Corneille
French EdTech company offering an adaptive reading learning mobile app for children aged 3–8, with 300+ activities and a 100+ title digital library, sold via freemium subscriptions (€6.99/month, €69.99/year) to families and schools, and recently extended to adult workplace reading via the Racine sub-brand.
- Company typePrivate
- Founded2020
- HeadquartersParis, France
- Headcount1–10
- GTM typeB2B and B2C
- OfferingSoftware
What Corneille does
Corneille is a French EdTech company headquartered in Lille and founded in 2020 by Marianne Joly and Ana-Maria Megelea. The company operates an adaptive reading learning platform for children aged 3–8, delivered as a mobile app (iOS, Android), a web app, and a professional/school portal. The product combines 300+ interactive activities spanning phonemic awareness, syllable work, decoding, and reading fluency with a digital library of 100+ titles sourced through content partnerships with Bayard, Milan, and the Ligue de Protection des Oiseaux, plus Mobidys-supplied texts accessible to dyslexic readers. The underlying technology is an adaptive learning engine that personalizes activity sequencing and difficulty to each child's demonstrated skill level.
The business is primarily product-led. B2C distribution runs through the Apple App Store, Google Play, and a direct website (Stripe checkout), monetized via subscriptions at €6.99/month or €69.99/year with a 7-day free trial. B2B distribution targets teachers, speech therapists (orthophonistes), and schools through a dedicated professional portal with a 30-day free trial, quote-based pricing, teacher dashboards, and GAR SSO integration into the French national education system. Pluxee (formerly Swile/Chèque Déjeuner) gift cards extend payment optionality via employer CSE programs. In 2024 the company launched Racine, a separate workplace reading competency solution for adult corporate learners, and it has released companion iOS apps focused on handwriting, spelling, and letter sounds.
Commercially, the company claims 256,000+ families have used the platform, is officially supported by the French Ministry of Education, and has been independently validated through a 133-student, 11-school study with the SCALab laboratory at Université de Lille. Headcount is reported at 1–10 employees. Funding to date consists of an angel round from Business Angels des Grandes Ecoles (BADGE) in February 2022, with a single funding-rounds source also indicating roughly $572k in disclosed capital. Operating geographies are concentrated in France, with limited evidence of cross-border expansion.
Corneille firmographics
Firmographics- Name
- Corneille
- Legal name
- CORNEILLE société par actions simplifiée
- Website
- https://corneille.io
- Company type
- Private
- Founded year
- 2020
- Operating status
- Operating
- Headcount range
- 1–10 employees
- Short description
- French EdTech company offering an adaptive reading learning mobile app for children aged 3–8, with 300+ activities and a 100+ title digital library, sold via freemium subscriptions (€6.99/month, €69.99/year) to families and schools, and recently extended to adult workplace reading via the Racine sub-brand.
- Ownership category
- akta.pro rank
Corneille industry classification
Industry- Product category
- Children's Reading Education (EdTech / Early Literacy)
- NAICS
- Educational Support Services (611710), Educational Support Services (61171), Exam Preparation and Tutoring (611691), Educational Services (61)
- SIC
- Services-Educational Services (8200)
- akta.pro primary industry
- Digital/Interactive Curriculum Content (Apps, Games, Multimedia Lessons) (EDACAJAK)
- akta.pro secondary industries
- Parent-Facing Home Learning & Family Engagement Apps (EDACANAK), Teacher-Led Classroom Platforms (Lesson Delivery, Centers, Whiteboard) (EDACANAH), Dyslexia & Structured Literacy (Orton-Gillingham) Tutoring (EDANAFAB)
Keywords
Where Corneille is headquartered
LocationHeadquarters
- HQ city
- Paris
- HQ country
- France
- HQ region
- Europe
Offices2 records
Markets served
Corneille business model
Business model- GTM type
- B2B and B2C
- Offering type
- Software
- Cost components
- Personnel, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure
Revenue model
- Application Subscription (B2C): Monthly or annual subscription to the Corneille app for families. Subscribers gain access to all 300+ activities, the full digital library (100+ titles), personalized tracking, and all app features. The subscription auto-renews by tacit reconduction unless cancelled 24 hours before renewal. Payment processed via Apple App Store, Google Play, or Stripe on the website.
- Professional/School Subscription (B2B): Schools, teachers, and speech therapists can subscribe via a dedicated professional account. Pricing is quote-based and not publicly disclosed. Teachers and speech therapists receive a 30-day free trial. The professional version includes a teacher dashboard, assignable activities, and student progress tracking.
- Gift Cards (Pluxee): Corneille accepts gift card payments via Pluxee (formerly Swile/Chèque Déjeuner), allowing parents to redeem prepaid cards for subscriptions on the website. Gift card codes are entered at checkout.
Pricing tiers
| Model | Billing | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Subscription | Monthly | Abonnement mensuel - Monthly subscription with 7-day free trial |
| Subscription | Annual | Abonnement annuel - Annual subscription with 7-day free trial |
| Subscription | Pay-as-you-go | Plateforme Corneille durée limitée - Gift card / prepaid subscription |
| Subscription | Annual | Professionnel / École - Professional and school accounts |
Go-to-market motion1 record
Distribution channels4 records
Marketing channels7 records
Corneille product offering
Product offeringCore offering
Corneille is a French EdTech company that develops and distributes a mobile and web application teaching children ages 3–8 to read through 300+ adaptive activities (phonemic awareness, syllable games, letter tracing, reading fluency) and a digital library of over 100 children's book titles. It also operates Corneille École for teachers/orthophonists and Racine for adult workplace reading skills, all unified by a personalized adaptive learning engine and available via subscription.
Product overview
Corneille is an EdTech company offering a suite of reading learning products centered on a main mobile/web application for children ages 3–8, launched in 2020. The core Corneille app is distributed in three tiers: a family subscription (monthly at €6.99 or annual at €69.99), a school/professional platform with teacher dashboards, and — beginning in 2024 — Racine, a separate adult workplace reading solution. All tiers share an adaptive personalized learning engine and a digital library of over 100 titles. The ecosystem also includes four companion iOS apps covering handwriting (ABC Handwriting by Corneille, Corneille ABC trace majuscule), spelling (ABC Dictée de mots Corneille), and letter sounds (Corneille ABC sons des lettres), plus Racine Lecture for adults. Supporting free resources include printable phoneme cards (40+ sheets), mask templates, an animated nursery rhyme collection, and a Mini Mag digital magazine. The company was founded in 2020 by co-founders Marianne Joly and Ana-Maria Megelea.
Differentiator
Problem solved
Functional benefit
Products and services
- Corneille (Application principale — Famille) Flagship mobile and web application for children ages 3–8, providing 300+ interactive reading activities and a digital library of 100+ titles (Bayard, Milan, Ligue de Protection des Oiseaux), with a personalized adaptive learning pathway and weekly parental progress reports. Available by monthly subscription at €6.99/month or annual at €69.99/year after a 7-day free trial.
- Corneille École (Professionnels de l'enfance) Dedicated school-facing tier of the Corneille platform for teachers, speech therapists (orthophonistes), and primary schools, providing a teacher dashboard for assigning activities, differentiating instruction by reading level, and monitoring individual student progress across classes. Includes a 30-day free trial, GAR/QR-code SSO login for French national education, and quote-based annual pricing.
- Racine (Solution adulte / Entreprise) Workplace adult reading competency solution delivered via a separate app and website (racinelecture.fr) that uses personalized learning pathways and graduated-difficulty text exercises to help employees strengthen their reading skills within a corporate context.
- ABC Handwriting by Corneille Companion iOS app that focuses on French letter writing and handwriting practice for young children, teaching letter tracing and pencil-stroke mastery.
- Corneille ABC trace majuscule Companion iOS app dedicated to practicing uppercase letter tracing, complementing the main Corneille reading app with handwriting skills.
- ABC Dictée de mots Corneille Companion iOS spelling game app for children ages 5+ that reinforces word recognition and encoding skills beyond the core reading platform.
- Corneille ABC sons des lettres Companion iOS game app introducing French letter sounds to children from age 3, aligned with the phoneme-based method used in the main Corneille app.
Quantifiable outcome
- Independent study with 133 Grande Section and CP students in 11 schools (Université de Lille/SCALab) showed positive and lasting effects of Corneille on reading competencies, including persistent word-reading improvements even after app use stopped.
- +1 more outcomes
Companies that use Corneille
Customer profileNamed customers6 records
Segments4 records
Ideal customer profiles3 records
Corneille technology and API
TechnologyTechnology focussed Yes
API detail
- Has API
- No
- API docs
- API detail
Core technology
AI maturity
App detail
Integration5 records
AI capability2 records
Feature5 records
Corneille partnerships and signals
Strategic signalPartnerships
Seven partnerships are on record, tiered core and minor.
- Ministère de l'Éducation NationalecoreCorneille is officially supported by the French Ministry of Education. The app is compatible with methods used in class and aligned with national curriculum recommendations. The ministry's Édu Up platform also features Corneille. This endorsement is prominently displayed on the website and app store listings.
- Université de Lille / SCALabcoreCorneille partnered with the SCALab research laboratory at Université de Lille to conduct an independent study on the app's impact. The study covered 133 students in Grande Section and CP across 11 schools, demonstrating positive and lasting effects on reading skills. The company also previously partnered with the university for classroom experimentation starting in 2020.
- BayardcoreBayard (publisher of 'Les Belles Histoires' magazine) provides content for Corneille's digital library. Their titles are available in the app alongside Corneille's own content and other partner publishers, enriching the reading material available to children.
- Milan (Editions Milan)coreEditions Milan provides children's books and content for Corneille's digital library, including novels and documentaries accessible to young readers. Their titles are integrated into the app's reading content library.
- Plaine ImagesminorPlaine Images, a creative industries campus in Lille, is listed as a supporter of Corneille, indicating a local ecosystem connection and possibly shared office space or mentorship within the French creative tech community.
- PictanovominorPictanovo, a regional fund supporting audiovisual and digital projects in Hauts-de-France, is listed as a supporter of Corneille, suggesting financial or production support for the app's content development.
- OVHminorOVH is the hosting provider for Corneille's application and databases. User data is hosted on OVH servers located in the European Union, as stated in the privacy policy.
Scale indicators5 records
Recent moves6 records
Expansion highlights6 records
Corneille competitors and assessment
Company assessmentEmerging players
- Mobidys: Mobidys provides accessible digital books for dyslexic readers (Foliate, Andily) and is an existing Corneille partner. While not a direct competitor across the full curriculum, Mobidys competes in the dyslexia-accessible reading niche that Corneille also addresses.
- Nomad Education: Nomad Education is a French EdTech platform offering free educational content for middle and high school students with a freemium model. While targeting older students, it shares Corneille's product-led growth approach in the French EdTech market.
- Smartick: Smartick is a Spanish-origin adaptive learning platform for children focused on math and reading, with a similar PLG subscription model and adaptive personalization engine targeting the same parent demographic in Europe.
Regional players
- Lecturino: Lecturino is a children's reading app focused primarily on German-speaking markets. While not French-focused, it competes in the broader European early-reading app category with similar adaptive library-based learning for young children.
Direct peers
- Homer (Learn with Homer): Homer is an early-reading app for ages 2-8 with personalized learning paths and a digital library, overlapping directly with Corneille's adaptive curriculum and library-based approach for early readers.
- Duolingo ABC: Duolingo's early-literacy app for ages 3-8 teaches letter recognition and reading through gamified activities, directly competing with Corneille for parent mindshare in early reading, with the advantage of being free and well-funded.
- Khan Academy Kids: Khan Academy Kids is a free, comprehensive early-learning app covering literacy and numeracy for ages 2-8, directly competing with Corneille on parent-facing early reading subscriptions in the same demographic.
- Lalilo: Lalilo is a French EdTech startup offering a web-based adaptive reading platform for K-2 students (CP/CE1), directly competing with Corneille's core age range and phonics-based approach in the French education market.
Broad incumbents
- Bayard Jeunesse: Bayard is a major French children's publisher (Les Belles Histoires) and an existing Corneille content partner. As a broader media incumbent, Bayard has the resources and audience to expand into digital reading learning and compete with Corneille.
- Belin Éducation: Belin Éducation is a major French educational publisher producing textbooks and digital resources for primary schools, including reading methods. It competes with Corneille in French primary-school reading instruction channels.
Market position
Strengths5 records
Weaknesses5 records
Competitive moat6 records
Key risks6 records
Key highlights7 records
Customer concentration
Corneille social profiles
Digital presenceCorneille financial estimates
Financial estimateRevenue estimate
Valuation estimate
Corneille leadership team
Management profileNumber of profiles
Profiles2 records
Corneille funding detail
Funding detailFunding overview
Funding rounds1 record
Investors3 records
Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Corneille M&A and investment
M&A and investmentM&A
Investments
M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →
Frequently asked questions about Corneille
What does Corneille do?
Corneille is a French EdTech company that develops and distributes a mobile and web application teaching children ages 3–8 to read through 300+ adaptive activities (phonemic awareness, syllable games, letter tracing, reading fluency) and a digital library of over 100 children's book titles. It also operates Corneille École for teachers/orthophonists and Racine for adult workplace reading skills, all unified by a personalized adaptive learning engine and available via subscription.
Is Corneille a public or private company?
Corneille is a private company. It is classified as founder individual operated bootstrapped and is currently operating.
When was Corneille founded?
Corneille was founded in 2020. It employs 1 to 10 people.
Where is Corneille based?
Corneille is headquartered in Paris, France, in the Europe region.
How does Corneille make money?
Three revenue lines are on record. Application Subscription (B2C) is the primary driver. The others are professional/School Subscription (B2B) and gift Cards (Pluxee).
Who are Corneille's main competitors?
Emerging players on record are Mobidys, Nomad Education and Smartick. Lecturino is listed as a regional player. Direct peers are Homer (Learn with Homer), Duolingo ABC, Khan Academy Kids and Lalilo. Broad incumbents are Bayard Jeunesse and Belin Éducation.
Does Corneille have an API?
No public API is recorded for Corneille.
What industry is Corneille in?
Corneille's product category is Children's Reading Education (EdTech / Early Literacy). Its primary akta.pro industry code is EDACAJAK, Digital/Interactive Curriculum Content (Apps, Games, Multimedia Lessons), with a secondary code of EDACANAK, Parent-Facing Home Learning & Family Engagement Apps. Its NAICS code is 611710 and its SIC code is 8200.