Yogome
Yogome was a Mexican edtech company that sold subscription-based educational games for children on iOS and Android tablets.
View original storyProduct snapshot
What it was
Yogome created educational mobile games and subscription learning content for children.
Who it was for
Problem / value
It aimed to make screen time productive by packaging curriculum into fun game-based lessons.
Core workflow
Children played educational mini-games while parents paid for subscription access and could review progress through parent-facing tools.
Core dependency
Auditable usage, retention, revenue, and learning-outcome metrics that parents and investors could trust.
Product form
Pricing model
TechCrunch described a free app with starter credits and monthly or yearly subscriptions for unlimited access; exact ARPU and retention are not disclosed in reviewed public sources.
Competitors or alternatives
What happened
Summary
Yogome shut down after public reports tied the company’s closure to alleged fraud, compromised finances, and manipulated usage data.
Outcome
Yogome shut down in 2018 according to public shutdown summaries.
Core risk
A subscription learning product can lose all trust if the data proving usage and learning value is not auditable.
Shutdown reason
Reviewed public sources cite alleged fraud, compromised finances, and manipulated usage metrics; verified product retention and subscriber metrics are not public.
Demand signal
Yogome is not a clean no-demand case. The product category had funding interest and a real edtech use case. The public risk is that reported traction and usage became untrustworthy, which made product demand, retention, and investor confidence impossible to evaluate safely.
Distribution issue
The company’s reported growth story depended on subscriber and usage metrics. In children’s education products, distribution depends on parent trust, investor trust, and credible learning outcomes; if the data cannot be trusted, the channel and product story break together.
Timeline
- Yogome was founded in Mexico as an educational-game company for children
- TechCrunch reported a $6.6 million Series A in 2017
- The product sold subscription access to game-based curriculum on tablets
- LatamList reported in 2018 that Yogome would close after a company statement described fraud by previous management
- Failory later summarized allegations around manipulated app usage data and inflated usage numbers
- The company shut down operations
Before you build
Why it matters
Parents, schools, and investors rely on reported engagement and learning outcomes. If those numbers are not auditable, the company cannot safely prove demand, retention, or value.
Primary check
Make usage, retention, revenue, and learning-outcome metrics auditable before using them to raise money or sell a trust-sensitive product.
Checklist
- Can a third party reproduce your active-user number?
- Do paid subscribers retain after the trial period?
- Can buyers see evidence of learning progress beyond screen time?
- Create an immutable event log for usage and subscriptions
- Separate active learners from downloads and trial starts
- Track retention and learning outcomes by cohort
- Give investors read-only access to audited metric definitions
Relevant if
- You are building edtech, kids apps, health products, or AI-learning tools
- You plan to fundraise using engagement or outcome metrics
- Your users and buyers are different people
Less relevant if
- The product has simple transactional revenue and independent verification
- Customers can directly inspect the value without trusting internal metrics
Pre-build tests
- Run a small paid cohort with parent-visible progress metrics
- Audit subscriber and active-use data before fundraising
- Compare claimed learning outcomes with observable assignments or assessments
Transferable lessons
- Keep investor-facing and internal metrics tied to the same source of truth
- Audit active users, paid subscribers, retention, refunds, and outcomes
- Do not raise on unaudited vanity metrics
- Treat governance as part of the product in child-focused markets
If you build this today
Instrument retention, subscriber counts, learning outcomes, refunds, and classroom or parent usage with audit trails from day one. Let investors and internal teams inspect the same source-of-truth metrics before scaling claims or fundraising.