Byju Raveendran Success story of first generation entrepreneur from Kerala | Inspirational Business Stories India
‘This is not a business, I started as a business. It’s a passion which ended up becoming a business.’
Byju Raveendran a 40 year old man is the founder of EdTech app has become the billionaire of India after his online teaching app called Byju’s which ranked in $150 million in its latest funding round. He grew up in a village of Kerala. Hailing from a small village in Kerala to a global e-learning guru. The Byju’s learning app is a Bangalore based educational technology and online tutoring firm. He has an intense imagination with a particular idea to bring complex subjects to life and ignite the spark of learning.
Both his parents are teachers. His father was a physics teacher while his mother was also a mathematics teacher. His math was very strong. His parents always encouraged him to participate in sports-related activities. After joining engineering, he discovered his knack for teaching and started helping his friends during his spare time. Although an engineering graduate he loved teaching students. He was an avid learner and an excellent teacher. He was an aid to students who were preparing for different entrance exams. One day he was at his friend’s place in Bangalore who was preparing for the CAT examination, his friend knowing Byju was a bright student asked for helping with the preparation. He also decided to give the CAT exams for fun. To everyone’s surprise, he scored 100 percentile. He was amazed and thought it was just a game of luck. He again decided to appear in the exam while he scored 100 percentile again. As a result, he left his job and tried to do something in his teaching background as a teacher, creator, and motivator. He began to teach students on his friend’s terrace. With time he widened his horizons and started teaching more courses. He also realized that the educational system of India was not strong. This made him go digital and he started his venue ‘Think and Learn’ to teach using VSAT in 2011. After that, there wasn’t a need for him to turn back. With the help of this app, students could learn and understand concepts of their own time at their own place.
In 2015 he launched Byju’s- The Learning App which was made for children aged five to sixteen. The app offers almost everything from basic entrance examination to basic science and mathematics. Though e-learning was not that popular in India back then, it gradually gained its popularity. Today the app has more than 35 million subscribers which shows an increasing acceptance of digital learning among the Indian mass. And it has nearly 3200 employees.
Later on Disney BYJU’S Early Learn App was launched in July 2019, with learning programs for children aged 6-8 years. The app now has learning programs for children aged 4 to 5 years also. At present the app is available in India on the Google Play Store for Android devices and on the App Store for Apple’s iOS devices.
Pramod Sharma, President – Technology & Product, BYJU’S said, “Children today are digital natives and possess an intuitive understanding of technology. Our learning programs provide the perfect offline and online integration to offer children an enhanced and engaging experience. Our adaptive learning engine will also understand the child’s favorite Disney characters, proficiencies and progress and recommend quests and learning content based on their preferred formats like videos, quizzes, rhymes and worksheets.”
The app is used widely by millions of students all around the country and has gained extravagant results for both students and Mr. Raveendran himself. Byju’s was the first startup in India to be funded by the Chan Zuckerberg initiative. Byju Raveendran has set an excellent and great example for not only entrepreneurs but also teachers all over the country.
