Motivated by storytelling, this girl entrepreneur pivoted her learning initiative into an edtech startup

On May well 1, 2020, Anuradha Venkatachalam had picked three children’s stories – We are heading on a bear hunt, Pickle Mania, and Stick Man – and organised an interactive storytelling session with 23 small children about a Zoom call amid COVID-19. 

Even though small children were paying most of their time online, the 40-calendar year-outdated desired to guarantee that it was utilised meaningfully – and what superior way than infusing it with excellent-outdated storytelling. Right after all, storytelling was Anuradha’s forte, possessing been an active storyteller as element of the Society of Children’s Books Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI) in Singapore, and authored a few children’s guides herself. 

In hindsight, Anuradha realises that she was tapping into a valuable edtech market in India whose addressable market place dimensions is estimated to be $10.4 billion by 2025. According to KPMG, the place is now house to additional than 3,500 edtech startups, earning up 10 percent of the world-wide edtech market place. 

After several classes on a variety of techniques and extracurricular activities, the initiative captivated positive responses, and what began as a quest to be certain high-quality time for children led Anuradha to entrepreneurship. Alongside with her spouse Shankar Gomathinayagam and colleague Arun K Nair, she co-established Chennai-based mostly Learner Circle. 

“Doctors, nurses, lecturers, and absolutely everyone was executing their bit when the planet was experiencing a lethal virus. We also needed to leverage our competencies and enthusiasm as electronic promoting pros to connect college students with professionals and many others like our yoga and health instructors with likely clients,” she tells HerStory. 

Beginning up

To begin with, Anuradha had put a meagre charge so that persons benefit storytelling and origami workshops. With additional than 70 teachers on board now, the startup features a broad range of skill-based mostly and live lessons on Bharatanatyam, drawing, Vedic math, writing, musical instruments, and languages as effectively.

With the the vast majority of its audience belonging to the NRI local community, rates assortment from Rs 699 to Rs 12,000 for three months. Learners can indication up for a absolutely free demo course in advance of enrolling.  

Registered in Might this calendar year, the startup raised…