ubbu was created to tackle one of the most urgent global challenges in education: digital exclusion and the widening digital skills gap among children. The OECD estimates that 65% of children entering primary school today will work in jobs that do not yet exist, most requiring digital and technological skills. Yet millions of children lack access to structured digital education.
Most primary schools do not have specialist computer science teachers, and existing coding tools are often complex, fragmented, or require technical expertise that teachers do not have. This leaves a generation of children unprepared for the digital future and reinforces inequalities based on socioeconomic background, gender, and geography.
We created ubbu to democratize access to high-quality digital education for children aged 6 to 12. Our vision was to build a turnkey, gamified platform that any teacher could use, regardless of technical background, integrating coding, computational thinking, and digital literacy into everyday classroom learning. By embedding the UN Sustainable Development Goals into every lesson, we also wanted to connect digital skills with real-world challenges, empowering children to become informed, responsible, and active digital citizens ready to shape a more inclusive and sustainable future.
ubbu is a gamified digital platform that teaches coding, computational thinking, and digital literacy to children. Students explore a virtual city where each lesson combines animated videos, interactive games, block-based coding challenges, or even real-world projects. Content is structured into progressive levels, each with one-hour lessons designed to fit a school year and aligned with national curricula.
Every lesson integrates at least one UN Sustainable Development Goal, connecting coding with topics such as climate change, gender equality, and responsible consumption. Lessons also incorporate STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and maths) subjects, helping children see how technology intersects with science, art, and society.
For teachers, ubbu is a turnkey solution. No prior programming knowledge is required. The platform provides ready-to-use lesson plans, certified training sessions and workshops, and automatic progress tracking, so any teacher can confidently integrate coding into the classroom. Accessibility features, including text-to-speech, offline activities, and multilingual content (Portuguese, Spanish, English, French), ensure inclusion of children with specific needs.
Recent additions include AI-powered teacher insights and new modules on Artificial Intelligence and cybersecurity, keeping ubbu aligned with the European DigComp framework and preparing students for emerging technological challenges.
Since its launch, ubbu has reached more than 450,000 students across 20+ countries. To date, over 8,540 teachers have used the platform across more than 1,720 schools, and students have completed more than 74.8 million learning activities. In 2024 alone, ubbu reached 132,000 students across 977 schools, with 17.8 million activities completed.
Spread has been driven by a combination of public-private partnerships and teacher-led adoption. In Portugal, ubbu is implementing a three-year initiative between 2024-2027, with funding from Portugal Inovação Social, Banco Montepio, Fundação MEO, and Siemens. The project "ubbu – Program the future", is scaling the platform to 200,000 additional children across continental Portugal, 80,000 from TEIP schools.
Internationally, partnerships with governments, municipalities, and networks have enabled localized deployments. Teacher mobility and word-of-mouth also play a key role: teachers who try ubbu often become ambassadors, bringing it to other classes, schools, or entire school clusters.
Independent research from Universidade Nova de Lisboa and Universidade de Aveiro, conducted in 2019 and 2021 respectively, validate the impact, showing a 17% improvement in math and 70%+ of disadvantaged students progressing from basic to intermediate digital literacy within one year.
ubbu has evolved continuously based on feedback from teachers, students, independent researchers, and school partners. In 2025, we launched major new content modules on Artificial Intelligence and cybersecurity, equipping children with the skills to understand, use, and critically engage with emerging technologies safely and ethically. These additions align ubbu with the European Digital Competence Framework (DigComp) and respond directly to the growing presence of AI and digital risks in children's lives.
We are also developing new AI-powered personalization features that adapt learning paths to each student's pace and performance, and support teachers with data-informed insights to tailor instruction. This will turn ubbu not only into a tool for children, but also a pedagogical ally for educators.
To strengthen inclusion, we expanded accessibility features such as text-to-speech, offline functionality, and multilingual content, now available in Portuguese (PT and BR), Spanish, English, French and Indonesian Bahasa. These changes allow migrant children, students with learning or visual difficulties, and children in low-connectivity regions to participate fully.
Finally, the curriculum has been progressively aligned with national curricula across our markets and enriched with new STEAM content and SDG-based projects, ensuring that ubbu remains relevant, rigorous, and connected to the real-world challenges children will face as future citizens and professionals.
Visit ubbu.io and click "Get Started Free" in the top right corner.
For teachers, you can create a free trial account and explore the full platform, including running a limited number of lessons with your students. If ubbu feels like the right fit, you can reach out to our team to adopt it fully.
For parents, ubbu is also available for home use. You can similarly create a trial account and explore content with your children at your own pace.
We are also available for live demonstrations and pilot programmes, allowing schools and institutions to evaluate ubbu's fit for their target audience before full implementation.
For any questions, contact us at hello@ubbu.io - we'd love to help you get started.
