This edtech startup is using gamification to accelerate learning for students, hiring for corporates
Hyderabad-based edtech startup EduThrill uses an AI/ML-powered gamified assessment platform that helps students and young professionals to prepare for competitive exams and allows corporates to accelerate recruitment and training assessment.
Staying ahead of the competition isn’t easy for students and young professionals. Hyderabad-based edtech startup aims to make the journey easier with its suite of products in the education and HR space to revolutionise the way assessments are done.
Founded in 2017 by Amit Arora and Leela Kaza, EduThrill uses gamification to deliver tests and assessment tools. It helps students prepare for competitive exams, corporates to accelerate recruitment and training assessment, institutes to improve the quality of their academics, and job-seekers to prepare and get jobs of their choice.
Amit Arora (L) and Leela Kaza
“EduThrill stands out due to its easy-to-use multilingual interface, low internet footprint requirement, and offline enablement. We have also created content that the same demographic is interested in consuming. Users don’t need to invest in expensive gadgets or laptops, and can use EduThrill in the freemium model,” Amit says.
The startup is working to make career-enhancing technology accessible to meritorious students and job-seekers, irrespective of their geographical location or purchasing power, and help corporates and institutes. The games-based mode of learning helps in improvisation and retention, with an increase in student engagement levels and eventually scores.
In the beginning
An alumnus of Delhi University, Amit has more than 20 years of experience working in domestic and international companies, including Amazon and Trilogy. He held key positions, which whetted his business development approach.
He is also the Chief Innovation Officer at Accolite, a niche $50 million+ software services organisation. In both roles, he oversees marketing and branding functions in addition to other responsibilities in technology, business, and recruitment.
Amit realised the urgent need for an edtech/HR tech platform based on some of the knowledge gaps he had identified himself. He discussed the idea with his friend and former colleague at Trilogy, Leela and after a 30-minute discussion in a car, the duo decided to build the platform with an investment of about $1 million.
EduThrill as since then grown to a team of about 50 people spread across Hyderabad and Gurugram.
What does it offer?
Content and assessments are available for school students from Classes 6 to 12. It also offers free and paid preparatory assessments for competitive exams like CAT, UPSC, NDA, RRB, BBA etc., by partnering with other players who offer courses.
Students can analyse their current understanding (strengths and weaknesses) based on advanced analytics and create individualised learning plans.
EduThrill also aids in organising classroom sessions seamlessly and proctored remote tests with AI/ML integration to prevent cheating.
Colleges and universities can improve student admissions and enrolments through the platform’s campus recruitment, training, and extended placement solutions, giving students a chance to participate in hiring drives and meet their dream companies.
EduThrill’s learning and development solutions for corporates helps process employee assessments, hiring and training, cut employee screening costs by almost half, and reduce time to hire or train employees by enabling assessments from any location.
In the fully-managed hiring drive model, corporates benefit from the huge pool of passive job-seekers that the EduThrill platform lets them access.
According to Amit, corporates and institutes such as Acer, AAIMS, Accolite, Evernote, and , amongst others, have chosen EduThrill as their technology partner of choice. Over 20 clients are on board on its B2B side and the startup is aiming to grow it to over 100 in the next nine to 12 months. “There are more than 450,000 active end users of this cutting-edge world-class technology in India.”
The platform is available in a freemium model for B2C and SaaS-based assessments and fully-managed hiring drives for corporates.
The industry landscape
A recent report by and Omidyar Network India mapped the edtech growth in usage from 2019 to 2020 and revealed that edtech users - both paid and free unique users - in the K12 and post K-12 segment have seen a surge, with the user base doubling from 45 million to 90 million.
The coronavirus pandemic has led to exponential growth, with everyone realising the need for digital assessment and learning solutions. Companies and individuals are recognising the value these solutions bring even when tapped with traditional teaching methodologies.
“Gamification and continuous personalised learning are very powerful tools and extremely useful for remote teaching,” Amit says.
Speaking about what differentiates EduThrill from other players such as , HackerRank, and Codility in the edtech/HR tech space, Amit says theirs is the only company that enables learning and assessment via two-minute competitive games, be it for learning reinforcement/development, cracking competitive entrance exams such as CAT, or getting job offers.
EduThrill claims to have grown 200 percent in revenue last year. The startup is aiming for 500 percent growth this year and eyeing international expansion.
“We want to onboard 10 crore users by 2023 and aim to work with 3,000-4,000 colleges/corporates globally,” Amit says.
(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)