Leap – the social learning platform for the over 55s

At Creandum, we like to keep our network of entrepreneurs close to us. Hence, we couldn't be more excited to announce the backing of one of those talented founders that we even had the pleasure to be working closely with for a few months: Caroline Ingeborn, former CEO of Toca Boca and ex-Entrepreneur-In-Residence at Creandum building Leap, a social learning platform for the over 55s.

Innovation is usually associated with youth and young people as this demographic is perceived as more open, experiential and creative, whereas their older-looking colleagues are more likely to be viewed as stable and conservative. Hence, we're seeing a lot of momentum on new digital services targeted to teenagers and adolescents as most entrepreneurs and company-builders aim towards those young people, to pick up their latest innovations. But what about the older people, the largest and fastest-growing segment of our society?

An untapped market

Maybe it's just a sign of my own inevitable ageing, but this segment has become increasingly interesting to me. It is a generation of people with considerable time, energy and spending power that have smartphones at their fingertips. Still, they are often not only seen as ‘obsolete' or ‘over-the-hill' they have also been largely overlooked by tech developers in the past. Until now.

Enter Leap

Leap is a social learning platform targeting the over 55s to power meaningful experiences. It is built around two central assumptions: meaningful connections happen when people meet in small groups – and are strengthened further when those small groups are united over shared interests. Users connect over both audio and video, in groups of between five and ten. The platform offers conversations and classes hosted by so-called ‘Leap Leaders' (experts recruited from the target audience) with especially strong initial traction among people interested in writing and creativity as can be observed in the current beta version.

‘Clubhouse for the elderly' might be your initial thought now – but it's rather the opposite. Think of deep, close relationships that are usually built offline around shared interests over time. Leap's mission is to enable its users to build meaningful connections between people who share interests. While the beta version enables mainly synchronous conversations, the future also points towards asynchronous options of interaction and education. To find the sweet spot, the team is working very closely with the first users.

Finding the best product-market fit is a balancing act between sensitive listening to the users, a data-focused approach and a strong inherent product vision. A delicate task but who could do it better than a team that combines an intrinsic conviction to build the best product out there with a determined goal in mind to find the solution for those elderlies eager to continue to learn, grow and connect?

A diverse duo of serial entrepreneurs

Leap is founded by Swedish entrepreneur Caroline Ingeborn, former CEO of Toca Boca and Creandum's former Entrepreneur-in-Residence, and Vishal Kapur, former CTO and co-founder of Screenhero.

Caroline's skillset includes strong experience in building a consumer brand (Toca Boca) paired with an aggressive, boundary-pushing mentality that she inherited from her time in investment banking. Vishal on the other hand represents the ideal counterpart to her: A very reflected, thoughtful tech engineer with deep sector competence in both consumer-focused video and audio tools, whose last company was acquired by Slack.

The two met through the South Park Commons community and bring together profound product building experience and curiosity for a demographic they are not part of. Caroline and Vishal allowed themselves to take time to get to know each other and how they work as a team, first in an informal way, bouncing ideas, before they realised how strong the mutual energy was between them and around this cause.

This diverse founding team convinced us with their determination and unique experiences to build a product that will be truly engaging. Having worked alongside Caroline when she was Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Creandum, it's a pleasure to back her and Vishal on this exciting journey.

Are you above 55 and looking to learn something new while connecting with like-minded individuals? Get on Leap's waitlist and be among the first users: https://leap.so/.