CuriousJr collaborates with ACT to build a more effective platform for education
CuriousJr, an ed-tech and mobile-first coding platform for kids collaborate with ACT, a non-profit venture philanthropy platform, to address India's learning crisis by building a more effective, affordable, and accessible ed-tech platform. The solution is designed to teach coding and enable learners to build problem-solving, analytical thinking, and creativity skills through a highly gamified experience and byte-sized content. Founded by IIT-BHU alumni from small towns in India; they are driven to make coding accessible to as many students as possible across India, which is why the app is vernacular- and mobile-first, ensuring that even students without access to laptops or most of the market's current offerings can begin learning how to code.
Currently, ~88% of the K12 students do not have access to a laptop/desktop which requires a mobile solution for students to learn to code. Also, 79% of students in the country are learning in their mother tongue hence learning solutions in vernacular language becomes essential to ensure an effective learning system across the country. Since its release in September 2020, the app has amassed 1.5Million+ installs and 250,000+ monthly active users. Students can learn Block coding, JavaScript and Computer basics whereas CuriousJr also plans to launch python this month. Also, Students will be able to learn in Hindi, English, Tamil and Telugu.
ACT was founded in 2020 in response to the COVID crisis and is built upon the premise that collective action has the power to achieve social impact at scale. Their grants are designed to provide seed capital for incubating and accelerating innovations that have demonstrated the ability to address identified social need gaps at scale.
They will provide CuriousJr with catalytic funding to support solutions, and mobilise ACT's network by strengthening, scaling, and accelerating CuriousJr's networks to meet key portfolio needs and generate insights on how the coding platform, CuriousJr, can address India's learning crisis under "ACT For Education."
Aakanksha Gulati, Director at ACT, said of this collaboration, "We admire the way CuriousJr runs and the opportunities it provides its students and young learners. ACT for Education helps ed-tech platforms to pioneer high-quality edtech innovations, and we are happy to be a part of their CuriousJr's journey."
In addition to providing funding, they'll work with CuriousJr on strategy as well as operations and help them harness the strength of the ACT collective to make sure they have access to the best-in-class mentorship the industry has to offer.
"Mridul Ranjan Sahu, the cofounder of CuriousJr, said, "As an ed-tech platform for K12 students across the country, we are very happy and proud to be an ACT grantee. ACT brings in Education expertise which helps us create outcome led curriculum and evaluation process, as well as the network which helps us expand our reach deeper into K12 students."