Fun With Report Cards
Since 2010, Ananth Mani has been mixing art, mathematics, statistics, algorithms and code in a fun way to provide actionable insights for school students to study and progress in a holistic manner. His company, Report Bee Edusys, is a deep focused data analytics company that enables easy recording of the vibrant life of a student in a school, to identify trends that can help teachers and parents support the overall learning process of the child.
Their cloud-based tool, which records the academic and co-scholastic progress of a child, caters to CBSE, ICSE, Samacheer Kalvi, Anglo Indian, International Baccalaureate and other boards. They currently work with more than 100 schools, including Bhavans, Chinmaya Vidyalaya and DAV in Chennai, operating across five States in India and two countries. The company was incubated at the Cell for Technology innovation, development and Entrepreneurship Support of IIT Madras. They won a pan-India Business Plan competition in 2010, jointly conducted by The Indus Entrepreneurs, Loyola Institute of Business Administration, Entrepreneurship Development Institute and National Entrepreneurship Network, and have been invited by the State Education Department of Tamil Nadu for three years for detailed analysis of the state examination results.
An alumnus of Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology, Nagpur, and IIM-Bangalore, Mani worked with the Times of India Group, Cognizant Technology Solutions and Sankhya Learning before venturing out. He started Report Bee with Bala Ganesh, a junior from VNIT, and Anjan T, a former colleague. Corporate life taught him how to work in a team, within constraints. When they saw a real problem that could be solved, they jumped in, using technology as the leverage to build sustainable solutions that can be operated at large scale.
Mani explains, “Education is the key, if India has to become a developed nation. For the education system to deliver and maintain high standards, we need effective assessment and engagement of the students. We see a lot of innovation in the sector, but the impact has been minimal. There were no tools to effectively measure the impact of new teaching methodologies. We realised that just the measurement of human learning could have a huge impact in the education world.”
Mani enjoys the art of storytelling, and regularly took part in skits and plays at school and college. He now spends time on completing online courses, teaching his kids and running.
On the support ecosystem for an entrepreneur, he says, “Every human being that I come across provides a learning experience. I have a set of friends with whom I have interesting, lively conversations and am also shameless while seeking help from others when the situation requires it. So, I have different mentors at different stages of my life.” His success mantra is: “Know thyself and find your own path!”
More details about the company at www.reportbee.com.
rohit@learnbizsimulations.com