BoniO Incorporated, an educational gaming software firm founded last year by a team of NTU software developers, recently signed an agreement with Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group under which the global technology giant will supply a capital injection of US$6 million to the new company.  The software startup was established by the Department of Electrical Engineering’s Prof. Ping-Cheng Benson Yeh along with his business partner Chih-Hung Jason Ho, who serves as the company’s CEO. The team also includes a collection of students from the Department of Electrical Engineering and the Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering who have been working on the company’s PaGamO development project here at NTU.  BoniO intends to use this major infusion of funding to accelerate its expansion into the global educational technology market.

Foxconn’s investment stands as the largest ever in a Taiwanese software startup.  Moreover, BoniO has granted NTU a stock holding equivalent to US$300,000 as compensation.  This also marks a new high in founder compensation provided by a campus startup company to its parent university in recent years.

Initiated in 2013, the company’s first project, PaGamO, is the world’s first multiplayer online gaming project designed specifically for massive open online courses (MOOC).  Following BoniO’s establishment in March of 2014, the game was formally released as the world’s first such educational gaming platform for schools, businesses, and individuals.  

After its release, the project found immediate success among both users and critics.  When December rolled around, Prof. Yeh found himself accepting on behalf of the PaGamO team the top award at a major global education innovation competition in Philadelphia, U.S.A.  The event’s organizers, Quacquarelli Symonds and the Wharton School SEI Center of the University of Pennsylvania, praised the platform’s ability to stimulate students’ willingness to learn.

This year, BoniO has continued to add to its list of successes.  In March, the PaGamO team released another platform specifically for elementary and junior high school students and educators.  Compatible with any academic subject, the platform features fun and engaging challenges that have allowed it to rapidly surpass 50,000 student users.  In addition, the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Dental Medicine sought out the company to sign a three-year cooperation contract, bringing the PaGamO gaming platform into the Ivy League as well as the realm of dentistry.

Prof. Yeh points out that educational technology has become one of the most sought-after technological fields in the world.  However, the BoniO founder is disappointed that, while countries around the world have continued to initiate major investment projects in this area over the last three years, Taiwan remains devoid of any comparable investment.   This is why Yeh’s PaGamO team has since its establishment set its sights on the international market instead, focusing especially on Europe, North America, and China.

Aiming at American consumers, BoniO presented a PaGamO English vocabulary variety designed for use by the general public this May.  As for Europe, the company has been working closely with German businesses and educational institutions in preparation for the release of a PaGamO-based entrepreneurship workshop to take place this summer.  BoniO is forecasting a vigorous performance for PaGamO in the North American and European markets this year.

On another front, once it is formally up and running under a pay-based model, the software developer has plans to fulfill its social responsibility by inviting 500 elementary and junior high schools serving educationally disadvantaged remote communities around Taiwan to use the PaGamO platform free of charge.
BoniO continues to attract attention both internationally and here in Taiwan.  At the beginning of the year, it turned down an enticing buyout offer submitted by an overseas organization.  The team, however, has preferred to maintain operational control in order to realize their shared dreams for the company.  Now, backed by Foxconn’s substantial investment, the firm is moving up its schedule for taking PaGamO to consumers in Europe, North America, and China.