The mobile edtech accelerator is inviting applications from global edtech and skilling start-ups.

 

 

Education sector-focused impact investor Gray Matters Capital has today opened the application window for the second cohort of its mobile edtech accelerator program – GMC Calibrator.

The 6-month blended program, which hitherto, was for India-based for-profit and not-for-profit organizations with mobile and digital solutions catering to the ‘Learning to Earning’ space, will now be open to global edtech and skilling organizations as well.

With two cohorts and sixteen start-ups mentored every year, Gray Matters Capital is looking to benefit 5 million women and girls by 2020 through this program via improved digital access to quality education and employment opportunities.

Besides the uniqueness of improving user engagement on mobile and digital solutions through the application of behavioral science and data, the selected cohort members of this program will be mentored on product optimization, leveraging monetization opportunities, and making their products accessible to more women.

 

 

The GMC Calibrator report card

The first cohort—comprising 8 organizations—represented the segments of Early Childhood Education (ECE), teacher capacity-building, preparation for government jobs, and skilling/ vocational training. They benefitted from the program in the following manner.

Stones2Milestones: Creating a nation of readers

•Average session length doubled, and weekly retention on the reading app, ‘Freadom’, increased by 26% through simple behavioural interventions

•The number of girls using the product increased by over 6%. During the 100-day retention challenge to learn from users visiting the app every day, over 33 users crossed this benchmark, with the highest being 152 days—one of the highest numbers for EdTech, globally.

OckyPocky: KidTech player revolutionizing language learning, especially English

•Engagement on the app is up by 17%. Kids are learning 25 new words every day by spending 20 minutes on the app compared to an average of five new words.

•15% more kids used Hindi instructions to learn English than English-guided voice-overs on the app – demonstrating the power of mother tongue in early childhood.

MadGuyLabs: AI-powered personalized online learning platform for government job exam preparation in 4 regional languages.

•Had a ‘mobile-first’ approach but putting together all the elements on a small screen was a challenge; by sending timely personalized notifications based on their user persona, the Daily Average Time Spent (Per User) went up by 30%; small tweaks on payment screen helped double the number of transactions

•Daily Active Users increased by 15%, resulting in overall revenue growth of 20% within a few months

Million Sparks Foundation: Revolutionizing classroom pedagogy with ChalkLit—a capacity-building platform for teachers and school leadership.

•In three releases of their app since joining the Calibrator, engagement grew by more than 9 times with average session duration increasing more than 4 times.

•88% of users said that there is an improved experience and ease of use.

Sarkari Pariksha: Bridging the last-mile gap in students aspiring for government exams across small towns of India, to reach 1 lakh students across 35 states

•Having identified a big underserved opportunity for girls from smaller towns who can use mobiles to self-learn and reach their dreams where physical coaching access is a challenge, SarkariPariksha launched the ‘Beti Padhao Online’ campaign.

•The app now is available both online as well as in 2,100 offline centres across the country

Meghshala: Empowering teachers to lead enlightened classrooms across government schools.

•Used the Calibrator to learn about the complexity of developing a brand new app to carry their lessons out

•Will roll out the program for CBSE and explore expansion to the NorthEast of India to empower teachers and students in the remote areas of the country

Multibhashi: Skilling blue and grey collar workers with job-ready, contextual English across 12 regional languages.

•Re-designed critical screens of the app that resulted in 8-10% reduction in drop-off rates

•Developed the next version of the product featuring a voice bot

Laqsh: Nation-building by enhancing the employability of India’s youth with in- classroom trainings supplemented by curated digital content.

•Shifting to a mobile-first approach, Laqsh developed its VClass App, and is set to target 45,000 students across 11 states

•The app also incorporated a robust analytics engine to track every stage of the student’s learning process

The behavioural learnings and recommendations from the first cohort of the GMC Calibrator have been collated in the report titled “Efficacy of Mobile EdTech in India”.

GMC Calibrator is inviting applications from start-ups solving problems of learning outcomes, 21st century skills, future of work, skilling, gig economy and gender gaps until January 14, 2019. To apply, please click here.