STEPapp - Startup Which Gamifies School Education

Education is one of the important things for people living in this world. As one important area, we can utilize education in many fields of operation and in our day to day life. Edtech startups in India are changing the scene of education in India. They are making it interesting to learn new things. It ultimately help the nation because we know that children are the future of our country.

India suffers from skewed pupil-to-teacher ratio, which is rising and it compromises a complete learning experience for students in schools. And hence, these technology-driven learning apps are using gaming elements to help boost the learning process for students and sharpen their basics in various subjects. One such company is EduIsFun providing the product STEPapp. Read this article to know more about STEPapp.

STEPapp - Company Highlights

Stepapp - Vision and Mission
Stepapp - Target Market
How was Stepapp Started?
Stepapp - Product/Services
Founders of Stepapp and team
Stepapp - Name, Tagline, and Logo
Stepapp - Business Model and Revenue Model
Stepapp - Startup Launch
Stepapp - User Acquisition and Growth
Stepapp - Startup Challenges
Stepapp - Future Plans
Stepapp - Funding and Investors
Stepapp - Advisors and Mentors
Stepapp - Recognitions and Achievements

You can also have a look at the top Edtech startups in India for some inspiration.

Stepapp - Vision and Mission

STEPapp believe in primarily providing a level playing field in education. The idea is to bolster four key parameters that make education effective and complete. These key parameters are AQEA: Accessibility, Quality, Enjoyability, and Affordability.

They aim to provide universal access to quality education for every child using technology and gamification. The company's mission is to create a bank of meritorious children who will be transformed into national assets.

Stepapp - Target Market

Stepapp is from the Ed-tech industry. Their target group is school going students and the total market size (as per MHRD statistics) is 255 million students currently. And there will be significant growth in this industry due to two reasons.

Firstly, India has the youngest population in the world and it will continue to be so at least until 2030 (as per UNESCO). By 2022 the number of school going students will be 300 million. Secondly, the current crisis has strongly underlined the urgent need for education to go digital and technology-enabled.

How was Stepapp Started?

After 22+ years of teaching, grooming, guiding, and mentoring some of the finest minds of this country through PACE IIT & Medical, there was already an established niche for them. They know Building a technology solution in education is a new ball game altogether. They are trying to solve the two major issues that prevail in our country:

1. Educational Inequalities in India
2. Low Technology Adoption in India

Both of these issues individually create a divide between the latent potential existing in our country, especially in the villages and towns, and the culmination and representation of that talent on a global scale.

The startup's main idea was to bridge this gap between rural and urban educational opportunities and provide a level playing field for students of all classes. Secondly, as the world is moving fast in terms of technology, they wanted to provide students with the latest educational technologies for them to stand stronger and smarter.

Also read: How Byju's is Making Millions of Students Fall in Love With Learning

Stepapp - Product/Services

STEPapp is a gamified, personalized, interactive and adaptive learning app that makes learning Math & Science fun and interesting for school students. STEPapp offers the students of grades 1st to 12th a great opportunity, to experience a virtual gamified learn from home solution that enables the students to learn and play at the same time. This gives the students a conceptual clarity while making the studies interesting too.

STEPapp is an innovative way to learn concepts while ensuring that all the stakeholders (parents, principals, teachers, and students) are aware of the learning outcomes at all times.

Following are some of the features of STEPapp:

• Gamified Format: The gamified format of STEPapp helps the students learn the topics in an interesting way thus keeping them engaged.
• The syllabus is broken down into small conceptual quanta: STEPapp makes learning seamless by replacing long lectures into small conceptual quanta.
• Simplified testing methodology and measurable learning outcomes: STEPapp allows the students to measure their learning outcomes in a simplified manner. The outcomes are measured on the basis of speed, accuracy, and the number of attempts.
• Self-paced learning: Students can control their learning pace by revising the concepts and relearning the topics.
• Content created by 400+ IITians and Doctors: For better learning outcomes, the syllabus of STEPapp is designed and curated by the expertise of 400+ IITians and doctors, simplified in gamified format.
• Rewards and recognition: Students get motivated to learn and study when they are rewarded and recognized.

Founder of Stepapp and team

Praveen Tyagi is the founder and CEO of STEPapp. Sandeep Singhal is Chief Business Officer and a Physics Mentor and Gaurav Goyal is the Chief Technology Officer at STEPapp.

STEPapp is created with a team of 400+ IITians and Doctors with over 5 years of extensive research. The concepts and content are generated and created by the extensive research of these 400+ IITians and Doctors, who have combined their knowledge and intelligence for creating such content that is easily understood by the children without any hindrances.

Apart from these, they have other teams that are constantly aiming to provide a level playing field for students and help the company in fulfilling its mission and vision.

Stepapp - Name, Tagline, and Logo

STEPapp or Student Talent Enhancement Program is a gamified app that enables the students to have a learning experience through a level playing field. The gamified approach helps the students to learn their concepts in an interesting way.

When the student clears a chapter in the app, the virtual character in the app goes a ‘step up’ to the next level. This up-gradation of a student from one chapter to another or stepping up to the next level ideated them to give the name STEPapp and also represented in the logo.

Relevant read: List of EdTech Startups in India | Emerging Education Startups

Stepapp - Business Model and Revenue Model

The startup have two products in STEPapp:

• STEPapp Concepts:
  The unique, gamified content is mapped to the school curriculum and it has been broken down into small nuggets of information so students can grasp the concepts easily. The content has been created by 400+ IITians and Doctors to give students conceptual clarity in math and science. The product is priced at ₹ 5000. This is currently available for 6th - 10th for CBSE and ICSE boards.
  
• STEPapp Scholarships:
  Top 10,000 performers from each grade (6th - 12th) win prizes ranging from ₹ 5000 to ₹ 1 crore from a total pool of ₹ 50 crores. The Enrollment fee is priced at an affordable rate of ₹ 500, to ensure that nobody misses out on the opportunity. The rewards encourages the students to perform better. Winners are mentored and guided by the expert team for their future endeavours.
  
• Grades 1st to 5th app:
  They are soon rolling out a new product for grades 1st to 5th in the next few days. The aim is to make learning fun and enjoyable for all school students.

Stepapp - Startup Launch

The company started its journey by implementing STEPapp in various government and private school chains. They received an extraordinary response and great reviews from students when they played the game while learning the concepts in the app. This is what encouraged them to start implementing STEPapp in more schools and this is how they got their first 100 users.

We had approximately 1 million downloads within the first month of our launch.  We are focused on improving and innovating more products and services to enhance the students learning experience and that is the only marketing technique we are focusing on - Praveen Tyagi, Founder and CEO of STEPapp.

Stepapp - User Acquisition and Growth

This product is not a push product but a pull product. Since the mission of the product is to impart knowledge and provide it to the children, they have always aimed to strategize their activities to fulfill this mission. They aim to provide the students to get the conceptual clarity by the content created by 400+ IITians and Doctors.

Also, they give the stakeholders, i.e. the parents, the teachers and the policymakers, in-depth data on learning outcomes to make informed decisions about the child’s career through the interactive STEPapp Dashboard.

Must read: Coursesity- Getting all the Online Courses Under One Umbrella

Stepapp - Startup Challenges

One of the biggest challenges that came before STEPapp's team was to reach out and build connectivity in remote areas and provide them with the e-learning experience. There was also an issue of improper infrastructure to provide school education in many areas in the country.

After extensive research and development of STEPapp, they successfully implemented the offline feature in their app to provide a platform to educate children in the underprivileged areas. With STEPapp, students can now learn and revise the topics thoroughly without any disruption at the ease of their homes.

Stepapp - Future Plans

STEPapp see itself as a global product that has huge potential, not just in the Indian market but in global markets as well. The company is soon rolling out their product for Grades 1st to 5th app. They are also working towards making STEPapp a multilingual product. There are some new features in the product which are currently into BETA testing which will be announced soon.

Stepapp - Funding and Investors

Eduisfun has raised a total of $28M in funding over 1 round. This was a Venture round raised on Dec 24, 2019.

| Date | Stage | Amount | Lead Investors |
|--- |--- |--- |--- |--- |---
| Dec 24, 2019 | Venture Round | $28M | Amitabh Bachhan, Piyush Pandey |

They are raising funds that will be utilized in strengthening their technological backbone, product enhancement, innovation and distribution on a global level. The startup will be using the funds in innovating more apps that are personalized, gamified, and packed with data analytics features and AI software.

Stepapp - Advisors and Mentors

STEPapp have a team of 400+ IITians and doctors with 21 years of experience in teaching and they are the advisors and mentors.

Stepapp - Recognitions and Achievements

The company have implemented STEPapp in hundreds of private and public schools, where, after playing on the app, students' performance has improved remarkably. They have recently signed a deal with the Tamil Nadu government to implement STEPapp in their schools which will benefit over 10 lakh students.

They have also implemented STEPapp as a learn from home solution in the reputed Podar Group of Schools. Also, they will have approximately 1 million downloads within a month.