"Netflix for baby boomers". This is how it is described in Vilma, the Spanish platform that proposes to maintain, educate and employ older people through an 'online' community. This generation, which includes people between 55 and 75 years of age, is Vilma's 'target', joins 'edtech' that offers different live courses to teach their students from how it is stored in the cloud and how the social networks, to Mediterranean cuisine or disciplines such as pilates, yoga or zumba.
The classes are live so that people can participate in all the sessions, ask the teachers, contribute and generate debate”, explained the CEO and co-founder of the company, Jon Balzategui. Sessions are usually one hour long and run from 9 in the morning to 9 at night almost continuously.
“You don't have to worry if you can't attend, because all the sessions are recorded and can be accessed 'à la carte'”, explains Balzategui.
«We are in a society where older people become invisible, and our goal is to empower seniors to the fullest, to discover new things, take up new hobbies, be physically and mentally active and also connect with other seniors, and people who they will have the same interests”, explained Balzategui about the pillars of Vilma, a company that he confused with Andreu Texido.
These entrepreneurs do not see in older citizens who find it difficult to make use of technology. “I think there are many digital solutions aimed at the younger segment, but not for the 'baby boomers'. And this segment is increasingly digitized”, compares Balzategui.
The training sessions began in September. We started with few classes, and progressively we have been expanding the offer. In December we had 40 weekly classes and now more than 80. The idea is to expand the offer week by week”, compares the executive director of the 'edtech'. Regarding the feedback, they assure that it has been positive from the users: “They are really liking the content we have”, and the platform has reached 20.000 session reservations.
international jump
The company has a subscription model: for 20 euros per month, users have unlimited access to all classes. Now they are preparing the jump to internationalization. Their offer is still exclusively in Spanish, but before the end of 2023 they plan to land in another market with another language. For this reason, they have just opened a financing round of one million euros. Although, Balzategui assures, he plans to revalue the amount due to the level of interest they have received from the funds.
