Childcare app Piloto aims to instill healthy device use

Childcare app operator Piloto won first place at the May startup demo event hosted by D.Camp. 

The startup accelerator’s parent company, the Banks Foundation for Young Entrepreneurs, celebrated its 10th anniversary on Tuesday.

Thanks to eased social distancing rules, some 100 industry insiders attended the event. 

Out of 125 applicants, six startups were selected to present their businesses at the biggest monthly demo day in years. 

Piloto provides artificial intelligence-driven solutions to encourage children to use their mobile devices in a safe and contained manner. 

Users can specify screen time and when a minor is using a mobile phone or tablet – such as an Apple iPad or Samsung Galaxy Tab – past the time frame, a virtual assistant will pop up on the screen to incentivize the child to log off. 

Piloto founder Lee Da-young majored in early childhood education and that is how she got the idea to incorporate a friendly virtual friend to educate minors about safe and productive mobile device use. 

Through her education, Lee learned that children tend to believe in animism, or the belief that objects, places and creatures possess a distinct spiritual essence. The idea is that if a child is led to believe that his or her friend who lives in the device is asking for a log-off, the minor would be more receptive to following the prompt than to being told to do so by an automated message or from a disciplinary.

In addition to the time restraint, the app also provides real-time monitoring services and more. 

Piloto is in the final stage of completing its service lineup for launch both in South Korea and abroad.

Lee is a former employee at Samsung Electronics Co. and Piloto was born with assistance from the conglomerate. 

Since 2015, the electronics giant has assisted in the launch of 59 startups that began as part of its C-Lab project. Some 1500 employees participated in more than 365 such projects since then and nearly 60% of those have become commercialized within the company.

Venture capital heavyweights participated as judges at the contest. They include: Yoon Jung-han, a team leader at Lotte Ventures; CEO of Murex Partners Lee Beom-seok; Translink Investment’s Managing Partner Kim Bum-soo; and Hana Ventures President and CEO Kim Dong-hwan.

Leaders from other startup accelerators also joined as judges such as Primer CEO Kwon Do-kyun. 

Write to Jee Abbey Lee at jal@hankyung.com
Jee Abbey Lee edited this article.