Edtech Accelerator EDUGILD Onboards Seven Startups For Second Batch

Pune-based engineering college, Maharashtra Institute of Technology has onboarded seven startups in the second batch of edtech accelerator programme Edugild.

The chosen startups have been selected from from India, US and Russia and will operate out of the accelerator’s co-working space for a period of 16 weeks in Pune.

Rishi Kapal, CEO of EDUGILD said, “The EDUGILD program is meant to enhance as many opportunities for our startups to engage with key game changers and decision makers within the knowledge management industry.”

An intensive two-day Diagnostic Bootcamp will take place on September 2-September 3. This workshop commences the start of the programme, where the startups will be evaluated on the basis of seven tracks with the Edugild Diagnostic Bootcamp Kit. These tracks are PMF readiness, MVP readiness, future readiness, go-to market readiness, organisation development plan and the maturity levels of UI/UX and tech.

On the basis of 90-minute sessions with the ‘Trackers’ the programme aims to create a customised blueprint for each startup that will focus on the amount of work to be done on the specific areas, making it market-ready.

“The idea is to create a symbiotic ecosystem where the startups help each other grow,” said Rishi. “After the successful completion of the first batch where a few of them have received funding from external sources as well as generating inbound interest as anticipated, EDUGILD looks forward to create an enhanced ecosystem that will further help and build a stronger base for the second batch.”

To this end, two of the startups taking part in the accelerator have already entered into a business collaboration. Ahhaa.co, a people-to-people virtual reality learning platform and Instafeez, a revolutionary payment gateway company are collaborating on facilitating transactions.

The seven startups chosen for this batch are:

Abroad Shiksha: Based in Gurugram, this edtech startup facilitates Indian student’s admission to universities abroad. It offers an access to various scholarships and provides test-prep classes for overseas competitive / aptitude exams. It was founded by Kanav Sachdeva and Jyoti Sharma.

Ahhaa.co: Headquartered in New York, US, Ahhaa360 is a people-to-people virtual reality learning platform where impact driven people coach on subjects like performing arts & music, health & wellness, mind & relationship and sports. It was founded by Ashwin Srisailam from India and Diane Bacchus-Quddus from New York.

Edorble: Founded by Gabe Baker in Santa Barbra, US-based Edorble is another virtual reality platform that aspires to make online learning and meetings more personal, playful and powerful with the use of emerging 3D/VR technologies across all devices.

Ekin Knowledge Enabled: Preetham Shetty and Seralathan Devaraj founded EKIN Knowledge in Bengaluru. It is a holistic personalisation platform, with an instructional design engine, which makes it easy for teachers to build next generation learning solutions. This includes, project-based and blended learning by use of technology for pedagogical choices and connects the users’ learning assessment progress to the parents.

ProctorEdu: Headquartered in Moscow, Russia, Artem Kozin and Adeniyi Adebayo co-founded ProctorEdu. It provides a solution that makes online exams secure, convenient and cost-effective with required authentication, monitoring, recording and review of the exam. The target audience includes universities, online learning platforms, and corporate learning solutions.

ReadRush: This mobile platform believes in demystifying knowledge by creating crisp summaries of any book by the chapter that can be read in 25 minutes. This summary is called a RUSH. The startup is based in New Delhi and was founded by Upendra Sachan and Mizanullah Mizan.

TinyTapps: Tiny Tapps works out of Pune, India and provides pre-school digital solutions for early learning with visually stimulating and interactive concepts for children below 6 years of age. The solution is a complete early learning system, which is multilingual, instructional, and affordable with 1000+ learning activities and games. It was founded by Altaf Rehmani.

Along with the Diagnostic Bootcamp Kit, the programme also has two workshops for all participants. In ‘Legal Awareness and Legal Consideration’, experts will deal with issues such as selling subsidiaries, foreign startups needing help with gaining funding in India and advice on statutory regulations to be followed in cases where the startup is operating out of two countries.

As an accelerator, EDUGILD offers an intensive mentorship and product realisation programme to edtech startups. The accelerator looks for participants with creative, technology-based solutions to improve and enhance the learning experience for students and professionals alike. The first batch of cohorts were on-boarded in March 2016 —Instafeez, Simulanis, Classboat and Gradopedia.

The accelerator also plans to launch Design Gild, a design-agnostic accelerator that will help organisations evolve product and scale through the use and implementation of design. Design Gild will be launched in collaboration with MIT, Pune.