Ranu Kawatra believes that there is an economic and social benefit of being fluent in English. In 2014, he left his job as President and CEO at Pearson Education India, to start Maxx English, an online platform that equips students with necessary language skills like reading, writing, speaking and comprehension, through interactive technology from Stanford Research Institute and engaging content, that he believes gives the product a unique edge over brick and mortar institutes.
Maxx English is powered by high-end voice recognition technology that has been developed in association with Stanford Research Institute, the makers of the Siri voice technology in Apple’s iOS. It uses big data analytics to serve personalised content aligned to the specific learning curve of each student, and keeps them engaged through elements of gamification like leaderboards and points for various activities. Their programmes enhance English fluency, spelling, reading and comprehension.
“We started off by setting up online labs in schools for students to learn English, and struck success in the first few meetings itself. It was as if the market was waiting for a product like this. A school principal told us that his students make a beeline for the lab even during recess,” he recalls.
Maxx English currently has 2,00,000 users from more than 750 schools across the country. Some of the top students on the leaderboard come from schools like Eicher School, Faridabad; Salwan Public School, Gurgaon; Kulachi Hansraj Model School, Ashok Vihar, Delhi and Apeejay School, Saket, Delhi. They use a ‘freemium’ pricing model, one full unit is given for free to the student, after which they can buy additional units. The plans range from Rs 599 to Rs 2,999. Maxx English also partners with brands like Airtel, Hindustan Times, Tropicana, Navneet Stationery and Dettol for gifting purposes. They will be launching a mobile application soon.
Kawatra is an alumnus of Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi University, and Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi University. Kawatra started his career with Cadbury, and moved to Proctor & Gamble for a long stint of 15 years, where he was the Regional Business Director, Middle East and Africa. Anil Kaul, the CEO of AbsolutData (a Big Data and Analytics firm based out of San Francisco), was a batchmate at FMS, and a co-founder of Maxx India. “We might launch in south India in the coming months. Recently we had done a pilot in Hyderabad which received a good response,” says Kawatra.
rohit@learnbizsimulations.com