Startup Circle: How is BeyondSkool solving the dilemma of the "Essential Half of Education"?

BeyondSkool is a new-age education company based out of Mumbai. It started operations in September 2020 with its first MVP launch between Oct-Dec 2020. It commercially launched in January 2021. In a short period of 5 months, it has grown to a strong 150+ member internal team, 200+ teachers, with 2X growth month-on-month in students on the platform.

The startup also boasts a strong combined professional experience of 40+ years. Its founders and senior leadership consists of alumni of esteemed institutes and organizations. Some premier names include Kellogg School of Management, MDI, Jio, Vodafone, Samsung and Suzuki.

The founding team of BeyondSkool consists of Payal Gaba as the CEO with 20+ years of business experience in Marketing Strategy, Consumer Insights and Atul Chugh as the COO with 22+ years of Business Experience in Sales & Operations Strategy, Large-size Scale-ups. Nimit Jaiswal, the Chief Growth Officer, is a Marketer and Growth Expert for BeyondSkool while ex-Swiggy and a Six Sigma Expert, Nilay Sule is the Customer Delight Officer with 18+ years experience in operation.

With CiOL, Payal Gaba outlines the journey of the company in a short interaction. Excerpts.

What was the idea behind starting BeyondSkool?

Our education system has not changed with the changing times and needs. Dependence on just knowledge, concepts and theories is diminishing as today’s world requires newer skills of creativity, critical thinking, technology, digital literacy, communication. This has led to a big gap in what is required for new-world success and our children’s skills. BeyondSkool bridges this gap left by traditional schooling and completes each child’s education, thus transforming passive learners into Sharp Thinkers, Innovators and Influencers.

How is BeyondSkool helping students in upskilling their knowledge? What makes them different from other exciting players?

BeyondSkool provides a one-of-its-kind IQ+CQ+EQ integrated curriculum for the holistic development of the child. We go beyond just tutoring school subjects into teaching application based subjects. Through our ‘Think & Create’ pedagogy, we develop 21st-century skills of critical thinking, logic, creativity, communication and confidence in children. Further, we do not believe in short-term classes to build these skills in children. Instead, we provide integrated programmes which are complementary to school learning.

On the EdTech industry in India and competitors

BeyondSkool is uniquely positioned as the only platform providing an integrated curriculum. We bridge the gap between traditional schooling and future-ready education. Though the EdTech industry has many players which have taken offline learning online; however, the uniqueness of our curriculum comes from one of its kind applied subjects which we offer namely STEM, Leadership Communication, Applied Math, LogiMath and STREAM, which not only makes the school learning stronger but also develops 21st-century skills in children.

Plans for the startup

Given the positive traction which we are receiving from the mass aspirational parents across the country, we plan to blitz scale our operations into providing future-ready education to all kids from 4-13yrs age. We also plan to grow the organization from the current strength of 150+ to 1000+ in this financial year. Thus, we are targeting approx 100X growth in revenue with a strong renewals and referral base. As far as funding goes, we have already raised $2mn in a seed round from Tomorrow Capital.