Byju Raveendran

Ed-tech startups making learning fun and interactive for the kids

We have listed a few educational game apps that have made the learning process more engaging and children friendly.

This pandemic has proven to be a conjugating time for the ed-tech industry where many sectors were dripping down various Indian ed-tech startups like Byjus, Toppr, Unacademy started raising their fundings.

These ed-tech startups are changing the outlook of education and learning from the conventional way of learning in a classroom to that of learning online through various apps thereby making it more fun-loving and creative.

We have listed a few educational game apps that have made the learning process more engaging and children friendly.

BYJU’S

BYJU’S – The Learning App, an ed-tech and online tutoring firm founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran at Bangalore, is the world’s most valued ed-tech company with a valuation of $11.1 billion. It offers educational content to school students from class 1 to 12. The company also trains its students, for various examinations such as IIT-JEE, NEET, CAT, IAS as well as for international examinations such as GRE and GMAT. Also, after collaborating with Walt Disney in 2019, it launched the Disney BYJU’S Learning App for children and started featuring Disney stories and characters enhancing the experience all the more.

KUTUKI

This app founded in 2017 by Sneha Sundaram, is an award-winning early-learning app for children below the age group of seven and was also recognised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi as one of the winners of the AatmaNirbhar Bharat App Innovation Challenge. Kutuki focuses on language and phonetics, math and science, social and life skills, and cognitive development. It offers simple games to build vocabulary, life skills, and learn letters and numbers by using exclusive stories and songs-based on the students’ curriculum. They make sure about bringing art and technology together to create quality and engaging content.

KIDDOPIA

Paper Boat Apps, focussing on both the education and entertainment of children, was founded in 2013 by husband-wife duo Anupam and Anshu Dhanuka. Kiddopia’s main focus is on providing interactive games and activities which helps to foster self-expression and cognitive development among children. It also promotes learning by way of offering creative and invigorating activities. It covers the curriculum in such a way which ensures the coverage of various activities like role-playing, general knowledge, language skills, etc. Today, it has over 2.5 million downloads and more than one lakh active subscribers.

At 34, Zerodha’s Nikhil Kamath is the youngest billionaire, Mukesh Ambani remains wealthiest

India’s Richest list of 2020 by Forbes is here and all eyes on the youngest billionaire in the list of top 100, Nikhil Kamath, the founder of the biggest stock brokerage company in India, Zerodha.

India’s Richest list of 2020 by Forbes is here and while the year has been an economically taxing for many around the block as well as India as a whole, the rich in India continue to get richer. The man of the hour, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman of the Reliance Industries has continued to remain seated on the Iron Throne and has been named as the wealthiest man in India for the 13th consecutive year. Moreover, he has managed to add a whopping 37.3 billion dollars to his kitty which has only been increasing each year.

With the whole world waiting for an antidote for the deadly Coronavirus, Cyrus Poonawalla, the vaccine maker is the new kid on the block to have entered the top 10 list, being stationed at the sixth position. If percentages are to be calculated, the highest gainer has been Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Chairperson of Biocon.

However, all eyes on the youngest billionaire in the list of top 100, Nikhil Kamath, the founder of the biggest stock brokerage company in India, Zerodha. Kamath is just 34 years old and has a net worth of Rs. 11, 300 crore which is about $1.55 billion.

Kamath was not even an adult when he started stock trading, it was at the age of 17 wherein he dropped out of school to partake in Indian National Chess Championships. At the mere age of 19, Kamath was the co-founder of his company called Kamath Associates for the purpose of managing high net worth individual portfolios in public markets.

It was in the year 2010 that he founded another company, Zerodha with his brother Nithin. With three million users, Zerodha boasts of being one of the most popular retail brokerage companies in India. They also have an investment firm with the name of True Beacon which focuses on investors who have an ultra-high net worth. The firm operates on a zero-fee model.

With the lockdown in place, trading saw an increase and there were several who opened Demat accounts which helped the Kamath brothers to enter the list at the 90th spot.
Divya Gokulnath is the second youngest billionaire in the list who is the wife of BYJU’s founder Byju Raveendran and is also the co-founder in BYJU’s. At age 39, Raveendran is the third-youngest billionaire who had founded his company back in 2011.

These are richest startup founders for India in 2017

Snapdeal’s Kunal Bahl and Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal are no longer in the top 15 richest entrepreneurs.

A recent study on Indian startups by the IBM Institute for Business Value and Oxford Economics found that 90% of startups in India fail within the first five years. Thousands of internet entrepreneurs are being minted in India every year. Billions of dollars were poured into the new ventures by investment firms. However, only a few have stood out with their startups. Many of those are on the way to achieving unicorn status. India’s list of richest startup founders in 2017 still contains many familiar names, but some have slipped off — Snapdeal’s Kunal Bahl and Ola’s Bhavish Aggarwal are no longer in the top 15 richest Indian entrepreneurs.

Below is the complete list of the richest startup founders in India.

Bhavin Turakhia, Directi/Media.net

Bhavin Turakhia is an Indian entrepreneur, CEO and co-founder of Directi. He is also the founder and CEO of Flock, Radix, CodeChef, and Ringo, as well as the co-founder of Media.net and Zeta.In 2016, Bhavin Turakhia was ranked as the 95th richest person in India, with a net worth of US$1.3 billion, along with his brother Divyank Turakhia. Bhavin Turakhia has jumped to first place after seeing a four-fold increase in his wealth in 2017. With a net worth of Rs. 11,500 crore, Bhavin Turakhia is currently India’s richest tech entrepreneur.

Vijay Shekhar Sharma, Paytm

Vijay Shekhar Sharma is an Indian entrepreneur and founder of mobile payments company, Paytm. In 2005, he started One97 Communications which offered mobile content like news, cricket scores, ringtones, jokes and exam results. One97 is the parent company of Paytm, which was launched in 2010. In 2017, Vijay Shekhar Sharma was featured in the World Billionaire’s List by Forbes, and became India’s youngest business man to be featured on the list.

Softbank has made its biggest investment by sealing a funding round of Rs 9,000 crore ($1.4 billion) in One 97 Communications which owns mobile payments provider Paytm, making it the country’s second most valuable startup with worth $8 billion. Vijay Shekhar Sharma, now has a net worth of Rs. 9,000 crore.

Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, Flipkart

Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal, co-founders of India’s most valuable internet firm Flipkart, lost their billionaire status after the e-commerce firm’s valuation fell in its latest funding round. The Bansals became the first internet billionaires in 2015 when Flipkart raised $700 million at a valuation of $15 billion. Their fortunes were then estimated to be worth roughly $1.3 billion each, according to Forbes magazine. Now, Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal have worth of Rs. 5,400 crore each.

Ganesh Krishnan, Portea Medical

Ganesh Krishnan is a successful serial India entrepreneur with four successful green field ventures and exits. Ganesh’s last venture, TutorVista was acquired by Pearson for $213 million. His current venture, Portea Medical, provides technlogy-led home health care to the Indian consumer. He also mentors, incubates and funds startups and is strategic investor and promoter of several Indian consumer Internet and ecommerce companies including Bigbasket.com, Bluestone.com, and Avagmah.com. Ganesh Krishnan has a net worth of Rs. 5,100 crore.

Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Info Edge

Sanjeev Bikhchandani is an Indian entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Info Edge which owns Naukri.com. In 1990, Sanjeev Bikhchandani started two Internet companies Indmark and Info Edge, along with a partner. Info Edge is India’s premier online classifieds company in recruitment (Naukri.com, NaukriGolf.com, Quadranglesearch.com, FirstNaukri.com), matrimony (Jeevansathi.com), real estate (99acres.com), education (Shiksha.com) and related services. Currently, the company has investments in Zomato Media Private Limited (Zomato.com), Applect Learning Systems Private Limited (Meritnation.com), Etechaces Marketing and Consulting Private Limited (Policybazaar.com), Kinobeo Software Private Limited (MyDala.com), Canvera Digital Technologies Private Limited (Canvera.com), and many others. Sanjeev Bikhchandani has now net worth of Rs. 4,800 crore.

Vishal Mehta, Infibeam.com

After working for Dell and Amazon in the US for five years, Vishal Mehta returned to India in 2007 and started Infibeam along with a group of Amazon employees. He funded the company by selling his personal assets rather than opting for external equity funding. Infibeam.com started as an automobile portal in 2007, but later turned into an online retailer. In 2017, Infibeam has merged with CCAVenue, in a deal that valued the payment gateway at $289 million. Now, Vishal Mehta has a net worth of Rs. 3,500 crore.

Dhiraj Rajaram, Mu Sigma

Dhiraj Rajaram is the founder and chairman of Mu Sigma Inc,an Indian multinational data analytics company. After completing his education, Dhiraj worked as a management consultant at PwC in the US and Booz Allen Hamilton India. After quitting his job from Booz Allen Hamilton India, Dhiraj started data analytics company Mu Sigma Inc in 2004. Dhiraj Rajaram was named to Fortune Magazine’s list of 40 under 40 in 2013, and won The Economic Times “Entrepreneur of Year” award in 2014. Currently, Dhiraj has a net worth of Rs. 2,500 crore.

Rahul Sharma, Micromax

Rahul Sharma is an Indian entrepreneur, founder of YU Televentures and the co-founder of Micromax Informatics. Rahul is currently serving a CEO of Micromax Informatics since April 1, 2007. While the impact of demonetisation had its impact on Indian players, Chinese smartphone brands – OPPO, Vivo, Lenovo and Xiaomi – continued to grow at the expense of Indian brands. However, in terms of overall Indian smartphone market share in 2016 Micromax still stood at No.2 spot with a 11% share. Hence, Rahul Sharma still has net worth of Rs. 1,400 crore.

VSS Mani, Just Dial

In 1996, VSS Mani started Just Dial, which provides online and telephone business listings service. In 2006, after two unsuccessful attempts, Just Dial finally got in private equity investment through SAIF Partners. US hedge fund Tiger Global put in Rs 77 crore. In 2012, Just Dial raised a further Rs 327 crore from Sequoia and SAP Ventures before it went public in 2013 and its investors partially cashed out. In 2012, Just Dial obtained approval from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) for its proposed Initial public offering (IPO). In May 2013, Just Dial went public. VSS Mani has now net worth of Rs. 1,100.

Byju Raveendran, Byjus

In 2003, during his two months break from an overseas job as a service engineer, Byju Raveendran decided to help some of his friends appearing for CAT in Bangalore. It was an informal way of helping, and he also took the exam, and scored 100 percentile. He started teaching some of his friends, and took up the test yet again in 2005 without any preparation, and scored a perfect 100 percentile yet again. This time he also appeared for IIM-A, B, C interviews and cleared all of them. However, decided against pursuing MBA and instead saw potential in teaching students how to crack CAT, and started Byju’s.

Byju’s recently raised $50 million co-funded by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan’s investment arm The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), Sequoia Capital, Sofina, Lightspeed Ventures and Times Internet Ltd. Now, Raveendran Byju has a net worh of Rs. 1,000 crore.