Paromita Sengupta (Bengaluru)

Amit Agrawal is founder-CEO of Gurugram (Haryana)-based Whiz Kidz Media Pvt. Ltd (estb.2015). Whiz Kidz is an edtech company that offers preschools, primary schools and parents of tier-II-III cities and towns, digital English learning lessons in seven vernacular languages.

Through its flagship product OckyPocky, an English self-learning application launched in 2017 that can be downloaded free-of-charge on Android and Windows hand-held devices, the company delivers age-appropriate content embedded with 20,000 activity-based interactive videos for learning English. Its videos provide instruction in Hindi, Marathi and English. Whiz Kidz also offers online live English classes conducted by faculty fluent in English, Hindi, Bengali, Punjabi, Marathi, Tamil and Telugu. Thus far, the company has impacted 200,000 preschool and primary school children in over 100 tier II-III habitations countrywide.

Newspeg. Last September (2020), Whiz Kidz Media received a huge boost when it was awarded angel funding of $400,000 (Rs.2.9 crore) from Mumbai-based Lead Angels.

History. A maths and business management alum of Delhi University’s St. Stephen’s College and the blue-chip IIM-Bangalore, Agrawal began his career in 2000 and acquired 15 years of work experience with top-ranked corporates (Asian Paints, Marico Industries, Infosys, Google and YouTube), rising to leadership positions prior to quitting corporate life and going solo. In 2015, he invested his savings of Rs.1 crore to promote Whiz Kidz with the mission to teach English to socio-economically disadvantaged children.

Direct talk. “I am a first generation learner and found English language very difficult to learn during my formative years. Over time, I realised that working professionals from small towns suffered similar experiences. Whiz Kidz Media was promoted to gamify school learning and provide regional preschool and primary school children in small towns joyous English language learning using their mother tongues,” says Agrawal.

Business model. Subscription fee for the OckyPocky platform — Rs.4,000 per student per year. Subscribers are charged in the range of Rs.1,000-4,000 for access to the company’s language-specific live online classes.

Future plans. Encouraged by the positive response of schools and individual subscribers to OckyPocky, Agrawal has ambitious expansion plans. “By 2022, we want our online English learning classes to be supported by 12 vernacular languages. Over the next two years, OckyPocky will impact 10 million pre-primary and primary school children countrywide,” predicts Agrawal.

Wind beneath your wings!

Also read: Potential of edtech in rural India to provide new employment opportunities