A London mother-of-three, Reedah El-Saie, has secured a remarkable £30,000 investment on the BBC One television show Dragons’ Den for her company Brainspark Games, which she founded to revolutionise educational gaming. Reedah, the sole female founder of the company, impressed three prominent Dragons—Deborah Meaden, Touker Suleyman, and Sara Davies—each of whom offered £10,000 for a one per cent stake in her AI-powered educational mobile gaming platform. Her pitch landed her a rare triple investment, reflecting strong confidence in her innovative approach to learning through play.
Brainspark Games specialises in culturally inclusive neurogames technology, aiming to engage children who often find traditional education systems uninspiring or ill-suited to diverse learning needs. Drawing on her background as a law graduate from the London School of Economics and a personal frustration with the outdated education system, Reedah launched the company in 2021. The platform provides subject-specific games aligned with the UK national curriculum, covering a broad range of areas from English, Maths, and History to Art, Physics, Biology, and even Climate Change. Her vision is to condense twelve weeks of term-time learning into a few hours of immersive and enjoyable gameplay, utilising AI and augmented reality to deepen engagement—children can even interact with Shakespearean works within the games.
Reedah attributes her success on Dragons’ Den to thorough preparation. She told MyLondon that before entering the studio, she watched every previous episode of the show and crafted responses for all possible questions, advice she believes contributed significantly to winning over the investors. She highlighted how Sara Davies, herself a mother, particularly connected with her mission to ease homework challenges for families. The investors’ enthusiasm is an endorsement of Brainspark’s potential to transform education and accelerate the development of more advanced GCSE-level games using their ongoing research and innovation.
Brainspark Games also addresses a critical educational gap, noting that 30 to 34 percent of children fail their GCSE exams on the first attempt, with many subsequently becoming NEET (Not in Education, Employment, or Training). The platform’s culturally inclusive approach and support for neurodiverse learners are especially noteworthy; it is designed to help children who may be 18 to 40 months behind their peers. The games have been co-designed with input from over 3,800 parents, homeschoolers, educators, schools, youth centres, and community groups, ensuring they meet broad educational needs and are truly inclusive.
The company has received funding support from Innovate UK through eight grants, including awards targeting future audience engagement and climate education, such as the ‘Audience of The Future’ and ‘Design for Net Zero’ programmes. Notably, their English game featuring Shakespeare’s "A Midsummer Night’s Dream" was supported by the ‘Women In Innovation’ grant. Collaboration with leading universities and corporates has also facilitated the development of the UK's first Climate GCSE game, offering interactive content through mini-games, quizzes, and avatar customisation, reflecting Brainspark’s commitment to incorporating climate education into the curriculum.
Beyond gaming, Brainspark Games extends its educational mission through free holiday camps across London, promoting mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing in children from diverse backgrounds, including neurodiverse and neurotypical learners. The company combines expertise in game design, technical development, education, and child psychology, under the leadership of Reedah El-Saie, to foster a love of learning that adapts to modern challenges and diverse learner profiles.
Reedah’s success on Dragons’ Den signals a promising future for educational technology that combines cultural inclusivity, cutting-edge AI, and curriculum alignment to enhance learning outcomes. With funding and mentorship from experienced investors, Brainspark Games is poised to accelerate its development of innovative educational tools designed to engage the next generation of learners more effectively.
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Source: Noah Wire Services