The man behind the Angry Birds franchise, Peter Vesterbacka, in his recent trip to India visited CGI animation studio, Assemblage Entertainment and start-up incubator thinQbate, to talk about the three Es – education, entrepreneurship and entertainment.
Often referred to as the father of the Nordic start up revolution, Peter has been listed by the TIME magazine as among the 100 most influential people in the world. The 51-year-old entrepreneur, who’s also credited for developing European Silicon Valley, urges that education should be an experience like entertainment.
During his stint at Rovio, Vesterbacka’s aim was to make Angry Birds “as well-known as Mickey Mouse.” In 2016, he left Rovio and co-founded Lightneer, which aims to start a global learning revolution by making learning accessible and engaging to all.
Lightneer’s latest project is a game– Big Bang Legends, which was created by partnering with some of the brightest minds, and combines education and gaming. With development inputs from CERN, Harvard and Oxford, Lightneer’s objective is to create physics more palatable for younger audience.
Talking about his latest venture, he said, “Five years ago we’d joke that one day we’ll teach quantum physics to five-year-olds, now we’re seeing five-year-olds playing Big Bang Legends and having conversations about quarks, protons and atoms. It’s pretty amazing.”
Vesterbacka strongly believes that all subjects could be made into games, not as a move to replace teachers but to encourage more kids to learn, whether that be about particles, chemistry, biology, languages, geography or whatever. “It is really about making education more effective,” he added.
Talking about entrepreneurship, he said that entrepreneurs should focus on creating a brand that stands for 100 years and not 100 days. Joining the conversation, Assemblage CEO AK Madhavan said, “India is rewriting the rules of digital age by leveraging its tech-savvy and diverse workforce.” Madhavan insisted that India’s strikingly young talent pool presents itself with a huge market of opportunities that could be beneficial both to Europe, India and the world.
Having accompanied with several delegates from Finland, Vesterbacka sees a massive opportunity to work with India and play an active role in the Indian ecosystem.