Builders of Worlds
Where curriculum knowledge is hidden inside an adventure children actually want to live.
The first learning world designed specifically for neurodivergent and Dual/Multi-Exceptional minds — and the system that's finally ready to serve them.
"Traditional education was not designed for curious minds, divergent thinkers or children who learn through doing. Abakhi was."
A living, breathing world where knowledge is hidden inside ancient systems — waiting for a Builder brave enough to restore it.
Abakhi is a post-apocalyptic fantasy world where children step through the portal and become Umaki — Builders of Worlds. The world is broken: ancient systems have failed, ecosystems collapsed, communities scattered. Only through knowledge, creativity and courage can it be restored.
Every puzzle solved, every alliance forged, every trading path discovered teaches real skills — curriculum subjects and life competencies alike — because children are too engaged in the world to notice they're learning.
A post-apocalyptic realm of four elemental kingdoms, shattered by an ancient catastrophe — and waiting to be restored.
In the age before memory, the world of Abakhi was held in perfect balance by four great elemental forces — maintained by the ancient Umaki, the original Builders of Worlds. Then came The Great Unravelling. The elemental systems collapsed. The lava channels ran cold. The rivers reversed. The great mechanical engines fell silent. The floating sky-forests began to fall.
The Umaki scattered — their knowledge hidden inside the broken systems they left behind, waiting for someone curious enough to find it. You are a Umaki. A new Builder of Worlds. The question is not whether you can restore it. The question is: what do you have the energy for today?
"Beneath the surface, the world still burns. Find the channels. Restore the flow."
A subterranean realm of bioluminescent lava pits, ancient thermal channels and volcanic cave networks. The lava once powered the Umaki's great forges across all four realms. Now the channels have fractured — dangerous in some places, entirely cold in others.
"The rivers forgot their way. Teach them to flow again."
A vast realm of fractured lakes, reversed rivers, collapsed waterfalls and flooded lowlands. Once the most fertile realm in Abakhi, its water systems have fallen into chaos. The great cascades that powered mills and irrigated everything now flow backwards — or not at all.
"The machines remember what their makers forgot. Listen to them."
A vast subterranean network of mechanical ruins, collapsed caves and abandoned Umaki engineering. Once the industrial heart of Abakhi, its silent moss-covered engines hold the knowledge of how the whole world was built — and how it might be rebuilt.
"The sky-forests are sinking. What rises must learn to hold itself aloft."
The most spectacular and most endangered realm — floating ecosystems, cloud forests and sky archipelagos slowly descending since The Unravelling damaged the wind-current systems keeping them aloft. Some islands have already fallen. Others are tilting.
Abakhi doesn't just teach what schools require — it teaches what life demands.
Abakhi is grounded in core KS2 and KS3 curriculum objectives — not as a one-to-one mapping, but as a living system where the most important things are learned deeply, through genuine curiosity, rather than everything being covered shallowly. Every world activity, quest and interaction is a carefully designed opportunity to develop real-world competencies — naturally embedded in the world, never forced.
Abakhi holds the full KS2 and KS3 curriculum — but a child is never placed against a year group. Skills develop asynchronously, because that is how neurodivergent minds actually work. High achievement is met with greater challenge. Areas that need more support are quietly reinforced. No child is told they are behind. No child is held back from going further.
Core subjects — maths, literacy, science and more — are woven seamlessly into every quest and puzzle. Learning happens because children want to solve the problem, not because they have to.
Players navigate real trading pathways — buying, selling, bartering and managing resources across the Abakhi world. Economic thinking, risk assessment and value judgement are learned through play, not lectures.
Every NPC interaction is a masterclass in communication. Players negotiate alliances, collaborate on missions and navigate complex social dynamics — building the articulation and persuasion skills that no textbook can teach.
Restoring the broken world of Abakhi means restoring its ecosystems. Players learn cause-and-effect thinking, resource sustainability and environmental responsibility — because the world's survival depends on their choices.
Abakhi's world is filled with displaced communities, struggling systems and those in need. Players make decisions that affect populations — building empathy, social justice thinking and a genuine understanding of global citizenship.
Planning quests, managing inventories, adapting to setbacks and persisting through boss challenges — Abakhi quietly builds the planning, self-regulation and resilience skills that neurodivergent learners especially need to thrive.
"The most powerful learning happens when children don't realise they're learning at all."
A bespoke learning architecture — not borrowed from a single theory, but built specifically for curious, divergent and Dual/Multi-Exceptional minds.
Abakhi's pedagogy is grounded in six evidence-based frameworks, each chosen for its direct relevance to the neurodivergent learner profile. These frameworks are woven invisibly into the world — children experience the outcomes without ever encountering the theory. Aligned to core KS2 & KS3 objectives — not as a one-to-one mapping, but as deep, genuine engagement with what matters most.
Knowledge is not delivered — it is discovered. Every quest is an invitation to construct meaning through doing. Children build mental models of the world by restoring the world.
No child is asked to learn while dysregulated. The Regulation Check-in adapts difficulty, tone and pace to the child's current state — grounded in Zones of Regulation and Polyvagal Theory.
Multiple means of engagement, representation and expression. Whether a child learns through building, trading, storytelling or puzzle-solving — all routes reach the same curriculum outcomes.
Every mission is a sustained project. Restoring an ecosystem requires ecology. Rebuilding a trading post requires arithmetic. Learning is the tool; the quest is the purpose.
No grades. No tests. No year groups. Only levels of mastery unlocked through demonstrated competence. A child can operate at different levels across different skill domains simultaneously — Abakhi tracks each domain independently.
Gifts are challenged and differences accommodated — simultaneously. Abakhi rewards divergent thinking and creative problem-solving while providing scaffolding and sensory-aware pacing.
Every character in Abakhi is a narrative vehicle for learning — each carrying specific knowledge, challenging specific skills, and reflecting the values of their realm.
The Umaki were the original Builders of Worlds — the ancient creators who built Abakhi's great systems before The Great Unravelling. The player is a new Umaki: an outsider who has crossed through the portal to continue their legacy. Fully customisable: skin tone, face, hair, and elemental sigil markings earned by restoring each realm. No fixed gender.
A small, gently glowing axolotl-like creature — the last being created by the Umaki before they scattered. Luma carries fragments of ancient knowledge and acts as guide, companion and emotional anchor. Never intrusive, always present. Floats at shoulder height and mirrors the emotional tone of each session.
Each of the four biomes contains the same six NPC archetypes — same roles, different faces, shaped entirely by their elemental realm and its knowledge domain.
The oldest surviving Umaki-trained native. Speaks in riddles and parables — players must decode their wisdom to unlock ancient repairs. The primary vehicle for deep curriculum content.
A practical craftsperson who gives players technical repair quests — teaching science and maths through doing. Rewards: new tools, upgraded gear, access to deeper biome areas.
A scientist-philosopher who combines elements to create new substances and solutions. Introduces chemistry, biology and materials science through experimentation.
Buys, sells, barters and brokers — teaching financial literacy through lived experience. Supply and demand, fair exchange, negotiation. Morally interesting. Not always entirely trustworthy.
Families, farmers, displaced wanderers. They represent the human cost of The Great Unravelling. Players' choices directly affect their wellbeing — the vehicle for empathy and humanitarian values.
Not a villain — a protector. Tests whether the Abakhi has truly earned the right to restore what lies ahead. Boss encounters require mastery of the biome's core learning before passage is granted.
Four steps from lost learner to Builder of Worlds.
Before every session, Abakhi asks a simple question: "What do you have the energy for today?" The child's response — not a test score — sets the difficulty, pace and emotional tone of that session. Learning starts where the child actually is.
The child steps through the portal into Abakhi — a living, broken world waiting to be restored. No instructions, no pressure. Just an open world and the burning question: what do you want to do?
Curiosity leads the way. Every path reveals new systems to restore, communities to help, resources to trade and knowledge to unlock — all mapped to curriculum goals behind the scenes.
Progress is measured in worlds saved — and skills gained. Each domain tracked independently. Parents and providers see real-time dashboards of exactly what's been learned, skill by skill.
Most edtech platforms deliver the same experience regardless of how a child is feeling. Abakhi is different. At the start of every session, a gentle on-screen check-in reads the child's current emotional and energy state — and the entire session adapts in response. High energy? Tackle a boss challenge. Low energy? Explore, create, or restore something beautiful. This isn't just good UX — it's grounded in co-regulation theory and is especially transformative for neurodivergent learners who experience significant day-to-day variability.
There is a lot of noise about screen time. Most of it is not about your child.
The screen time debate was built around neurotypical children in unstructured digital environments — passive consumption, social media, infinite scroll. That conversation is legitimate. But it has almost nothing to do with a neurodivergent child who loses themselves for four hours in a complex world, solving systems, building structures, mastering lore.
For many neurodivergent and Dual/Multi-Exceptional children, screens are not the problem. Screens are the regulation. The research increasingly says so — and the families living this know it to be true.
For neurotypical children in passive, unstructured digital environments — particularly social media — there is meaningful evidence for concern. Guidelines from the AAP and authors like Jonathan Haidt have shaped this narrative.
Research from the Child Mind Institute, Springer Nature and Children and Screens consistently finds that for neurodivergent children, screens serve fundamentally different functions — regulation, safety, mastery and connection.
The screen behaves the same way every time. No unexpected social demands. No sensory ambiguity. For an anxious or sensory-sensitive nervous system, this is inherently and genuinely regulating — not escapism.
They decide what happens next. For children whose days are filled with external demands and unpredictable environments, a space where their choices have consistent consequences is restorative.
Neurodivergent brains are often either under or over-stimulated. The right digital environment hits the regulation sweet spot that real-world environments rarely provide — and sustains it for hours.
Fail privately. Retry immediately. Succeed at your own pace. No audience. No shame. For children whose relationship with failure has been shaped by years of public struggle in classrooms, this changes everything.
The engagement is self-generated, not coerced. A child who chooses to spend four hours understanding a complex system is demonstrating exactly the kind of sustained, deep curiosity that education should cultivate — not suppress.
Research from Children and Screens identifies neurodivergent children as significantly more likely to use screens for sensory regulation. Reducing screen time without providing alternative sensory supports is, as researchers note, a very, very difficult endeavour.
The Child Mind Institute finds that for neurodivergent children, screens offer a sense of safety and predictability in an overwhelming world — and that screen-based activities have clear benefits for learning, socialisation and wellbeing.
Child Mind Institute, 2026Neurodivergent children engage with digital media at least as much if not more than neurotypical children — but for fundamentally different reasons. Conversations should be driven less by popular opinion and more by evidence-based approaches.
Springer Nature, 2024Approximately 40% of neurodivergent children are high sensory curators — using screens specifically to regulate sensory input. This is significantly more common among neurodivergent children than their neurotypical peers.
Harrison et al., Media Psychology, 2019The American Academy of Pediatrics revised its guidelines in 2016 to move away from strict time limits, recognising that the quality and context of screen time matters — not simply the duration.
AAP, 2016Built for the learners the system has left behind — and the families and providers fighting for them.
175,900 children are in Elective Home Education in England — many because traditional schooling simply failed their children. Abakhi gives them a structured, engaging, curriculum-aligned tool that fits around their child — not the other way around.
DME children are gifted and have learning differences — ADHD, autism, dyslexia, dyspraxia. They're simultaneously advanced and behind across different domains. Abakhi meets them exactly where they are in each domain independently.
87,000 pupils are in AP placements — often disengaged, excluded or at risk. Abakhi provides AP providers with a powerful engagement tool that rekindles curiosity, rebuilds confidence and delivers measurable learning outcomes.
Emotionally Based School Avoidance affects an estimated 1 in 50 pupils — children whose anxiety, overwhelm or trauma makes attending school feel impossible. Abakhi meets them at home, on their terms, in a world that feels safe.
The Builder Behind the World
I didn't set out to build an edtech platform. I set out to find one that worked for my children — and discovered it didn't exist.
Abakhi was not designed in a boardroom. It was lived before it was built.
As a neurodivergent parent of three neurodivergent children, the gaps in provision aren't abstract statistics — they are lived, daily realities. Through periods of elective home education, reduced timetables and SEND referrals, the same pattern repeated: platforms that promised personalised learning but delivered school, online.
But here is what I actually observed in my children — the same children those platforms couldn't reach.
My oldest could lose himself for hours — strategic resource management, long-arc narrative mastery, deep systems thinking — forgetting to eat, forgetting to sleep, entirely consumed by a world complex enough to deserve his full attention.
My middle son moves between worlds demanding patience, creativity and long-term nurturing, and pure iterative engineering — building, testing, failing, rebuilding, until mastery is achieved through the sheer refusal to stop.
My youngest designs levels — prototype, test, tweak, test again — indistinguishable from engineering. He builds working marble run systems that would challenge a physics student.
These are not children avoiding learning. These are children demonstrating exceptional executive function, systems thinking, iterative problem-solving, creative engineering and deep mastery — every single time the environment is designed for how they actually think.
That observation is the entire argument for Abakhi. Not a gap in the market. A proof of concept that has been running in my living room for years.
A neurodivergent parent of three neurodivergent children who has navigated EHE, reduced timetables and SEND systems from the inside — not as a researcher, but as a mother.
Professional background in complex data systems — designing adaptive environments that respond intelligently to human behaviour. The Curriculum Mapping Engine is built on this foundation.
Deep roots in EHE and neurodivergent family communities — the exact networks Abakhi's growth strategy depends on. This isn't a market to be entered. It's a community Talja already belongs to.
Every design decision reflects a founder who knows exactly who she is building for and why. That clarity is rare. In the neurodivergent space, it is the difference between a product that looks right and a product that is right.
"The children Abakhi is built for are not failed learners. They are learners who have been failed. This platform exists to change that."
A rapidly growing, underserved market at the intersection of EdTech and Special Educational Needs.
We're at the beginning of something extraordinary — and the timing couldn't be better.
Validated demand through deep community research with EHE families and AP providers. Core pedagogy framework established. Abakhi world architecture, character design and visual identity created. Cinematic launch trailer produced.
Prototype development is beginning. We are now actively seeking seed funding to build the full playable prototype and establish our first learner partnerships.
Seed funding enables full prototype development — core game loop, Regulation Check-in system, curriculum mapping engine and parent dashboard. First EHE and AP pilot families onboarded for feedback.
Closed beta opens to a founding cohort of EHE families, DME learners and AP providers. Real-world learning data collected, outcomes measured and platform iterated rapidly.
Public launch across B2C and B2B channels. LA procurement pipeline activated. Revenue-generating phase begins. Series A fundraise initiated on the back of proven beta outcomes.
Why this is a must-have, not a nice-to-have. Built on peer-reviewed evidence.
"A structurally underserved population of neurodivergent, twice-exceptional and education-excluded children aged 8–14 is growing rapidly in the UK and globally. The gap between their cognitive potential and their educational outcomes is widening. No purpose-built, evidence-grounded digital learning environment exists for them. Abakhi is that environment."
The UK government now estimates 1 in 7 children are neurodivergent. In England, 1 in 5 children is reported to have SEND. Education, Health and Care Plans have increased 83% since 2015 — yet outcomes for this group continue to deteriorate.
Children with SEN support are six times more likely to be permanently excluded. The average wait for an autism assessment in England is now 26 months. For ADHD, 29 months. These children are waiting — without support, without evidence, without provision.
The exclusion-to-justice pipeline is a documented risk. A 2025 Youth Endowment Fund report found that behaviour driven by unmet neurodivergent needs is frequently misidentified and punished. Permanently excluded children are twice as likely to commit serious violence within a year. The cost of this failure is not educational — it is systemic.
175,900 children were in elective home education in England in 2024/25 — a 15% year-on-year increase, rising every year since records began. The primary reasons: mental health, SEND and dissatisfaction with available school provision. This is a structural response to system failure.
These families need curriculum-mapped evidence for Local Authority annual reviews. No existing platform generates that evidence from a child's natural learning behaviour, without formal assessment, in a format LAs accept. Abakhi does.
Twice-exceptional (2e) or Dual and Multiple Exceptionality (DME) learners are consistently under-identified for both gifted programmes and special education simultaneously — because their strengths and difficulties mask each other.
A simulation study estimated approximately 1 in 9 students in gifted programmes should be twice-exceptional but are not identified as such. The defining characteristic is intra-individual variability — a child may reason at Year 9 level in physics and Year 4 level in written communication simultaneously. Every standard EdTech platform assigns a single year group. None are designed for this profile.
The evidence for game-based learning with this population is growing. A 2025 systematic review of 25 studies found that video games significantly improve working memory and executive functions in children with ADHD, ASD and specific learning differences. A 2023 meta-analysis confirmed that digital game-based training produces significant cognitive gains in children with neurodevelopmental disorders. The mechanism is validated. The platform does not yet exist.
Abakhi detects working level independently per domain from observed gameplay — no tests, no year group assignment, no ceiling. It adapts to the child's regulation state before each session. It generates an LA-ready asynchronous domain profile as evidence. Built on the clinical frameworks of Porges (1994), Kuypers (2011) and CAST Universal Design for Learning.
This is not a product improvement on what exists. It is a category that does not exist yet.
The infrastructure, evidence and strategy behind the world. This is where serious investors look — so here's where we speak plainly.
Learning in Abakhi is measured through evidence-based mastery — not traditional tests.
Every interaction in the world generates learning signals — puzzles solved, systems built, resources managed, reasoning choices made. These signals map automatically to curriculum objectives and real-world competencies, producing a live evidence record for every session.
Parents and providers see learning in real time — not as grades, but as demonstrated capability. Rather than measuring memorisation, Abakhi measures applied understanding and problem-solving.
Behind the game sits a Curriculum Mapping Engine. Every quest, puzzle or challenge is tagged to National Curriculum objectives, real-world skills and cognitive processes.
Children experience a game world. Parents and providers see curriculum progress and mastery data. All learning evidence is logged automatically and surfaced in the dashboard — no teacher input required.
Abakhi is not being built as a traditional large-scale game. Development follows a modular world-building approach — proving outcomes before scaling costs.
Single biome, core mechanics, Regulation Check-in system and Learning Dashboard. Proves engagement and learning outcomes.
Additional quests, curriculum modules and AI-driven challenge variation across multiple biomes.
New regions, narrative layers and community systems. Full four-biome world. Series A territory.
Abakhi is not a feature. It is a purpose-built architecture — and that architecture is the moat.
Any well-funded studio can build a fantasy world. Any edtech platform can claim curriculum alignment. What cannot be quickly replicated is a system built from the ground up around a specific learner — their neurology, their regulation, their relationship with failure and mastery.
The Regulation Check-in is not a feature bolted onto a game — it is the foundation the entire session is built upon. No other edtech platform does this.
Behind every quest sits a tagging architecture that maps gameplay actions to National Curriculum objectives in real time — without teacher input. A live evidence system that produces Ofsted-ready reporting as a by-product of play.
Sensory-aware pacing, low-pressure entry points, mastery-based progression with no grades or tests — these are not accessibility add-ons. They are the product.
EHE and neurodivergent family networks are high-trust, word-of-mouth ecosystems. A founder with lived experience and an authentic origin story is not a marketing angle. It is the only credible entry point into these communities.
Large platforms serve the general learner. Abakhi was built for the learner every other platform failed. That is not a niche. That is an underserved majority hiding in plain sight.
| Capability | Abakhi | Minecraft Education | Roblox | Night Zookeeper / EdPlace |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Regulation Check-in (adaptive emotional state) | ✦ Yes | ✕ No | ✕ No | ✕ No |
| Built specifically for neurodivergent learners | ✦ Yes | Partial | ✕ No | Partial |
| Live curriculum mapping engine (no teacher input) | ✦ Yes | ✕ No | ✕ No | Partial |
| EBSA / EOTAS / EHE pathway design | ✦ Yes | ✕ No | ✕ No | ✕ No |
| Mastery-based, grade-free progression | ✦ Yes | Partial | ✕ No | ✕ No |
| Parent & provider Ofsted-ready dashboard | ✦ Yes | Partial | ✕ No | Partial |
| Lived-experience founder in-community trust | ✦ Yes | ✕ No | ✕ No | ✕ No |
Abakhi's growth strategy focuses on community-driven adoption — the highest-trust, lowest-cost route to the families who need it most.
Word-of-mouth adoption within homeschooling networks — already functioning as high-trust recommendation systems.
Licensing through AP providers and tuition centres — institutional relationships with direct access to target learners.
Platforms used within EBSA and alternative education pathways — bulk procurement without consumer marketing costs.
Communities built around ADHD, autism and dyslexia support — highly engaged, deeply connected, and actively seeking solutions.
A format-neutral cognitive assessment tool — embedded inside the world. Not a test. A window into what every child can actually do.
"Every child who shuts down in a cognitive assessment because of format incompatibility is a child whose ability was never measured — only their tolerance for the wrong format. Abakhi Lite measures the ability."
Most cognitive assessments fail neurodivergent children — not because the children can't perform, but because the format demands regulation, compliance and abstract instruction-following that many neurodivergent children find genuinely impossible. The assessment measures tolerance of the format, not the underlying cognitive ability it claims to measure.
Abakhi Lite is a B2B assessment tool designed for Educational Psychologists, SEND schools and Local Authorities. It embeds cognitive profiling inside a short gameplay session — so that children perform at their genuine ceiling, not their anxiety floor.
The child is asked a gentle, non-clinical question about their energy and readiness. The game world adapts accordingly — ensuring the session begins from a place of regulation, not pressure.
A short, structured gameplay session — single biome, focused challenge set. The child experiences it as a game. The system records every decision, timing, strategy and reasoning pathway as structured assessment data.
A structured cognitive profile report is automatically generated — formatted for Educational Psychologist review, EHCP evidence or Local Authority reporting. No manual write-up required.
| Dimension | Abakhi Lite | Standard Cognitive Assessment |
|---|---|---|
| Format | Game-based, narrative-embedded | Clinic-room, instruction-following |
| Regulation requirement | Adapted to child's current state | Fixed — child must regulate to format |
| Anxiety / demand avoidance | Low-demand entry, intrinsically motivating | High — unfamiliar adult, clinical language |
| What is measured | Genuine cognitive ceiling | Often: tolerance of the format |
| Output format | EP-ready structured report, auto-generated | Manual write-up required |
| Suitable for PDA / demand avoidance | Yes — designed for this profile | Rarely — format is inherently demanding |
Platform shares ~80% infrastructure with the core game engine — significantly reducing development cost
No separate curriculum-mapping layer required — the evidence engine maps directly to cognitive domains
Opens a distinct B2B market (EPs, SEND schools, AP settings, Local Authorities) independent of B2C families
Two revenue streams on one platform — B2C subscriptions and B2B assessment licences
A single, focused round to prove the thesis — and build the platform to deliver it.
This figure is deliberately focused. It funds one thing: proving the thesis with real learners, in a real prototype, with real data. It builds the single-biome core loop that demonstrates engagement, learning outcomes and the Regulation Check-in in action.
The founder requires no salary from this round. Every pound is directed at product and pilots. That is an unusual position at seed stage — and a meaningful signal of commitment.
| % | Amount | Purpose | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 45% | ~£157,500 | Core Development | Lead game developer and UI engineer. Milestone-gated. |
| 20% | ~£70,000 | Regulation Check-in System | Adaptive regulation engine — the core differentiator. |
| 15% | ~£52,500 | Curriculum Mapping & Dashboard | Backend tagging architecture and parent dashboard. |
| 10% | ~£35,000 | Beta Pilot Programme | Founding cohort of EHE, DME and AP pilot families. |
| 10% | ~£35,000 | Contingency & Operations | Legal, IP, GDPR, accountancy. No marketing spend. |
10–15% equity in a seed-stage EdTech company with a defensible, purpose-built moat
EIS eligibility — up to 30% income tax relief on investment
First-mover advantage in the fastest-growing segment of UK education
Quarterly progress reports with learner outcome data from beta
Preferred participation rights in Series A round
Board observer seat available for lead investors of £75,000+
A company built on lived experience — not market research
The EHE market has grown 15% year-on-year for five consecutive years. Post-pandemic EBSA has become a permanent feature of the education landscape. Local Authorities are under statutory pressure to provide for children outside mainstream provision and are actively seeking commissioned solutions.
What has not existed — until now — is a platform designed from the ground up for how these children actually learn. That is what this round builds.
This is not a bet on a market trend. This is a bet on the children who already know the system has failed them — and are actively looking for something better.