The Smartick Story: How AI is revolutionizing mathematics learning

In today’s educational landscape, where technology plays an increasingly crucial role, Smartick stands as a story of innovation and perseverance. This article chronicles the trajectory of this Spanish startup that has revolutionized mathematics learning on a global scale, becoming a benchmark in the EdTech (educational technology) sector. Let’s delve into the story of Smartick.

The story of Smartick begins with an educational challenge identified by its founders, Javier Arroyo and Daniel González de Vega—two professionals who decided to leave behind their careers in consulting and venture capital to embark on an entrepreneurial journey. Their vision was to create an online learning method capable of adapting to each child’s individual pace, significantly improving their mathematical skills.

Following its inception in 2009, it took them two years to successfully develop the product. Subsequently, they spent another two years operating below the break-even point. Meanwhile, they depleted their own savings along with those of family and friends (the “Love Money” phase). Fortunately, since they reached profitability in 2013, their growth has been uninterrupted. Smartick’s international expansion marks another fascinating chapter, bringing its innovative method to more than 180 countries. This journey is backed by numerous accolades and awards that validate the method’s effectiveness and impact.

Smartick stands as an inspiring example of how technology can transform education, improving the lives of thousands of children worldwide.

The Educational Challenge That Inspired Smartick

The PISA report (Programme for International Student Assessment) is a worldwide study conducted by the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) that evaluates the educational performance of 15-year-old students across different nations. The report measures essential skills and knowledge in three core areas: reading comprehension, mathematics, and science.

In the late 2000s, Spain consistently ranked mediocrely in mathematics within the PISA report. This gap was a growing concern not only for educators but for families in general. While most citizens confined themselves to discussing the situation and lamenting their inability to address the problem, fortunately, there are always those who know how to turn major challenges into opportunities.

On this occasion, Javier Arroyo and Daniel González were the ones who identified the opportunity: applying technology to personalize learning and improve these educational outcomes. Their inspiration was the Kumon method, but with an innovative pivot—replacing physical worksheets with software algorithms. Interestingly, these were two professionals with well-established careers in consulting (Accenture) and venture capital, with no prior ties to the education sector.

The Founders: Javier Arroyo and Daniel González

Javier Arroyo Crejo (Seville, 1971) grew up in an environment that deeply valued education and hard work. He states that he learned from his parents that nothing worth having comes without effort, and that results are directly proportional to the work put in. He studied Economics at the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, earned an MBA from the Solvay Brussels School of Economics and Management, and completed an Executive Program at Harvard Business School.

For his part, Daniel González de Vega (Málaga, 1973) studied Industrial Engineering at the Universidad de Málaga, earned an MBA from INSEAD (France, one of the world’s top-tier business schools), and, like Arroyo, also completed an executive training program at an American institution—in his case, Stanford University.

Fate would bring them together in the late 1990s within the strategic consulting division of the former Andersen Consulting (now Accenture). Their friendship grew out of a shared passion for running marathons. Javier Arroyo continued his career in strategic consulting, specializing in business process optimization. Meanwhile, Daniel González relocated to Dubai to work for the investment fund of the Abu Dhabi royal family, where he gained extensive experience in private equity and startup management.

Javier Arroyo and Daniel González, the founders of Smartick.

Why They Decided to Venture Into Entrepreneurship

As is well known, the late 2000s were marked by a severe global economic crisis. Among those affected was Daniel, who was forced to return to Spain from Abu Dhabi. Meanwhile, Javier was no longer convinced he wanted to remain in the world of corporate consulting. This turning point led them to revive the entrepreneurial spirit they both shared. Daniel would later recall: “In venture capital, I was close to the trenches, but not in the trenches, and I still had that drive to build something of my own.”

Both were searching for a project with a profound social impact. Javier was already a father, and Daniel had nieces and nephews. At the time, it was common to feel powerless regarding Spain’s poor performance in the PISA report, particularly in mathematics. They attributed this to a severe lack of proper learning tools available to STEM students.

In 2009, Daniel traveled to the United States where, by chance, he discovered the Kumon method. This Japanese learning system is designed to develop math and reading skills in children through self-paced, independent study. It was created in 1954 by mathematics teacher Toru Kumon to help his own son improve in the subject. The original method relied on physical booklets that students had to complete step-by-step. Although less widely known in Spain at the time, it is an incredibly popular method that expanded globally through a franchise model.

Daniel realized that this method could be adapted utilizing new technologies. The idea was to replace traditional paper-based exercises and the need for students to commute to specialized brick-and-mortar centers with an online platform they could access from anywhere.

As Daniel himself described it: “By accident, I came across the Kumon method, which relies on worksheet-based learning. I realized it carried all the constraints and downsides of a physical method, which requires attending a center at least twice a week. I saw that we could add a layer of technology to optimize the concept. And that is exactly what we did.”

Launch of the Smartick Project

Javier and Daniel brought extensive experience in consulting and venture capital to the table. They possessed the technical expertise required to design an algorithm capable of adapting to each student, alongside the essential strategic vision to build a scalable business model. This background equipped them to navigate the uncertainty of launching a business in the midst of a global economic crisis.

Reflecting on that moment, Daniel noted: “We simultaneously had a great idea and the entrepreneurial drive to execute it—a combination that doesn’t happen every day.” For his part, Javier remarked: “Entrepreneurship is tough, but doing it with a co-founder gives you the strength to persevere.”

The objective was clear: to design a method that tailored mathematics to each child’s individual pace by combining pedagogy, artificial intelligence, and gamification. The methodology was built upon the following core principles:

Personalized Learning: Allowing each student to progress entirely at their own pace.
Sequential Exercises: Structuring content into incremental, bite-sized steps, spanning from fundamental basics to advanced concepts.
Autonomy and Self-Discipline: Fostering the ability to learn independently, reducing reliance on a teacher.
Repetition and Reinforcement: Grounding the learning process in structured repetition to reinforce core concepts while improving speed and accuracy.

In 2009, they incorporated the company under the name Smartick Sistemas Virtuales de Aprendizaje S.L. and established their headquarters in Málaga. To jumpstart operations, they secured a €50,000 loan from ENISA (Empresa Nacional de Innovación), a Spanish public entity dedicated to providing alternative financing to entrepreneurs, startups, and SMEs. The defining feature of ENISA’s participatory loans is that their return is tied to a variable interest rate based on the financial performance of the venture. This initial capital was quickly depleted, forcing the co-founders to rely on personal savings and family loans.

The Commercial Launch

On paper, their vision was crystal clear: they wanted to focus on mathematics instruction and reading comprehension. The core challenge lay in developing an algorithm that could deliver on these goals. To achieve this, they assembled a multidisciplinary team of mathematicians, educators, and software engineers. For two years, they designed a system that combined:

Daily 15-Minute Sessions: Intentionally designed to prevent cognitive fatigue.
Real-Time Difficulty Adjustment: Dynamically shifting exercise complexity based on the student’s live performance.
Positive Reinforcement System: Utilizing virtual rewards to keep children intrinsically motivated.

Once the first beta version was developed, they secured a pilot agreement with 35 schools in Madrid involving 1,000 students. The metrics were unequivocal: results showed a 94% improvement in mathematical skills. This not only validated their core business model but also provided the necessary momentum to move forward.

In September 2011, Smartick Mathematics was officially launched to the market, targeting children aged 4 to 14. The initial pricing structure was set at €39/month, featuring a 7-day free trial. Reflecting on their operational strategy, Daniel would later admit: “If there’s one thing we regret, it’s not internalizing our software development a bit sooner; we relied on outsourcing for too long.”

When the co-founders look back at those early days, they acknowledge the journey was grueling—especially for Javier. While the transition was more seamless for Daniel, who was not tied to another venture at the time, Javier had a wife, two young children (Nicolás and Bárbara, aged 5 and 7), and professional stability. He captured the dilemma perfectly: “The opportunity cost of quitting your job at 40 to dive into entrepreneurship is significantly higher than when you are 25 or 26.” Furthermore, both co-founders went “all-in”, risking their entire personal life savings on the venture.

Reaching the Break-Even Point

From its inception, Smartick clearly differentiated itself from other educational platforms by offering an adaptive methodology. Powered by artificial intelligence, the system analyzes each child’s performance and adjusts exercises in real time, delivering a truly personalized learning experience. The method proved highly effective, yielding clear, tangible results. This sparked positive word-of-mouth among parents and teachers. In fact, it was reported that 90% of initial customers came through referrals from other satisfied parents.

To ensure these standards, Smartick committed to continuous deployment. Since then, the software has been updated every 5 to 6 weeks with fresh content, enhanced usability, and algorithmic refinements. Maintaining student motivation via gamification was also paramount. Gamification involves leveraging game dynamics and mechanics to make activities traditionally viewed as tedious more engaging and entertaining.

Reflecting on that period, Daniel noted: “We started growing but didn’t know what kind of marketing effort was required, nor did we have the resources to execute it. Consequently, our initial growth was strictly word-of-mouth, spreading first among friends and family. We also managed to catch the media’s attention, which provided visibility and fueled the project’s momentum.“

Nevertheless, they established strategic alliances with schools and educational organizations to integrate their method into classrooms, gaining substantial visibility and institutional credibility. While they bypassed traditional advertising, they created blogs, videos, and educational resources to position themselves as thought leaders in the sector. Concurrently, they invested in targeted Google Ads and social media campaigns across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter to reach parents and educators. Finally, they actively participated in edtech trade shows and industry events to boost brand awareness.

Ultimately, in May 2013, they reached break-even. The break-even point is a financial milestone where a company’s revenues match its total operating costs—marking the moment they began turning a profit. This achievement was particularly meaningful, as the co-founders had agreed not to draw a salary until reaching this milestone. This meant they had spent three and a half years without income, burning through personal savings and capital borrowed from friends and family—amounting to over €300,000.

That same year, they secured a second participatory loan from ENISA for €150,000. Two years later, in 2015, revenues reached €3 million, yielding a €1 million net profit, 100% of which was reinvested into R&D. In gratitude for their early backing, they allocated 10% of the company’s equity to their friends and family, while the co-founders retained the remaining ownership.

In 2017, Daniel stated: “The product became profitable, and we have experienced rapid growth ever since. The business is highly lucrative and generates healthy cash flow, which we fully reinvest into product development and scaling. To date, we have not required external investors to fund our growth.”

Indeed, they were deeply committed to avoiding external equity partners. They believed that maintaining absolute control over the company was vital to ensure they could build the exact tool needed to meet their original mission.

Smartick’s International Expansion

Committed to organic growth, Smartick approached its international expansion deliberately and strategically. They entered Mexico in 2014, selecting the country due to its massive market size, cultural proximity to Spain, and a surging demand for EdTech solutions.

Although the Smartick platform was already in Spanish, they localized the content to align with Mexican terminology and cultural expressions. Mirroring their strategy in Spain, they forged partnerships with local schools and educational organizations to promote the platform, while leveraging social media campaigns and Google Ads to reach Mexican parents and educators.

In 2015, Smartick entered the United States, one of the largest and most competitive markets globally. They established an office in Boston, near MIT, where a multidisciplinary team from the institution helped optimize the algorithm for the Anglo-Saxon market. They localized the platform into English and worked closely with schools and educational bodies to integrate Smartick into the US education system. To stand out from competitors, they focused heavily on highlighting the method’s proven effectiveness and scientific backing. Finally, consistent with previous rollouts, they invested in digital marketing and SEO to secure their market positioning.

Building on this accumulated expertise, they expanded their footprint across major Spanish-speaking markets over the following years, entering Colombia (2016), Chile (2017), and both Peru and Argentina (2018). In 2021, they launched a Portuguese version tailored specifically for the Brazilian market.

In 2019, Smartick landed in the United Kingdom, adapting its platform to British English and positioning itself as a premier tool to boost children’s mathematical skills. During the 2020 pandemic, Smartick accelerated its expansion into other English-speaking nations, such as South Africa, capitalizing on the global surge in demand for online education.

Fundamentally, the pillars of Smartick’s international expansion strategy were:

Cultural and Linguistic Adaptation: Smartick prioritized thorough product localization across different languages and cultural contexts, enabling a stronger connection with local users.
Focus on Quality and Outcomes: The proven effectiveness of the Smartick methodology served as their primary value proposition in every target market.
Digital Marketing and Strategic Alliances: They combined targeted digital marketing campaigns with institutional partnerships to gain visibility and credibility.
Organic Growth: Word-of-mouth and organic referrals from parents and educators remained the cornerstone of their scaling strategy.

According to the co-founders, a global mindset was hardcoded into the company from day one. Their vision was never confined to the Spanish-speaking world, but aimed rather at bridging diverse languages and cultures.

Awards and Recognitions

Throughout its history, Smartick has garnered numerous domestic and international awards. These accolades have validated its innovative learning methodology and solidified its reputation as one of the world’s most effective educational platforms. Additionally, these honors have amplified its visibility in international markets, capturing the attention of investors and streamlining strategic alliances.

Perhaps the most cherished awards were those received during the company’s early years, such as:

Emprendedor XXI Award (2013): One of Smartick’s first major milestones, presented by CaixaBank and ENISA. This award highlighted its educational innovation and high growth potential.
SME of the Year Award (2014): Conferred by the leading economic newspaper Expansión, recognizing its impact on the education sector and its innovative business model.
Everis Award (2014): Won in the Education category, this recognition unlocked initial funding opportunities and international exposure.

Equally motivating and valuable were the first international accolades received:

Best Educational Startup in Europe (2015): Awarded at the South Summit in Madrid, one of the most prominent entrepreneurship events in Europe.
EdTech Digest Cool Tool Award (2016): A prestigious accolade recognizing the finest technological tools within the United States educational landscape.
BETT Award (2017): London’s BETT Awards are widely considered the “Oscars of education.” Smartick won in the category of Best Digital Product for Mathematics Teaching.
CODiE Award (2018): This US-based award evaluates technological innovation in education. Smartick secured the prize for Best Adaptive Learning Solution.
Eisenhower Fellowship (2018): Awarded by the United States Congress in recognition of the company’s profound social impact.
Top 30 European Innovators (2022): Appointed by the European Commission.

Beyond these milestones, Smartick has been widely honored for its social and educational impact (WISE Award 2016, UNICEF Award 2017, and Go!ODS Award 2020), its technological edge (Educational Innovation Award in Spain 2015, The EdTech Award 2020, and Scale-Up Europe Award 2021), and has earned extensive media acclaim. It was named one of the 100 Best Startups in the World by Fast Company magazine in 2016; in 2018, Forbes highlighted Smartick as one of the most innovative companies in education; and in 2019, it was featured in top-tier international outlets like The New York Times and the BBC for its impact on global education.

Furthermore, Smartick has been featured as a core case study in educational innovation, entrepreneurship, and edtech programs at world-renowned institutions such as MIT, Harvard, INSEAD, and Oxford. Notably, MIT and Harvard collaborated with Smartick to optimize its algorithm utilizing data sets from 10,000 American students.

The list of accolades is exhaustive. Simply put, Smartick has proven that fusing technological innovation with educational quality and a results-driven approach can earn global acclaim.

*Evolution of headcount and geographic footprint (Sources: growjo.com, getlatka.com, and pitchbook.com)*

Diversification Strategy

As we have seen, Smartick began its journey by focusing on mathematics learning for children aged 4 to 14. Its methodology relies on daily 15-minute sessions designed to sustain focus and motivation. Ranging from basic arithmetic to algebra and geometry—with a strong emphasis on word problems and logic—the curriculum consists of interactive exercises that adapt dynamically to each student’s proficiency and progress. Providing automated reports to parents was equally critical for Smartick to keep families engaged and informed.

Once the effectiveness of this core framework was proven, they capitalized on their infrastructure to roll out vertical product lines across other disciplines:

Smartick Reading / Comprehension (2019): Driven by explicit demand from parents and schools to address reading comprehension—a foundational skill across all school subjects—Smartick collaborated with linguistics and pedagogy experts. They engineered a service tailored to boost reading fluency and textual comprehension for children aged 6 to 10. The module features interactive exercises, comprehension quizzes, and activities designed to foster sustainable reading habits, targeting fluency, spelling, grammar, and complex text analysis. To complement this vertical, Smartick executed the acquisition of Leoteca in 2020—a social platform founded in 2012 by Inés Puig where children share book reviews.
Smartick Coding / Programming (2020): Recognizing that logical and computational thinking was emerging as an essential 21st-century skill, they introduced this module. It is engineered for children aged 6 and up to master foundational programming concepts, develop computational logic, and prepare for any future programming language. Utilizing a gamified, visual approach, the exercises teach logic, algorithms, and problem-solving.
Smartick Chess (2021): To capture the strategic thinking fostered by chess, they launched a dedicated module. This service focuses on sharpening concentration, spatial strategy, and logical reasoning, targeting parents who highly value the cognitive benefits of the game.
Smartick Thinking / Critical Thinking (2022): This module is designed to train children to think critically before acting, strengthening their reasoned decision-making capabilities.

All these expanded verticals leverage the exact same underlying infrastructure: personalized AI-driven adaptive learning and gamification. Furthermore, this product line expansion coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic, positioning Smartick to deliver an all-in-one educational solution during a period of unprecedented demand for remote learning.

Far from being a seamless process, this diversification required exhaustive R&D to ensure each new methodology delivered clear educational ROI and value. Nevertheless, the co-founders remained convinced that product diversification was the definitive path to becoming an end-to-end educational solution. This strategic pivot has proven instrumental to their sustained growth in the global market.

Evolution of Smartick's Revenue (Based on financial statements available at the Mercantile Registry) — *Evolution of Smartick’s Revenue (Based on financial statements available at the Mercantile Registry)*

Smartick’s Monk Platform

While having a tool that sharpens individual student math skills is highly valuable, its primary limitation is that it only supports pupils on an individual basis. The co-founders realized that the broader educational community—including schools, teachers, and policymakers—needed a system capable of evaluating cohort-wide competencies and tracking aggregate student evolution, thereby enabling data-driven decision-making.

With this vision, they initiated a project named Monk in 2019, collaborating with mathematics didactics and psychometrics experts from renowned Spanish universities. The goal was to build an online platform that could assess student progress and foster deep collaboration among teachers, schools, and families to drive excellence in primary school mathematics instruction.

To guarantee the tool’s precision and effectiveness, they invested over €1 million and dedicated approximately five years to its development. The Monk platform delivers highly accurate, benchmarkable metrics for individual students as well as specific classrooms or cohorts. It pinpoints areas for improvement, enabling educators to adapt their pedagogical strategies based on both individual and group progress.

The commercial rollout of Monk took place in 2024. In June of that year, Smartick acquired an equity stake in Micole (micole.net). Founded in 2019 by Ignacio Vallejo-Nágera, Rubén Sarmiento, and Andoitz Jordán, Micole is a widely used school-search platform for families. This strategic move instantly positioned Monk before nearly 3,000 partner educational centers within Micole’s network across Spain, Mexico, Colombia, and Argentina. Consequently, many of these institutions began leveraging the tool to precisely audit their students’ mathematical progress.

Monk provides teachers, school principals, and heads of studies with a rigorous framework to assess the mathematical literacy of primary school students. Its main innovation lies in its adaptive assessment engine, which dynamically selects questions based on the student’s previous answers.

Smartick’s ultimate goal is for Monk to become the industry standard for measuring mathematics and reading competencies across primary and secondary education within these school systems over the coming years.

Smartick’s Current Footprint and Outlook

Following this remarkable trajectory, Smartick has scaled into an enterprise with a headcount of nearly 100 professionals. The organizational structure is systematically divided into four core areas: Product Development, composed of software engineers and mathematicians; Didactics, featuring teachers and psychologists; Pedagogical Support, staffed by educators and instructors who handle direct inquiries from parents regarding their children’s progress; and lastly, Social Media and Marketing. This internal framework is further supported by remote teams and local partners in strategic markets such as the United States, Mexico, Colombia, and the United Kingdom.

In terms of executive corporate governance, Daniel oversees finance and product development, while Javier spearheads marketing, business development, and customer success.

By offering its services across multiple languages, Smartick captures a truly global addressable market. While its core customer base is concentrated in Europe and the Americas—including North America—the platform boasts active users across more than 100 countries. Annual revenues currently exceed €10 million, yielding an exceptional 40% profit margin, the vast majority of which is aggressively reinvested into R&D and geographic scaling (with the Asia-Pacific region as their current primary target). Their operational roadmap includes broadening their educational portfolio and upgrading their artificial intelligence infrastructure; in the short term, they aim to roll out personalized tutoring powered by generative AI.

Smartick has solidified its position as a benchmark in the online education sector through its unwavering focus on adaptive learning and technological innovation. Its sustained growth and international expansion validate the viability of its model and its capacity to adapt to global market demands. Interestingly, while the co-founders initially anticipated that schools would be their primary B2B customer base, market data revealed that 90% of their revenue is driven by B2C (families), leaving institutional schools at just 10%. Furthermore, customer retention and cross-selling metrics are robust, with 40% of active users enrolled in at least two product lines.

In Arroyo’s words: “We want to ensure that no child feels mathematics is an insurmountable barrier. Education should be a springboard, not a filter.” Smartick continues to prove that fusing technology with pedagogy can effectively revolutionize learning. According to Javier: “Technology does not replace the teacher; it empowers the student.”

Notably, despite acknowledging that they receive weekly inquiries from venture capital and private equity firms interested in the venture, the equity remains strictly in the hands of the two co-founders. They have consistently maintained strong reservations about diluting control or complicating executive decision-making by onboarding external institutional investors. However, as local partnerships are a cornerstone of their international expansion strategy, they anticipate executing future joint ventures to double their revenue within the next three years.

When asked for actionable advice for emerging entrepreneurs, Daniel concluded: “I would highly recommend co-founding a company rather than going solo, because the entrepreneurial journey is incredibly grueling, and having a partner to share that ride with is vital.” Furthermore, he urged founders, whenever feasible, to avoid unnecessary funding rounds.

Key Takeaways and Conclusions on the Smartick Story

The Smartick trajectory stands as a textbook example of how technology can disrupt traditional sectors like education and deliver innovative solutions to deep-seated structural challenges. The cornerstone of Smartick’s success lies in its ability to fuse advanced pedagogy with artificial intelligence, engineering a proprietary adaptive framework that answers the distinct needs of each individual student. This methodology has proven highly effective, driving not only academic optimization but also bolstering student confidence and intrinsic motivation—both critical metrics for long-term learning retention.

A defining characteristic of Smartick’s scaling process has been its capacity to pivot, diversify, and expand without diluting its core value proposition. From its early-stage operations to reaching financial break-even and executing its internationalization strategy, the co-founders have demonstrated outstanding operational agility. Successfully penetrating highly complex and hyper-competitive markets like the United States has solidified their market leadership in the digital education space and underscores the global scalability of their product.

Looking ahead, artificial intelligence infrastructure is advancing at an exponential rate. AI is poised to fundamentally restructure multiple industries, with EdTech being at the absolute forefront. For Smartick, the upcoming challenge will be sustaining its competitive edge and growth trajectory within an industry characterized by constant technological disruption. Nevertheless, their proactive vertical diversification and the strategic deployment of the Monk platform indicate that the co-founders are fully prepared to defend their market share. In the tech world, if you stop pedaling, you fall off the bike.

Their journey is a compelling testament to how combining vision, relentless execution, and technology can transform industries globally. Given their metrics and trajectory, Smartick might very well become the next EdTech unicorn.

Bibliography

Although the content of this blog is intended for educational and informative purposes, we take data verification very seriously. Our articles are the result of interviews with key figures and industry experts, as well as meticulous research across official sources, media outlets, scientific publications, and in-depth reports. Because of this, the stories we share are often recognized by their own protagonists as highly accurate. In any case, if you spot any errors or inaccuracies, we would be incredibly grateful if you could leave a comment at the end of the article or let us know at blog@carballar.com.

However, as a non-profit, educational blog, we operate with a lean approach, which means we cannot dedicate the time required to exhaustively reference every single piece of data presented. Nevertheless, should you need to verify any of the figures or information, we have attached some of the primary sources utilized below. Please keep in mind that, since this is a Spanish company, the majority of these sources are in Spanish.