NEW YORK, Oct. 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — New Gentle Learning Technologies today announced the launch of Caldo, an app that weaves mindfulness practice directly into adaptive learning games for students 16 and older. Caldo was built by the founder and leaders behind Yellow Lion, a bespoke brand and digital agency for B2B and B2B2C founders. The app is available now on the Apple App Store in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, with an Android version currently in development.
Caldo was built on the premise that studying and mindfulness have always lived separately, even though they come from the same place: the mind. Every Caldo session pairs an adaptive learning game with mindfulness woven directly into it, so the two things learners actually need happen at once, in the same place. Games come from Caldo’s gamified learning library, built from accredited sources such as Encyclopedia Britannica, PubMed, the World Health Organization, and OpenStax, or from a student’s own materials.
The launch responds to a well-documented rise in student anxiety. Nearly half of all students, 48.43% across a pooled analysis of 67 studies and more than 43,000 students, experience measurable exam anxiety. The problem is also accelerating: the share of college students meeting the criteria for a mental health problem has jumped nearly 50% in the past decade. Research suggests mindfulness can help where more studying hasn’t, improving attention and working memory and reducing test anxiety, with benefits specifically documented among adolescents and young adults.
“Caldo is the app I wish I’d had years ago, when my anxiety would start building weeks before a big exam. I was putting in the work, but I couldn’t focus on any of it,” said Michael Verez Mora, founder and CEO of Yellow Lion and co-founder of Caldo. “Anxiety and studying have always been treated as two separate problems, so students end up managing two apps, two habits, two different fixes, when in reality it’s one mind trying to do one hard thing. We couldn’t find an app that put the two together, so we built one.”
How Caldo Works and Why
- One Session, Not Two Apps. Every Caldo session opens by asking how the learner is feeling. From there, Caldo, the app’s meditating sloth, guides them through an adaptive game with breathing exercises and meditation matched to that mood. Between sessions, the Decompression Corner offers breathing exercises and meditations on demand.
- Three Ways to Play. Students can start with Caldo’s built-in library of 50+ games, built from accredited sources using Caldo’s proprietary software. They can also upload a textbook or notes, and Caldo turns the material into a custom game. Or they can simply tell Caldo what to quiz them on, like the pyramids, and Caldo AI builds the game from there. Every game cites its source.
- Free to Start. Learners can begin at no cost, with no onboarding quiz, no diagnostic test, and no self-assessment gate. They open the app and start playing right away, with 20+ free games including GED Math Mastery, Human Anatomy Essentials, and Financial Life Skills. A premium subscription unlocks every game in the built-in library. Orbs, Caldo’s in-app currency, unlock individual games and power uploads, custom games built with Caldo AI, and the Enlighten button. Every account starts with a set of free orbs, with more available to purchase. The app does not use guilt notifications or streak-shame mechanics.
- The Enlighten Button. Instead of just marking an answer wrong, Caldo gives learners the Enlighten button. For one orb, tapping it reveals the hint, the context, the source, and a different way to think through the question, so learners can fact-check what they’re studying and understand why the answer is right.
- Founder-Driven Design. Caldo was developed by Yellow Lion’s leadership team, including Verez Mora and co-founder and CTO Fernando Diaz, who brings software engineering experience from X, formerly Twitter. Every feature traces back to the founders’ own experiences with academic anxiety.
Caldo does not sell personal data. It does not use materials students upload for advertising, targeted or otherwise. It does not track learners outside the app for advertising purposes. Caldo is a learning and mindfulness app and is not a substitute for professional mental health care.
“Caldo reflects a broader shift underway across the agency landscape,” said Verez Mora. “More agency leaders are moving beyond advisory and execution roles into building products of their own, applying the same strategic rigor and design discipline we bring to clients toward problems we’re uniquely positioned to see. Launching Caldo means applying our own thinking to our own product, from the ground up.”
Student and Beta User Feedback
Ahead of launch, Caldo ran a closed beta program with 15 students who used the app throughout a full study cycle. Here’s what some of those participants had to say:
“Other studying apps just throw questions at you. Caldo gives you time to breathe and reset before it does, and that’s what made it something I’d actually use for studying, not just try once,” said Elonte Tillman, a second-year cloud computing student at Western Governors University.
“Caldo helped me slow down instead of just rushing through material [as] I did with other apps. Once I was calm, I could actually take the information in and understand it, instead of just memorizing words to get the answer right,” said Olivia Villasenor, a full-time student at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC).
“I was stuck on a set of German questions I didn’t know anything about. I tapped [the Enlighten button], and it gave me the definition and walked me through what I should be thinking about. That’s what actually got me through it,” said Michael Morejon, a student at Indian River State College.
Caldo is available now on the Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/caldo-calm-games-for-learning/id6762495289
About Caldo
Caldo is a mindfulness-and-learning app that pairs adaptive study games with guided breathing and meditation in a single session. Built by the team at Yellow Lion, Caldo was created for students carrying anxiety into their coursework and test prep, built on the belief that every learner is worth more than any metric of success could measure. Caldo is currently available on iOS, with an Android version in development. Learn more at https://caldo.app/.
About New Gentle Learning Technologies
New Gentle Learning Technologies is the New York-based company behind Caldo, a mindfulness-and-learning app for students and learners. Co-founded by Michael Verez Mora and Fernando Diaz, the leaders behind brand and digital agency Yellow Lion, the company builds technology that helps people learn without the anxiety that so often gets in the way. Caldo, its first product launching in 2026. Learn more at https://caldo.app/.
About Yellow Lion
Yellow Lion is a bespoke brand and digital agency for B2B and B2B2C founders, CEOs, and marketing leaders. We work across tech, SaaS, and ad tech, building brand strategy, digital experience, and design under one roof. No handoffs between teams. No generic playbooks. Just work that moves the needle for the people who need to move fast. Learn more at https://yellowlion.nyc/.
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