered 1,300 times and has received 2,500 comments.

First Partnerships with major Retails

Mainbot was then able to launch Winky on the market. During the first year, Mainbot signed a partnership with Fnac. Winky therefore began to be marketed to the general public at Fnac for Christmas 2019.

For Christmas 2020, Winky then entered 10 new retailers in France, including: Galeries Lafayette, Amazon, Natures & Découvertes, CDiscount and Boulanger.

Since then the companion apps offering has been updated and their content expanded.

Launch of The Winkyverse project

With the arrival and democratization of Web 3.0, we saw the opportunity to go further in our value proposition. We wanted to make Winky a true platform, aggregating 3rd party content and offering children the richest possible edutainment experience. Metaverses seemed to us the most complete and ideal solution. Moreover, it would also allow us to reach a wider public, and answer our initial objective of also educating older users to different technologies, not only kids. So, mid 2021 we conceptualized The Winkyverse project, the first global educational gaming metaverse, and by the end of the year, succeeded in raising €24.5M through our ICO!