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We have been saying for a long time that our city is the “center of the world”, and it seems that lately, the “whole world” is starting to understand that. 😉
We are honored that Photomath, a company that has grown into a truly global story since its founding in 2014, recently joined the Split Tech City community.
This fast-growing EdTech company currently employs over 160 people (of which over 75 are engineers), as well as a large number of students, and has offices in Zagreb and San Mateo, California.
You probably already know, but it is worth mentioning once more that this company has created an application of the same name for learning mathematics. The most popular math app in the world!
With the help of computer vision and artificial intelligence, the Photomath app uses the camera of a mobile device to recognize and instantly solve and explain math problems.
It is available in more than 30 languages and in over 195 countries worldwide and solves and explains more than 2 billion mathematical problems per month.
With almost 300 million downloads globally and tens of millions of active users per month, Photomath is one of the most successful Croatian export products.
Damir Sabol, founder and CEO of Photomath, spoke with us about this tech giant’s membership in the Split Tech City community.
To begin with, we wanted to clarify an important point – whether he considers it more important to solve a mathematical problem correctly or to understand the way a problem is solved. 🙂
“Both are useful, depending on the situation. Sometimes students want to test the solution, and sometimes it is important to understand how the solution came about and to understand the mathematical concepts behind the solution.”
Fortunately, Photomath provides both, allowing users to get support in the part they really need and don’t understand.
“The fact that more than 80% of students who use our application click on our explanations of the steps speaks in favor of the fact that most users still want to understand the procedure, and not just come to a solution,” he said.
Still, probably some professors and parents think that using the app does a disservice to children?
Some certainly think so, Damir admits, but as he points out – only until they find themselves in a situation where they do not understand something and need help, and until they see what Photomath can really do.
Photomath focuses on students, but a large number of parents also use the app because it helps them help their children.
“Mathematics is also demanding for parents who are engineers or mathematicians, even they need to ‘renew’ their knowledge, not to mention those who do not have such extensive knowledge.”
Photomath, on the other hand, can aid teachers in better helping their students.
“Students can use Photomath to figure out a concept on their own, and if it doesn’t work out, teachers can jump in there. We know situations where Photomath is used that way.”
Once we clarified the ethical part of using the app, we were able to move on to the business side. 😀
Damir revealed to us that most of the employees in their Zagreb offices are engineers and mathematicians, but they also have a large number of students, over 130 of them, most of whom develop the mathematical content.
There are about 15 people in the American office, who mostly perform business functions.
“Thanks to remote work, talent recruitment is not limited to locations where we have offices, so not only do we have more and more colleagues working from other cities in Croatia, but also from the UK, across the USA, and other countries.”
It’s their mission to provide mathematical knowledge to anyone and anywhere in the world when they need it.
“Our mission is global because we want to provide everyone with quality education.”
They want to contribute to the local community throughout Croatia through various free knowledge-sharing events they organize, such as Photomath Talks or Engineering Management meetup.
“We hold talks at tech conferences, and we support numerous initiatives organized by students and young people, such as DUMP Days in Split, where we will be the gold sponsor this year.”
And last but not least, they offer a unique opportunity to top engineers, but also to other experts, to work on a worldwide-known product that is the best in several segments – right here from Croatia!
Of course, we also touched upon the topic of their membership in Split Tech City.
“We have been following the activities of Split Tech City for a long time and we have recognized that we share many similar values. We especially like the fact that the association builds a community of members who share knowledge and experience, and we believe that this is a great example of a positive impact on the wider community in which everyone benefits. “
We can’t disagree! 🙂
Photomath, welcome to Split Tech City!
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