Algor Maps is a digital platform designed to improve the quality of teaching and make education more inclusive. Developed in collaboration with the Italian Dyslexia Association (AID) to make students with specific learning disorders (SLD) more autonomous in their studies, the technological solution of the innovative startup Algor is now also available to schools and associations, with the aim of helping as many people as possible to facilitate the process of understanding, analysing and revising written text.
The birth of the project
Algor's adventure began at Politecnico di Torino at the end of 2020, when a group of students took part in the challenge "Artificial Intelligence, Shape the future" - part of the Challenge@PoliTO programme proposed by the university's Connection Lab and Innovation Kitchen (CLIK) - proposing an application that allows texts to be easily transformed into concept maps.
At the heart of the app is a proprietary artificial intelligence algorithm that can process and synthesise text extracts, or scan them, identifying indices, concepts and key information fully automatically. The concept maps can then be edited, reorganised and shared online, facilitating group study or work.
In January 2021, the prototype won the challenge and its creator, Mauro Musarra, presented it to the I3P incubator, gaining access to a pre-incubation path aimed at developing the project into a new innovative enterprise.
Awards and prizes
Over the next few months, the Algor team expanded to include five more under-25 talents and launched the first beta version of its application, with over 500 registrations in less than a week. As the app was tested, optimised and enriched with additional features - including the ability to reproduce texts with speech synthesis and a real-time help service - the project began to receive major awards for its value as a technological innovation applied to learning.
During the summer, Algor won the Ancalau 2021 Award, winning the €10,000 prize offered by its partner Eataly, and the Nazaré Lifelong Learning call for ideas by the social innovation benefit company Onde Alte, with its main prize of €20,000. In October, the project won the Tim Award at the Digithon 2021 trophy and the "Le Economie della Fiducia" ("The Economies of Trust") award from Buone Notizie, an insert of Corriere della Sera, in collaboration with Ashoka Italia. At the beginning of November, Algor was awarded 4th place in the Start Cup Piemonte Valle d'Aosta 2021 competition, also winning the "Social Innovation" special mention and qualifying to take part in the Premio Nazionale per l'Innovazione (National Innovation Award - PNI 2021), Italy's most important business plan competition, which this year will be held on Tuesday 30 November and Friday 3 December.
Two important milestones
At the award ceremony of Start Cup Piemonte Valle d'Aosta, Founder & CEO Mauro Musarra announced the achievement of a new milestone in the history of Algor: the raising of an investment of €180,000 by Club degli Investitori, one of the leading business angel groups in Italy, to develop the potential of the app and the business project. Angelo Italiano and Anna Maria Siccardi, co-champions of the operation for the Club degli Investitori, said: "Algor has gathered the trust of a wide audience of Club members, both for the soundness of the idea and the technology behind the product, and for the strong connotation of social impact that the project brings with it".
The second milestone, reached in parallel and within a few days of the first, was the entrance into I3P's incubation process, after passing the Evaluation Committee's examination. As of 15 November 2021, Algor was officially accepted as one of the innovative startups incubated at I3P, gaining full access to all consulting, networking, capital-raising and internationalisation services.
"Joining I3P was one of the most important choices for our project: it allowed us to obtain the necessary resources to begin this journey, presenting us with numerous opportunities and exposing us to a wide network of investors interested in our idea and our team," commented Mauro Musarra. "A special thanks goes to the I3P tutors, who have followed our startup from day one and who still accompany us along our path of growth and development."