Czech bedtimes stories app Readmio expands to international markets

A Czech app designed to help parents narrate bedtime stories and assist in children's reading comprehension is poised to take on additional international markets over the upcoming year. Thanks to a 25 million crown investment, Readmio will expand its language offerings to Polish and German.

Among other interactive features, the Readmio app interacts with user's narration by recognizing keywords and adding sounds relevant to the story at certain points. Thanks to the app's night mode, stories can be read with the lights off and minimal display illumination.

Currently, Readmio is available in Czech, Slovak, and English, boasting more than 350 fairy tales in Czech and Slovak and over 250 in English. More than 300,000 parents have downloaded the app to date.

"We are happy that we managed to get an investment that will support us in further growth. In the past year, we focused primarily on expanding the range of fairy tales in the application," Readmio CEO Jozef Šimko says in a press release.

"We have introduced new categories of stories that deal with things like science, ecology, nature and relationships. Today, parents can find more than 350 fairy tales in Slovak and Czech and over 250 in English in Readmio."

Readmio isn't just an interactive version of children's book. Thanks to the innovative app, parents can also record narration of fairy tales for their children, who can later listen to mom or dad when they might be away.

"We are pleased that users also use another function: recording narrated fairy tales for future listening in the form of an audio track. Our users have already recorded 44,000 of their own audio stories that children can listen to even in the absence of their parents," adds Šimko.

Readmio's 25 million crown investment comes thanks to two Central European venture funds: Zero Gravity Capital and Depo Ventures. The company plans to use the additional funding primarily to expand into further markets throughout Europe, as well as expand the app's functionality.

"From an investment point of view, Readmio offers a balanced combination of a unique technological solution, an up-to-date market maker position, an experienced team based on successful entrepreneurs, and an easily-scalable business model," says Vít Hanuš, general partner of Zero One Hundred.

"The results to date, including the popularity [of the app] and organic spread of the product among its users, only supported our investment decision."

Readmio's most recent initiative is to support reading in classrooms. With the app seeing popularity among teachers and students in kindergartens and elementary school, the company now offers free access for educators.

"We were pleased that teachers read our stories to children in kindergartens and schools. That's why we decided to offer them a free Readmio subscription that includes all the stories for a whole year," notes Šimko.

After launching in 2020, Readmio now employs a team of ten people and has raised a total of 38 million crowns in investments. More than 300,000 people in the Czech Republic and abroad have read a total of 2.7 million stories through the app, which can be downloaded through the Apple Store or Google Play.