You don’t need an infographic to know that Riga-based startup Infogram has been fleshing out their data visualization service since raising €1.34 million last February. The company recently added team tools to better target media houses and has now announced that they’ve launched a non-profit arm to help teach data literacy – something that of course benefits Infogram but also has a positive benefit.
“Demand for making data understandable will just increase. Infogr.am is here to stay, our aim is to build a hundred-year company. This program is an investment in our future, thinking long-term data literacy is as crucial for our business as internet penetration for Facebook,” says Uldis Leiterts, CEO of Infogram. “There are 85% of the world’s population able to read. Our goal is to reach at least the same rate of data literacy.”
This non-profit is backed by the Knight Foundation and aims to teach data literacy to everyone. In practice this means launching a prototype of an educational game targeting kids that will launch next year, which will get some practical use out of Infogram’s crazy mascot, Jifo, who has to solve puzzles to overcome Bad Data and to restore order on his home planet.
Additionally they’re launching an ambassador program around Infogram.org to spread data literacy practices through journalists, activists, and everyone else that need to use some data. They’ve run a few test-runs throughout the world, including Tokyo, San Francisco, Marrakesh, Istanbul, Madrid, and Helsinki with more planned next year.
As a concept it looks like this non-profit arm is a good way to finance building a community around their product by just promoting their core values. Do you think a non-profit arm would work around your startup?
