Startup develops AI app for digital maths lessons

In everyday school life, teachers often don't have the time to respond well enough to individual pupils and their weaknesses. How could this problem be solved? Jakob Seitz often discussed this at home, as his parents are teachers.

It's no wonder that the Würzburg computer scientist has not let go of the subject to this day. He has now finished his studies and is driving a start-up forward: together with his colleague Tobias Lengfeld, he has developed the Living Lines app for maths lessons.

How the app works: Teachers take photos of maths problems and software converts them into digital worksheets in a matter of seconds, which the pupils can then complete by hand on a tablet. If they make a mistake in the calculation, the app gives them immediate feedback without anticipating the solution.

AI understands handwritten calculations

The innovation behind Living Lines is an AI that recognises and understands handwritten calculations and corrects them if necessary. For the pupils, it's almost as if a real teacher is helping them to solve the problem.

Jakob Seitz acquired the expertise for the app at the University of Würzburg as part of the Games Engineering and Computer Science degree programmes. As a Master's student at the Chair of Computer Vision , he worked intensively on how computers can be taught to understand handwriting. He was also involved in scientific publications on this topic.

Developed in close cooperation with schools

The development of the app began in 2024 and since then the start-up team has always worked closely with schools. "The collaborations work really well, we are in contact with highly motivated school headmasters and teachers who want to take this forward," says Jakob Seitz happily. As a result, Living-Lines is already in use at grammar schools in Schweinfurt, Würzburg and Hösbach.

According to Seitz, the feedback from teachers is very positive: they report noticeably less correction work and more time for discussions in class. And they realise that heterogeneous classes benefit because both stronger and weaker learners receive the appropriate stimuli.

Website of the startup

Contact Jakob Seitz: seitz@livinglines.app

Three scholarships from the exist programme

Start-up veterans Jakob Seitz and Tobias Lengfeld were recently joined by Lea Masopust from Munich, who is in charge of marketing. The trio can currently put all their energy into the start-up: since January 2026, it has been supported with three start-up grants from the exist programme of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy, co-financed by the European Social Fund.

This means that the three will receive financial support for one year so that they can develop their business plan with the support of the University of Würzburg and prepare for market entry.

The team had already received funding beforehand: the Schwarz Foundation provided financial support and coaching.

Support from the university

The exist project is managed at the university by the Chair of Computer Vision. Its head, Professor Radu Timofte , supports the team as a mentor and coach.

Further support comes from the university's start-up assistance team at the Service Centre for Research and Technology Transfer (SFT). The team there is there for all students, employees and alumni who are interested in setting up a business. It also prepares the exist applications together with the applicants.

Where Living-Lines wants to be in a year's time

The team has several goals for the end of exist funding in December 2026. These include the search for subsequent sources of funding as well as the further refinement of the app - for example through gamification, i.e. enriching it with playful elements.

The aim is also to bring Living Lines into regular operation at even more schools and to expand the community of teachers who use the app. "We want to provide such good support in the classroom that less tutoring is needed and pupils already have a basic understanding of the content after the lesson," says Jakob Seitz.

Team has received awards

The start-up has already won a number of prizes and awards. Here is a selection:

• First place in the "Student Prize for Social Innovation" (StiPS) competition organised by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space in the "Education and Work for the Future" category
• Second place in the Strascheg Award 2025 in the category "Best Business Idea with First Market Proof", a competition organised by the Strascheg Center for Entrepreneurship (Munich) to honour innovative business ideas
• First place in the FLIGHT Startup Accelerator 2025 competition organised by Startbahn27, an initiative of the Schweinfurt start-up centre GRIBS

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