As AI Gets Smarter, BOOKR Raises €6.1M To Make Kids Better Thinkers

AI is supposed to make learning easier, and in many ways, it does – in fact, some would argue that it makes it too easy. But that’s missing the point, in many respects. AI should make the learning process easier in some ways, but not by providing learners with instant answers or totally removing friction from the education process.

BOOKR, a Hungarian education technology company, believes that the rise of artificial intelligence will make one skill more important than ever: reading.

And clearly, they’re not the only ones, because the startup has secured €6.1 million Series A transaction to expand its literacy and language-learning platform, built on a very simple idea. That is, as AI becomes better at generating, summarising and interpreting information, children will need stronger comprehension, critical thinking and judgement skills to make sense of it.

It’s a fairly different approach to what many seem to expect from the mainstream AI-in-education situation, which often focuses on how technology can help students do more. BOOKR, however, is instead focused on how technology can help them think better, not just generate quick answers.

What Does BOOKR Do?

BOOKR combines interactive digital books, literacy activities and language-learning content for students with AI-powered tools for teachers. Its platform is used by more than 600,000 paying students across over 3,000 schools in more than 30 countries – clearly, something’s working.

For students, the company provides curriculum-based digital books and interactive learning experiences that are designed around reading, language development and comprehension. Its existing platform combines a digital library with games, narration, exercises and a Teacher’s Dashboard that lets educators track progress, assign books and use assessment tools.

That makes BOOKR different from an education product that simply puts a chatbot in front of a child. Not to say that all AI tutors are ineffective, but the most simplistic ones that are unspecialised and unsupervised certainly aren’t goig to achieve the best possible results.

Indeed, the core experience of BOOKR is still built around human-created stories, structured learning and teacher involvement, with AI being used to support personalisation, assessment and educator workflows. BOOKR says its next-generation platform will use AI to diagnose learning needs, personalise pathways, map content to curricula and provide feedback while preserving the role of literature and teachers.

Why Does AI Make Reading More Important?

BOOKR’s central argument is that AI doesn’t make human comprehension obsolete; rather, it raises the stakes, and I’d argue that all the best edtech and AI-in-education startups today would agree.

As AI systems increasingly produce and summarise information, people still need to understand what they are reading, question weak reasoning, spot inaccuracies and form their own conclusions. The skill of critical thinking is, potentially, more important now than ever before.

For children growing up surrounded by AI-generated information, those skills could become increasingly important. That argument is becoming more relevant as researchers and educators debate whether AI should replace effort or support learning: recent research has argued for AI systems that scaffold students rather than substitute for their thinking.

Dr Dorka Horváth, CEO and Co-Founder of BOOKR Kids, says: “The next generation will not compete with AI on speed. They will need to compete on depth: comprehension, curiosity, judgement and the ability to ask better questions.”

Funding Makes Scaling Possible for BOOKR

The €6.1 million transaction is led by TCEE Fund IV, advised by 3TS Capital Partners, with participation from strategic and international investors including Kids Read Now’s Leib Lurie, SchoolDay CEO Robert Iskander, Infinit Capital Oy and Hungarian entrepreneur Albert Sárospataki.

BOOKR plans to use the funding to accelerate international expansion and develop new products, including BOOKR Next for learners aged 10–18 and BOOKR Phonics for early literacy. It will also continue expanding its Teacher Dashboard and developing multilingual and AI-powered assessment tools so increase access and capabilities too.

The Evidence Behind the Strategy

BOOKR says its approach is backed by research into learning outcomes. University-led research in Hungary found stronger reading comprehension development among students using its interactive learning format than among a control group, while a 2026 pilot in Jordan also reported positive results.

The company reported approximately $2.7 million in revenue in 2025 and remained EBITDA-positive, adding some commercial momentum to its expansion plans, which is never a bad thing.

Building Carefully For An AI-Shaped World

BOOKR’s funding comes at a time when schools, parents and educators are still figuring out exactly what education should look like when AI can generate an answer to almost any question in seconds.

The company’s answer is not to reject the technology; it’s to use it selectively, while putting literacy, comprehension and human judgement at the centre of the learning experience. Embracing that shift of the core objective is essential, because children are not simply being prepared to use AI; they’re being prepared to live in a world where AI-generated information is everywhere. Because we may not like it, but that doesn’t change the fact that it’s already become part of our reality almost overnight.

Thus, if AI can increasingly do the work of producing information, that means that knowing how to understand, question and judge that information could become one of the most valuable skills of all. It’s not exactly a totally novel revelation, but it’s certainly being highlighted in the modern world of AI.

And now, BOOKR has €6.1 million to help teach children not only how to understand and think critically, but to convince them that it’s an essential skill to have.