In 2016, the average cost of a 4-year college or university was $39,000. The amount of money it pays to attend school every year is on the rise and students and self are looking for alternatives ways to educate themselves on a budget.
That’s where Uvii comes in.
Uvii is a mobile app that brings speaker seminar and micro-learning courses to the palms of people’s hands. The app is currently in beta and uses video to offer skill training, self-help courses and other sessions at a nominal fee.
“I knew that there had to be a way through technology to bridge the gap for education,” Uvii Founder Kimberly Gray said.
Uvii’s main goal is to provide quality education and on-demand courses for a fraction of the costs of traditional schooling.
Gray got her inspiration for Uvii from her parents, who both served as principals in Washington, D.C. public schools.
The company has two business models — the frontend, consumer-focused model and the B2B model. On the consumer side, the model app provides access to influencer and industry-leader sessions. The B2B model is a plugin that includes video surveys and video commenting tools enabled through other platforms like Blackboard. Colleges and universities can use Uvii to provide content to students who may need additional help and materials for their classes.
In 2018, Uvii partnered with Medgar Evers College, SXSW, and Women Who Code. The company also launched a pilot program at the City University of New York last and participated in the SXSW Release It pitch competition last year.
Gray said her company is honing in on a generation that is dedicated to self-improvement and wants her platform to change the way traditional education is seen.
“Social media has given people a way to carve out their own identity,” Gray said. “They know what they want to do, they just need the information and tools to execute them.”
