How Aequaland raised CHF100k

Alma grew up in Spain. She moved to Switzerland to kick off her professional career at 23 years old. She has worked in international companies across different tech industries from MedTech, EdTech to XR technologies and gaming.

A key trigger was when she was working in an NGO to tackle diversity and inclusion within multinationals, she realized that the problem was not at the workforce level, but within the education systems. When she became an aunt, she realized that if you want to buy a toy as a little girl, your options are pink princesses and blue supermen for boys. She thought, “what if we could create a safe and inclusive space for children to learn about themselves in all their colors and feel free to become whomever they wanted, without being cast by stereotypes from a young age?”.

She started to investigate further… and Aequaland was born to deconstruct stereotypes amongst children, through stories, together with her friend Rebeca. She joined the BØWIE Incubator to accelerate the development of the app, find a network that could help her to reach her first users (the app was downloaded by more than a 1000 users already), learn how to lead her team and build a strategy to make her business sustainable (with in-app payments). She also received support from a J.P. Morgan advisor, Jeremie, who helped her with task management and strategy. 

In the end, she won the BØWIE Public Choice Award and explained: “The BØWIE programme helped me to structure my objectives and my path to reach them and this Award is giving me even more drive and motivation!” In September 2021, she secured an investment of CHF 100'000.-. The company started with a B2C storytelling app, and now they're building a B2B educational platform for kids that puts self-discovery and emotional intelligence at the heart of its universe. Aequaland engages learning through gamification to develop 21st century skills. Their mission is to empower children by becoming their own superheroes.