Poikilingo was founded in 2020 by Leticia Maimann-Roland and Paula Jota Pedersen, two Brazilians mothers living in Denmark.

Leticia got pregnant with her first child in 2016, and was concerned about passing Portuguese, her native language, to her kid. With a long career in Education and Learning Technologies, it was natural for her to look for educational apps, and she was shocked that the big majority of good & high-quality learning apps were only available in English. She decided to start developing something herself, and the seed of Poikilingo was planted!

Paula & Leticia have been friends for almost 20 years, and they were pregnant at the same time. So it was natural to talk about the challenges of passing their native language to their kids. Paula was the owner of an e-commerce pet shop, which she sold to join Poikilingo. Paula brought along her expertise in Marketing and Digital Sales.

Since December 2020, when the company was founded, they have been in a long fun & crazy journey. Some highlights:

• • October 2020: The project was selected for the InnoFounder Experienced Program. The founders received a grant from the Innovation Fund Denmark to work full-time in the project. The program ran from April 2021 to March 2022.

  • January 2021: Both founders were selected to the Tech Nordic Advocates (TNA) mentoring program, along with other 19 female founders.

  • February 2021: Poikilingo joined the Amazon Web Services (AWS) EdStart program, an incubation for EdTech startups.

  • May 2021: Poikilingo was the 2nd-prize winner at the Creative Business Cup Denmark 2021.

  • August 2021: Poikilingo was selected to the 2nd cohort of EdTechs for the mentoring program at EduHub DK.

  • September 2021: Poikilingo was one of the 17 startups selected among 278 applications to the prestigious IMPACT EdTech Incubation Program, receiving an equity-free EU grant.

  • May 2022: Poikilingo started a closed-beta testing of a language learning app for kids 2-6 yo to learn English, Portuguese & Danish.

  • June 2022: Paula was selected to join the Tech Nordic Advocates Accelerator Program.

  • July 2022: The Danish Film Institute has supported Poikilingo through The Game Scheme, by co-financing the production of extra Danish content.

  • October 2022: Poikilingo launched its first YouTube channel, in Portuguese, reaching more than 250,000 unique viewers around the world.

  • May 2023: Poikilingo starts its open beta-testing phase, with a soft launch of the Danish content.

  • June 2023: Poikilingo was selected to the InnoBooster program, from Innovation Fund Denmark, to receive a subsidy to help them fine-tune their kids’ app before launch.

  • August 2023: Poikilingo launches its learning app for kids 3-6 yo, with content available in English, Portuguese & Danish. The app was available for FREE to kids in Denmark and Ukraine from launch til August 2025.

  • October 2023: We launch the Danish You Channel, with many popular Danish songs, reaching ca. 200,000 views.

  • Along 2024: Poikilingo invests in mini-games, videos and songs focused on seasonal content: Easter, Halloween and Christmas. Also in cultural seasonal content, sucha as Fastelavn for Danish and Festa Junina for Portuguese.

  • May 2025: Poikilingo Kids app has been awarded the seal “Teacher Approved” from Google Play Store. Google pointed that the app is fun and engaging, thoughfully designed for children, sparks curiosity, creativity & imagination, and delivers positive  messages about diversity, physical health, global citizenship and love of learning.

  • June 2026: Poikilingo launches a new language: now kids all over the world can also play and learn in Spanish!

  • Til now: Poikilingo Kids app has been downloaded and enjoyed by more than 15,000 families worldwide, and played by more than 25,000 children.