A walk of words with Sarvesh Shrivastava, the edupreneur redrafting the in-class and at-home learning stretch with Eupheus Learning

Sarvesh Shrivastava made inroads in the Indian education sector 28 years ago while carrying a vehemence in his heart – to create an organization dedicated to offering pedagogically differentiated technology-driven solutions that lead to critical thinking and achievement of higher learning outcomes in the pre-K-12 space.

Since then, almost 3 decades have passed and this industry veteran today stands as a proud edupreneur with his venture Eupheus Learning.

Home to more than 1.4 million schools with over 227 million students enrolled and more than 36,000 higher education institutes, India has positioned itself on the second seat for e-learning after the US.

Predicted to grow at 30-40 per cent by 2020, the education sector in India will witness major growth in the years to come as the country will have world's largest tertiary-age population and second largest graduate talent pipeline globally by the end of 2020.

Immune to all ups and downs in the economy, the Indian education system is gearing itself for cementing another landmark within the education history by bringing into play latest technology, which has cultivated a new crop of edupreneurs endeavoring into e-learning to allocate quality and valuable knowledge to the Y Generation.

Still, few loopholes are yet, to be addressed and that's why startups like Eupheus Learning are emerging to level the ground.

Cultivating a vision in his heart to create an organization dedicated to offering pedagogically differentiated technology driven solutions that lead to critical thinking and achievement of higher learning outcomes in the preK-12 space, Sarvesh Shrivastava, along with Rohit Dhar, Ved Prakash Khatri and Amit Kapoor laid the bedrock of this e-learning magnet back in the year 2016.

Today, the brand has carved its own niche within India's entrepreneurial ecosystem. "While many start-ups are mainly focusing on maths and science, we are focused on all subject areas such as English, Coding, Social Sciences as well.

Where other companies are confined to online or offline approach, we take the approach that best suits the needs of our customers." Mr Srivastav shares his views behind the conceptualization of the brand and how it is helping the Gen Y community.

Excerpts from the interview:

You started Eupheus Learning to bridge the gap between in-class and at-home learning by offering pedagogically differentiated and technology-led solutions in the preK-12 market. How has been the journey till date?

In our first year of operations, we have been able to achieve a reach of over 1 Million students and more than 1800 institutions who subscribe to our various solutions. What else could picture our success better?

Rote learning has crippled the confidence of a majority of students which could be sensed when they enter the job market. If you think of it, when they are conceptually clear and fundamentally sound they will be creative and confident.

There is a major need of setting up a liberal educational system which involves critical thinking and problem solving along with a curriculum that is in step with the 21^st century skills required today.

From an early stage, the curriculum must expose the learner towards skill sets or talent they possess so that they can develop those talents and not just do what everyone else is doing.

Currently, that's what Eupheus Learning is doing. Not only are we bridging the gap between in-class learning and at-home learning by seamlessly integrating both, we are also igniting curiosity in a young learner's mind with curriculum specially curated with educational offerings such as Kinaesthetic Learning, Reading Enhancement, STEM / STEAM, and English Language learning via exclusive tie-ups with award-winning EdTech companies from across the world.

Eupheus Learning is significantly different owing to our approach and our partnerships with 11 international companies such as World Book, ETS, Sanako, Wizefloor, ISFO, Fiction Express, Robo Garden, Primo Toys, etc. to curate Glocal solutions.

How did you warm up for the industry?

Before starting this journey of Entrepreneurship, the management team, which is leading Eupheus Learning, did a successful turnaround of the Indian arm of a global education entity and made it profitable in a short span of time.

But there were some unresolved ongoing challenges which we felt we would be able to address only if we were walking the journey on our own.

We started this company by investing our own money, around Rs 6.5 Cr. and till February 2018, we were completely bootstrapped. We invested slightly more than a million dollars between the Promoters, team members and friends.

We closed our Pre-Series A round with Sixth Sense Ventures in early March 2018. Presently we are in advanced talks with multiple Venture Capital firms for Series A raise and in the process of concluding the same.

How big is the market opportunity? What percentage of this pie do you plan to get over what period of time?

We estimate the market size to be of INR 45,000 Cr market. We plan to cover 2% market share in next couple of years.

What are the major product milestones of Eupheus?

The reason users are inclined towards our offerings is because, we develop hybrid solutions comprising of textbooks and digital material (in offline and online form) to seamlessly integrate in-class and at-home learning so that it is much easier for a student to understand a concept.

Offered on a subscription basis, these innovative solutions can be bought as a bundle or as a standalone service.

Product milestones:

1.World Book Inc. (USA) Reference solutions in print and digital form.

2.Sanako (Finland) Language Learning digital solution in offline and online form

3.Fiction Express (Spain) Reading program in form of Live books where students vote for the next chapter of the book to be written by the author

4.Cubetto (UK) Coding program for three to eight-year-old kids via wooden robot, a board and instruction blocks.(no digital screen intervention needed)

5.Wizefloor (Denmark)   Kinaesthetic learning program for kids thru Interactive floor

6.RoboGarden (Alberta, Canada) To learn to code in a gamified environment via adventures, journeys and missions.

7.ETS (USA)TOEFL Certification for kids of Age 8 – 14

8.BBC MUZZY (UK)Award-winning language course for kids

Finally, what's next for the company?

We will be present in 10,000 schools and reach out to close to 5 Million students by the end of this year. We plan to create an impact in more than 10 million students' lives over the next five years.

How do you learn in your life and what is your biggest dream?

Life itself is all about learning. My biggest dream is to reach every student in this country with solutions that will bring a smile to their faces. Actually, I am living that dream through Eupheus Learning, but this is just the beginning!

If you weren't building your startup, what would you be doing?

If I were not building the startup I would be doing a cushy job in a company.

Do you consider yourself a hardworking person or a smart person?

I perceive myself as a mix of both.

What gets you excited about the future?

Achievement of vision gets me excited each day.

What advice can you give entrepreneurs who want to venture into the same domain in the future?

The idea should be unique and scalable for success in this cluttered domain.

The dynamic leaders behind the brand

The founding team consists of professionals having experience of more than 120 Man-years in starting up and turning around businesses in the Education and Training space.

Sarvesh Shrivastava – Founder and Managing Director- Sarvesh brings with him more than 30 years' experience in education and IT sectors during which he has held progressive leadership positions in organizations such as General Electric, Corning, Telecom Australia, NIIT, Pearson and Encyclopaedia Britannica.

Rohit Dhar– Co-Founder and Director- He started his journey as a modest sub-editor and worked his way through to become chief-editor and then publishing head in various organizations.

Ved Prakash Khatri– Co-Founder and Director- Ved has about 23 years' sales experience in the K12 publishing industry space. He has held progressive positions with Suman Prakashan, Ratna Sagar and Oxford.

Amit Kapoor- Co-Founder and Director- Amit has more than 15 years' experience in sales and marketing across Education, Training & Entertainment industries covering Indian and International markets.