Cuelearn, a start-up backed by CapitalG (formerly Google Capital) and Sequoia India, is exploring the possibility of taking its fantasy story-based mathematical learning programme to South-East Asian nations and plans to recruit teachers in more Indian cities, said Manan Khurma, the company’s founder and CEO.
“This is one of the most extensive gamification exercises undertaken in education,” Mr. Khurma said in an interview. “We have created all the characters and the fictional universe they belong to with immense detail, keeping in mind the triggers for children across different age groups.”
Three levels
The stories were divided into three levels – Class K-2 (kindergarten to Grade 2), Class 3-5 and Class 6-8 – after analysing student responses to content across media such as storybooks, puzzles, games, apps and television programmes, he said. Each story will be released periodically over a series of classes to enable students to strengthen their problem-solving ability and increase their affinity for math.
The stories include characters such as Thomas Tallman, a town’s problem-solver after he discovers a book on math, Zero Squad, involving Eka and Dvita who crack cases with logic and reasoning, and Kalina and the Shards of Singularity, which allow kids to break complex codes and discover the mathematical origins of stars. India’s education market is expected to almost double to $180 billion by 2020 due to an expansion in the digital learning market and a shortage of trained teachers, according to market consulting firm Technopark. “We are not a digital kind of distribution model. The model is where we essentially tie up with teacher partners who set up home-based learning centres using the learning system that we provide to them. They teach neighbourhood kids using the Cuemath system. So, these teacher partners join us and get trained in using the system and start classes from home,” Mr. Khurma said. “It is a partnership arrangement where whatever revenues generated in a centre is shared 60:40 between the teachers and the company,” he said.
“The teacher retains 60% of the revenue. We provide the teachers the entire material to run the centres. In a Cuemath class, the teacher’s role is very different from a conventional class. The teacher here is more like a facilitator. The child is the primary driver of the learning process.”
Currently, Cuelearn has a network of 2,500 teachers and 20,000 students for its Cuemath programme. “We are primarily focused on six cities — Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad. We do have presence in some 80 cities but our focus is on these six cities for now. We are actively acquiring teachers in these six cities.” “In a city like Bangalore, we have 500 teachers. But to cover the entire city and to be able to reach to all corners we will need about 1,500 to 2,000 teachers,” Mr. Khurma said.
Most of the current teachers are women who stepped out of the workforce due to family reasons. “So, there is a huge talent pool out there of individuals who are very highly skilled but not currently employed.” All the features, including the fantasy stories, are embedded in a tablet. Cuelearn raised $19.1 million in two rounds of funding. It registered a turnover of ₹12 crore last financial year ending March 31, 2017. “Average price is ₹1,800 per student per month. We have a 40% take rate,” Mr. Khurma said.
“We will expand to a few more cities next year such as Ahmedabad, Kolkata and Kochi,” he said. The company is looking at opportunities in countries such as Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand and West Asia to sell its Cuemath programme.
