This Indian startup gamifies cognitive skill development for kids

NASSCOM published statistics saying 80 percent of India’s graduates were unemployable because they couldn’t grasp concepts quickly and apply them in the workplace. Corporations took eight to ten weeks of training to induct them, burdening themselves with increased costs, management efforts, and perhaps most importantly, time. This prompted Saravanan Sundaramoorthy to launch Edsix Brain Lab.

The startup offers a gamified skill assessment and enhancement platform for K-12 (kindergarten to twelfth grade) students. It aims to strengthen cognitive skills for critical thinking, learning agility, increased attention span, and more.

“The classrooms lacked practical approach to learning. There is a lack of alignment between the structure of classroom curriculum and the requirements of the office space. Schools focus on academic success and ignore cognitive abilities and do not mould individuals holistically,” says Sundaramoorthy.

Today, he revealed that Edsix Brain Lab has raised angel funding led by Sprout Angels. The round also gives a “profitable” exit to previous investor CIIE, a Ahmedabad-based incubator. The deal size remains undisclosed.

Learning made fun

Edsix Brain Lab has tied up with educational experts, developmental paediatricians, and clinical psychologists to launch a suite of 500 games called Skill Angels. It serves schools to accelerate academic learning, colleges to prepare students for being employable and building their career, and corporates to identify the right talent and increase productivity.

With the funding, Skill Angels aims to expand its services in its consumer apps segment and strengthen the technology platform enhancements for B2B integration.

Another Indian startup providing employability skills to kids is Matrix Partners-backed Purple Squirrel. The firm is a supplementary education provider which conducts industry-driven educational initiatives such as facilitating industry visits, workshops, and hands-on training sessions for students across engineering, arts, sciences, and commerce.

Ah! Ventures-backed LogicRoots gamifies maths practice to promote faster problem-solving skills and stronger fundamentals.

The market size for game-based learning industry globally is slated to touch US$6.6 billion by 2017.