Edtech startup STEMRobo is teaching schoolchildren to think out of the box

Technology has disrupted many industries, but its impact on the education sector is telling. A report from Google and consulting firm KPMG reveals that the edtech industry is set to grow to $2 billion by 2021. That means the user base will grow from 1.6 million to 9.6 million in the next few years.

STEMRobo is one of the many players to wed technology with education, but its mission is to make learning fun. It is working to enable students to learn, programme and experiment in the field of Science, Technology, Engineering, Math & Robotics (STEM-Robotics).

The edtech company - founded in 2015 by Anurag Gupta and Rajiv Tiwari - is focused on designing and making innovative electronic devices, software, and methodologies around STEM-Robotics for India’s K-12 segment.

STEMRobo aims to embed curiosity, creativity, and imagination in young minds and inculcate skills such as a design mindset, computational thinking, adaptive learning, physical computing and much more.

Anurag says: “Young children will get an opportunity to work with tools and equipment to understand what, how and why aspects of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and Robotics. At the higher level, our mission is to create an innovation culture among students from childhood with the help of STEMRobo methodologies.”

Nurturing innovation

The STEMRobo methodology nurtures innovation and creativity in education through innovative models and project-based learning around STEM-Robotics.

Backed by a 40-plus member team, including interns, the company has so far been associated with more than 80 schools including DPS Noida, DPS Navi Mumbai, Father Agnel Noida, Billabong Noida and DAV Shahabad among others.

“We have developed STEM methodologies as per Indian perspective to develop an innovation culture and keep kids away from mobile phone and cartoon network obsessions,” Anurag adds.

The global market for electronic DIY kits and education devices is estimated to be $80 billion (Rs 4.8 lakh crore). The huge market is untapped by Indian manufacturers as exports constitute less than 0.08 percent. As per the EY-FICCI 2011 report, there are more than 1.4 million schools and more than 250 million students in India, making it one of the largest K-12 education markets in the world.

Anurag highlights that STEMRobo’s solutions are a combination of hardware kits, software platforms, rich content and services.

Hardware kits: There are around 10 kinds of DIY model for different age groups, with a special focus on “How to embed creativity and innovation among students.”

Software: The company offers a GUI-based platform that helps in learning the basic concept of programming language and LMS platform, which is developed in-house to deliver content via online medium.

Content: STEMRobo creates content for different age groups so that the hardware kit is utilised efficiently, facilitating ease of learning the STEM-Robotics concept.

Services: The startup also provides online and campus training for kits via STEMRobo certified trainers.

In terms of revenue, the company follows both B2B and B2C models. It is generating revenues by tying up with schools, through online subscriptions and by running activity centres in different locations like apartments and community centre/market. This is a simple model wherein students join the classes and revenue is being generated on a monthly basis. Going ahead, STEMRobo is eyeing to make it the main business model (B2B).

STEMRobo is incubated in Electropreneur Park, an initiative of Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology under ESDM sector. It is also associated with India Electronics and Semiconductor Association (IESA).

After incubation, STEMRobo was crowd-funded by a team of friends and ex-colleagues, who backed the innovative business idea.

“By end of June 2018, we plan to take our programmes to Australia and North America. We presently we have a presence in Somalia,” says Anurag about his plans for the future.