Edupreneurs - India 2013 Program Report
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Contents Page 1. Overview….………………………………………………………………… 2. Why PALF Launched Edupreneurs..………………………………… 3. Edupreneurs India 2013: Delivery Process...……….…………. 4. Edupreneurs: Content and Peer Ranking Overview…………. 5. Edupreneurs India 2013: Cohort…………………………………… 6. Edupreneurs India 2013: Winners…………………………………. 7. Key Insights……………………………………………………………….. 8. The Future of Edupreneurs…………………………………………… APPENDIX 9. Media Coverage……………………………………………………………
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Foreword As both a humane imperative and a logistical challenge, the task of educating the world’s children cannot be underestimated. Few nations provide meaningful education to all levels of society. Even large, wellfunded public school systems do not necessarily produce even or consistent outcomes. Fortunately, while education will always be a key concern of the state, it is increasingly apparent that the private market is capable of being a vital and necessary contributor to meeting the challenge. Low-cost private schools are one notable example, first appearing in Asia and Africa more than 30 years ago and now serving student populations best measured in millions. As the world’s leading learning company, Pearson is committed to bringing all viable solutions to bear on the entrenched problems holding back aspiring learners worldwide. We created the Affordable Learning Fund to discover, finance and mentor local, passionate entrepreneurs dedicated to developing relevant, affordable, quality solutions for low-income learners. In cities like Lagos, where 72% of children attend private schools and in nations like India, where poor families spend up to 13% of their income on private education, there is as great a need to support the private sector as the public sector.iii More than financial agreements, PALF’s investments are long-term relationships, where significant mentorship, co-creation and strategic planning take place cooperatively. However, it can be difficult to complete deals. It is a lot of work to invest equity, particularly across borders, which can discourage investors from pursuing riskier, smaller deals with earlier stage companies. The so-called “pioneer gap” arises, where innovative but unproven solutions struggle to secure capital to survive the hardscrabble early days and prove the business model.iii Although plenty of investors are eager to provide proven models with growth capital, the pioneer gap means these opportunities are few and far between. Focused on solutions, we searched for alternative ways of sourcing worthy early-stage enterprises. Village Capital’s groundbreaking peer review process stood out as entrepreneur friendly, rigorous and affordable. This report describes the inaugural edition of the Pearson Affordable Learning Fund-Village Capital Edupreneurs program. The first cohort had 14 experienced, passionate founders deeply committed to helping as many low-income learners as possible. These edupreneurs immersed themselves in the process as whole-heartedly as they have invested into their companies and the result was outstanding. Each company emerged from the three-month process stronger and more confident, with a better plan for proving their model and eventually reaching scale. They practiced tirelessly before presenting at the capstone event, the Investors’ Demo Day, where an audience of more than 30 funders and industry leaders effusively praised their polished and informative pitches. Encouraged by this example, PALF looks forward to continuing the Village Capital partnership in 2014 and bringing the Edupreneurs model to new markets, where the judicious application of funding and expert mentorship can nurture the seeds of even more solutions.
Katelyn Donnelly Managing Director
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Overview The Pearson Affordable Learning Fund-Village Capital Edupreneurs program (Edupreneurs) is our first, fullscale program specifically focused on low-income learners. The inaugural India 2013 cohort was a great success and has ignited a flurry of creative ideas for expanding the program to both new segments of the market and new geographies. Edupreneurs is a three-month incubator program designed to support and catalyze growth in early-stage low-income focused education startups. The first Edupreneurs program was launched in India in September 2013, in partnership with Village Capital (VilCap), a non-profit that has developed and successfully executed this unique incubator model for 22 previous cohorts across 8 countries, serving over 350 entrepreneurs worldwide. 126 applicatio ns from across India
Edupreneurs provides early stage entrepreneurs with a world-class, education domainspecific start-up curriculum, expert mentorship and, for the top two companies selected by a peer review process, $75,000 of seed investment drawn from capital precommitted by PALF and VilCap.
14 Finalists entering the 3month Incubator
Experifun: low-cost, next-generation science learning products for grades 610. 15 schools in pilot program 2 Peer Selected Winners
Sudiksha: a network of affordable private pre-schools for underprivileged children in India. Currently at 22 schools
Each team ranks the other participating ventures against a 6-category rubric developed by VilCap. This rubric framework was modified specifically for Edupreneurs by drawing on insights from Pearson’s thought leadership and research on measuring the efficacy of education, delivery of quality outcomes and global education best practice. Experifun and Sudiksha received $75,000 each, drawn from $100,000 and $50,000 of capital committed by the Pearson Affordable Learning Fund (PALF) and VilCap respectively. The Edupreneurs India cohort falls roughly into five categories of education interventions: 1) Direct Delivery (5 ventures) – school chains from various parts of India, including one pre-school chain and one unique approach, leveraging equity partnerships with existing operators to enable successful school leaders to launch additional schools. 2) Mobile (2 ventures) - flexible mobile-based curriculums, ubiquitous in even the most remote areas.
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3) Rural Delivery (3 ventures) - companies targeting under-served rural areas - including a “classroom in a box” system - tapping into the population of local women to facilitate tablet education; a livestreaming after-school tutoring program, simultaneously presented in multiple rural areas; and an activity-based learning kit, mapped to a science curriculum. Mobile
Direct Delivery (LCPS)
Edupreneurs Cohort Split
Teacher Training
Rural targetin g
Other Edtech
4) Teacher Training (2 ventures) – pioneering new approaches to teacher training. One is a service that conducts paid, individualized assessments over SMS. The other is a combination of teacher professional development and a school certification program. 5) Other EdTech (2 ventures) - one company has developed a learning ma) nagement system with robust, rapid response analytics on a per-student, per-concept level, and another has developed a gamification-based online learning platform.
PALF recruited experts from across the industry and from several business lines within Pearson, such as Inside Services and Pearson Schools India, to contribute to education-specific content and/or serve as mentors throughout the 12-week program. The program ran from September to November 2013, hosting three workshop sessions in Hyderabad, Delhi and Bangalore. Throughout the program, participating teams continually assessed one another in great detail and received coaching from more than 30 entrepreneurs, investors, and industry experts who graciously volunteered their time. While it will take time to analyze the full impact of Edupreneurs India, early indicators are extremely encouraging. The participating teams gave very positive feedback, frequently commenting that the quality of connections alone would have been worth the time and resources committed. The amazing synergies between ventures, with more than one intra-cohort sale now signed, has created lasting bonds, which participants believe ameliorate the loneliness of entrepreneurialism. Without a doubt, every single company has emerged far stronger than it entered, having benefited from detailed and repeated feedback from the other participants - each an expert in their own right - and the engagement with so many mentors. The capstone event, the Investors’ Demo Day, drew a notable crowd of investors and funders interested in education, several of whom were impressed by the polished, professionally delivered pitches, rare at this stage of development. In the long-term, PALF looks forward to the results of a standing partnership between Village Capital and the Goizueta School of Business at Emory University, which has been tracking past alumni progress for previous Village Capital programs and will continue tracking Edupreneurs alumni. Both PALF and VilCap are keen to continue the partnership, with market scoping underway now to determine which country will be home to the next Edupreneurs cohort. As new and innovative affordable education models are incubated across different markets, Edupreneurs will not only help to create a robust pipeline of education deals for PALF and other funds but it will also strengthen the ecosystem as a whole by creating entrepreneur and expert networks across borders, bound by a shared purpose. Pearson is proud of the 2013 India cohort and looks forward to welcoming more inspiring entrepreneurs to future incubator programs.
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Why PALF Launched Edupreneurs About PALF The Pearson Affordable Learning Fund (PALF) makes minority equity investments in for-profit companies to meet a burgeoning demand for affordable education services across the developing world. The fund was launched in June 2012, with $15 million of initial Pearson capital, to invest in innovative models of high quality education delivery for the poorest families in the world. PALF works in collaboration with governments, donor agencies, NGOs, entrepreneurs, investors and other corporations, to share best practice, support entrepreneurs and catalyze the most promising innovations. The fund’s work reinforces Pearson’s wider organizational commitment to help deliver affordable, accessible and quality education to the world’s poorest communities. PALF’s Vision To help provide millions of the poorest children in the world with a quality education and demonstrate to governments and the international community that low-cost private education can help them in their goal to ensure every child has access to a high quality education. Investment Mandate
Low-cost private school chains (LCPS) in emerging markets Service providers to LCPS (e.g. assessment solutions, teacher training) Education technology solutions (e.g., innovative, blended learning content, student data and information systems)
Market Findings Several key insights gathered by the PALF team around the affordable education market:
The low-cost education market is currently very fragmented and lacks a focus on quality There are many small, one-off schools run by local entrepreneurs that require credible management team support and education expertise in order to scale with efficacy There is a lack of for-profit companies ready to absorb strategic equity investor capital The growing affordable edtech market needs further focus on efficacy and strategic business growth support Many cross-sector, base of the pyramid investors need to acquire key education sector expertise in order to drive strategic value
To tackle these issues, PALF explored a range of solutions to help source new deals, capacity develop existing entrepreneurs and attract high caliber entrepreneurs to the sector, and build a global pipeline of affordable education investment opportunities for the entire market. Edupreneurs was conceived and championed as one of the central delivery mechanisms to achieving these objectives. Partnering with Village Capital PALF analyzed accelerator and incubator programs around the world to compare different instructional approaches. Most existing models were either too narrow or lacked demonstrable results. Village Capital, however, was different. Village Capital (VilCap) uses the power of peer support to build enterprises that change the world. Inspired by the concept of the “village bank” in microfinance, VilCap puts the hard tasks of building companies – www.affordablelearningfund.com/edupreneurs | @affordablelearn |
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criticism, strategy, feedback, and basic business fundamentals – in the hands of entrepreneurs themselves. The company organizes cohorts worldwide and runs business education programs on such topics as value proposition, customer validation and building a team to reach scale. The VilCap incubator model has been refined continuously with multi-sector cohorts in several nations worldwide. The VilCap Incubator Model:
Launched 23 incubators worldwide
Supported over 350 founders, from over 30 countries
Created over 5000 jobs
Served 4 million customers
PALF and VilCap share a joint mission to help catalyze entrepreneurial activity within the global affordable education sector. Both organizations have built a strong partnership, underpinned by the belief in the power of entrepreneurs and the private sector to improve the education and lives of low-income populations. For the delivery of Edupreneurs, VilCap brings content, curriculum, and - through their unique incubator model - process know-how for catalyzing early-stage companies. PALF has incorporated education-specific training, materials and workshops, delivered in the standard VilCap format throughout the incubator program. PALF is also able to tap into a network of in-market education mentors who help provide invaluable advice and strategic support to the cohort.
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Edupreneurs India 2013: Delivery Process Date Apr - Jul 2013
Activity 1) Analysis of existing VilCap model. Creation of education-specific content and training. 2) Source and hire 2 VilCap Frontier Market Scouts to assist with the start-up cohort recruitment 3) Internal network marketing campaign
Jul 2013
1) Full PR and marketing campaign 2) Open up online cohort application process 3) Begin to recruit program mentors and initial plan for workshop logistics
Jul - Sep 2013
1) Applications screened 2) Shortlist created with further telephone interviews 3) 2nd shortlist, narrowed down to final cohort of 14 4) Final due diligence on selected cohort; offer letters sent out and confirmed 6) Continue workshop and logistics planning and mentor recruitment Launch and workshop 1, Hyderabad: 4 days focusing on the peer-review process, understanding each of the 14 business models, including value proposition and customer segmentation
Sep 2013
Sep – Oct 2013
Continued support given to cohort – materials, access to mentors etc. Creation of a Google group for the cohort to knowledge share and for facilitators to share resources. Planning for workshop 2.
Oct 2013
Workshop 2, Delhi: 4 days focusing on efficacy, education best practice and business growth; integration of feedback, reports on progress made since Workshop I; in-depth analysis of financial models; review of organizational structure required to sustain growth Continued support given to cohort – materials, access to mentors, relevant market scope or other research; planning for workshop 3. Workshop 3 and Investor Demo Day, Bangalore: 4 days to assist the cohort in developing and delivering their investor pitch; negotiating term sheets with investors as well as continuing in-depth review of their business plans and financial forecasts.
Oct – Nov 2013 Nov 2013
Outcomes 1) Updated PALF-VilCap Edupreneurs content and curriculum 2) 2 Frontier Market Scouts recruited 3) Beginning of program launch marketing Applications for incubator program opened online, with full marketing and PR campaign 14 startups selected and confirm entrance for the incubator program
The cohort begins to understand the peerreview process. Deep dive into business models and trial peerreview and ranking process conducted
2 highest peer-ranked winners announced. Introductions between wider cohort and other investors
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Edupreneurs: Content and Peer Ranking Overview PALF and VilCap expect to refine and improve the content and curriculum used in Edupreneurs India, for future programs. Below is a sample overview of the content delivered throughout the program and the specific four-day workshop events to the entire cohort. Business Modules Start-up value proposition Organizational structure Building for scale Understanding your funding requirements Managing your team Education Modules Pearson’s Efficacy Framework and Review toolkit Partnering with government to deliver systemic change Impact measurement Pedagogical models Presentation Modules Building your business plan Preparing your pitch deck Preparing your investor presentation Investment Readiness Negotiating with investors Reviewing a term sheet Valuations Village Capital’s Peer Review and Ranking Process VilCap has distilled 6 key criteria that form the basis of the incubator peer review and ranking process: (1) Team Strength, (2) Product Quality, (3) Customer Validation, (4) Financial Model, (5) Scaling and Impact and (6) Return of Capital Strategy. Inspired by groundbreaking Pearson research on delivering quality education outcomes and verifying the efficacy of educational interventions, the six-category rubric was adapted from the Efficacy framework. Four sub-categories were added to each of the six categories, so that teams had more clarity on the specific parameters that make up each broad category. The new ranking received immediate positive feedback from participating entrepreneurs, who preferred the 24-point ranking system because it allowed for more consistency and objectivity. Trial rankings provide crucial feedback, often and early, so start-ups can improve before their final ranking. Companies do not rank themselves and all rankings are performed in public, in front of the rest of the cohort. The top and bottom rankings for each company are discarded to reduce the influence of outlier rankings. After each ranking, teams must explain their rationale to the whole group, enabling entrepreneurs to learn how others perceive them and improve specific areas before the final rank.
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Edupreneurs India 2013: Cohort 40K Plus Education sets up learning ‘pods’ in rural villages and offers gamified, tablet-based after-school tutoring to students of government and low-cost private schools.
Founders: Clary Castrission, Karyn Avery Year Founded: 2012 Website: www.40k.com.au
“We set up dynamic learning spaces called ‘pods’ in villages and employ a local woman to help facilitate the class. Our pedagogy focuses on self-paced learning, peer-led learning and complete ‘mastery’ of concepts; we utilise tablet technology to teach kids a 40K-created, gamified English and Maths curriculum, reducing the need for a qualified, skilled teacher (which is difficult to find in most villages).”
Callystro is an award-winning learning games company. Products include CoBELS – India's only game / activity-based scholastic and coscholastic learning solution that is mapped to the entire curriculum for grades I-VIII and Mapoosa, a curriculum-based, online virtual world for children.
Founders: Sampath Shetty, Rajeev Gopalakrishnan, Sabina Jain, Sampath Menon Year Founded: 2012 Website: www.callystro.com
“Our solutions run on both tablets and PCs. Since the content is highly interactive, engaging, self paced, learner-centric and requires minimal adult supervision, they are ideal for schools, home schooling and social organisations focusing on improving education in the BoP segment.”
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www.edwell.in
Edwell Solutions operates cost-effective learning centers with an integrated multimedia tech platform to project live presentations from urban-based tutors to multiple rural locations simultaneously, targeting students of primary standard. Edwell also implements e-learning solutions for government schools in Uttarakhand.
Founders: Ram Kumar, Vivek Kaushik Year Founded: 2012
“Edwell’s vision is to reach 25,000 under-served students of primary and secondary standard students enrolled in government and non-government schools, bringing enhancement in learning outcomes in the next 3 years.”
Effect International is a scalable network of sustainable, affordable private schools. A lean operational model trains qualified educators to successfully run individual schools supported by a centralized management staff with supplemental curriculum, mentoring, and quality control.
Founders: Casey Allred, Bushra Zaman Year Founded: 2010
“Our approach frees up valuable teacher and headmaster time so they can focus on what matters most: the students. Students learn according to century appropriate techniques like blended learning, peer-to-peer teaching, and self-paced progression. The result is a quality school with key functionality and full sustainability to service the poor with price points they can afford.”
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Experifun Learning Solutions designs and develops curriculum based innovative and first-of-its-kind next generation science kits for both urban as well as rural schools. Designed in their R&D lab in Bangalore, Experifun products bring concept interaction with real objects and introducetruly interactive learning to classrooms.
Founders: Rakesh Kumar, Vivek Pandey Year Founded: 2012 Website: www.experifun.com
“Experifun designs and sells next-generation, curriculummapped science activity kits to bring affordable, interactive learning to classrooms regardless of available infrastructure. To date, Experifun has sold to 40 schools in a pilot, and is looking to scale.”
Magic Pathshala endeavors to help millions of rural children learn Maths and English through a fun, informative, easy-to-use mobile based education program. A child in rural India takes her parent's entry level Android smartphone, accesses Magic Pathshala and progresses through the lessons at her own pace, achieving basic proficiency in Maths and English, validated through assessments. Over the next 3 years, Magic Pathshala aspires to impact 1 million users across India.
Founders: C Rajagopalan and Vimalendu Verma Year Founded: 2012 Website: www.magicpathshala.com
“Magic Pathshala is solving India's biggest education problem that of poor literacy and numeracy learning outcomes amongst primary school children in rural India. The widely quoted ASER report says that half the children in class V are unable to read even class II level or complete two-digit subtraction” www.affordablelearningfund.com/edupreneurs | @affordablelearn |
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MangoReader allows users to create, share and learn from stories using simple tools for mobile and web. Teachers, parents and educational institutions can create new stories or remix existing content for varying competencies or languages. The company mission is to make learning an engaging, enriching and fun-filled experience.
Founders: Jagdish Repaswal Year Founded: 2012 Website: www.mangoreader.com
“MangoReader offers a learning space that encourages creativity, personalization and self-regulated learning for children from Pre-K to 8th grade. Stories include games, activities and quizzes to engage and reinforce learning. Teachers can personalize the learning experience for children and align stories to curriculum, monitor progress and measure learning outcomes. It is available online and offline and is a multi-platform solution available via web, mobile and tablets, working seamlessly on Aakash2, Raspberry PI and others.”
RMinds Education is an education management company that works independently or in association with promoters to establish, operate, manage and develop quality-driven, affordable schools in India.
Founders: Francis Joseph and Willibrord George. Year Founded: 2013 Website: www.rmindseducation.com
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Sage Schools provides pre-school to 10th class education in low income communities by managing societies which in turn run schools. Sage either starts new schools under its brand name, or acquires already running schools to improve the quality of education offered. All the schools established will be under a society called Sage Seva Society, with Sage Services India Private Limited acting as the management company,.
Founders: Kishore K Puli, Chandra S Puli Year Founded: 2013 Website: www.rmindseducation.com
“Leveraging intimate knowledge of the rural market and mindsets of rural customers, learned in a previous, successful microfinance institution, the management team is poised to address the growing demand for quality English-medium schools that cater to low-income students.”
Scholowiz Educational Solutions provides need-based pedagogical support to teachers in affordable schools. Examples of tested strategies and practices are delivered to teachers in video modules through costeffective technology and are followed up in-person to ensure that the strategies are translated into effective actions in the classrooms. Pre-diagnostic tests, surveys and interviews help in understanding the pain points of individual teachers in order to deliver the best-fitting modules. Continuous evaluation and feedback collected helps in better meeting the needs of the supported teachers.
Founders: Saurav G Roy & Priyamvada Tiwari, Year Founded: 2013 Website: www.scholowiz.com
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SEED Corp www.SeedSchools.in
SEED Edu Corp is developing a chain of high quality lowcost private schools (K-10) in India. Through effective pedagogy and technology-driven solutions integrated in the core curriculum, SEED will address the existing learning gaps in the LCPS. SEED brings professional, dynamic and passionate young talent to the LCPS sector, where lack of quality human resources has been a challenge. SEED currently runs 2 schools in Hyderabad serving 1,500 students.
Founders: Harish Mamtani and Manish Kumar Year Founded: 2013 Website: www.SeedSchools.in
Sudiksha Knowledge Solutions helps young minds get the head start they need with a unique approach to preschool learning that nurtures their curiosity and builds their confidence for wanting more and getting further in life.
Founders: Naveen Kumar and Nimisha Mittal Year Founded: 2013 Website: www.sudiksha.in
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Teachers Like Me is an affordable teacher education mechanism to improve learning outcomes in schools by providing teachers a tool that is available anytime, anywhere. With a mobile application and interactive, video-based content, teachers will be able to innovate pedagogy in classrooms on-the-go. The company aims to benefit teachers of low-income schools by making free courses available on their handsets.
Founders: Rahul and Bharti Batra. Year Founded: 2013
Classalyze, the flagship product of Teer Design, is an online analytics and reporting platform that integrates with the school system and analyzes test scores at a per concept level. While designing the assessment, teachers tag questions with concepts that they wish to test, along with the corresponding topic and level of difficulty. Once the assessment scores are collected and entered into the platform, analysis uncovers meaningful insights into classroom and student performance. These statistics are presented in a visually intuitive dashboard that teachers and administrators can track continuously and use to draw trends. The platform is cloud-based, and can be accessed on any device, anywhere. Classalyze empowers principals to implement data driven instruction to improve teacher effectiveness and student learning. It provides parents with personalized information on their child’s development, thus facilitating more meaningful parent-teacher interaction. Ultimately, it helps all educators recognize the potential of data towards improving educational outcomes.
Founders: Rahul Joseph, Nikhil Swaminathan Year Founded: 2013 Website: www.classalyze.com
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6. Edupreneurs India 2013: Winners
Experifun Learning Solutions offers low-cost, interactive science learning products, called Caboodle, aimed at improving science learning at the 6-10 grade level (Bangalore, India).
To Date: developed a patent-ready product, selected for Indian Government Department of Industrial Policy & Promotion (DiPP) funding; pilot programs launched in 15 schools (2013)
Route to market: the company sells to LCPS serving poor students in two forms: a teacher kit and a student kit. The company uses a onetime sale model to sell to K12 schools with average an sale value of 1L to 1.5L INR. Experifun products also come with a user guide, warranty and teacher training.
Sudiksha: is a network of affordable private pre-schools for underprivileged children in India. (Hyderabad, India).
To Date: currently at 22 schools in Andrha Pradesh and Hyderabad, with 92 employees and teachers.
Route to market: utilizes local, unemployed women as teachers and employees. Tuition-fee model of $8 per month per student. The company’s main customers are the parents of urban, poor children from ages 2-6 years old who cannot afford traditional pre-school education.
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7. Key Insights The inaugural cohort of Edupreneurs was an important learning experience and the insights gained will be integrated into the design and delivery of future PALF incubators. In particular, the recruitment and selection process, peer review model, highly involved mentors and creating the right cohort culture have emerged as the most important elements of a successful incubator program.
Cohort recruitment requires significant time: recruiting a great cohort can take up to 5 months of work and requires construction of a large investor and grassroots entrepreneur network before the online program application is opened.
Keep the initial application screening flexible: several rounds of phone calls are required as the initial online written application can mask many interesting dimensions of a start-up’s business model, which are only uncovered through further dialogue.
Peer review really works: peer review appears to work exceptionally well with sector-specific cohorts. The very first introductions facilitated by PALF and VilCap revealed deep sector experience amongst the cohort, which led entrepreneurs to respect one another. Moreover, a concentrated number of same-sector start-ups allowed for quick and natural revelation of synergies and knowledge sharing amongst peers.
Mentors are crucial to delivering a world-class program: mentors act as key brand ambassadors for PALF and VilCap and bring with them an extensive network of like-minded stakeholders. They also help to reinforce feedback received from facilitators and peers and deliver key domain knowledge. Additionally, they really add value in preparing the companies for investments, which helps build the investment pipeline.
The importance of establishing a cohort culture based on trust, openness and shared purpose. Messaging is a key element of getting the peer review process to succeed as an investment process. By frequently reiterating the shared fiduciary responsibility, teams took ownership of the process and very seriously sought the information they needed to make responsible investing decisions.
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8. The Future of Edupreneurs The 2013 India program helped PALF and VilCap begin to catalyze innovation and entrepreneurial activity within affordable education across India. However, there is a lot more work to do. Village Capital will continue to revise the modules of their curriculum, integrating what learning from ongoing programs with various partners worldwide. PALF will capture and codify refinements and additions made to the VilCap curriculum, including the addition of new sessions on pedagogy, efficacy and impact measurement, and enhancements of existing sessions on value chain, organizational structure, and customer validation. In the near term, PALF and VilCap will complete investments in Experifun and Sudiksha, as well as provide ongoing support and investor connections to the wider cohort. Both partners are currently engaged in market scoping of prospective locations for future cohorts, with an agreement in place for Edupreneurs Brazil in July 2014. Other future target geographies include Kenya, South Africa, Pakistan, Indonesia, China and Mexico. We are convinced of the value of the peer review process, both as a means of providing crucial perspective to improve the judgment and decision making of entrepreneurs and as a method of selecting early-stage investments.
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9. APPENDIX Media Coverage
Launch announcement: www.edsurge.com/n/2013-07-22-pearson-village-capital-launch-india-s-firstedtech-incubator Cohort announcement: www.edsurge.com/n/2013-09-18-edupreneurs-announced-for-pearson-s-indianincubator Winner’s announcement: www.edsurge.com/n/2013-11-25-edtech-startups-recognized-around-the-world
http://blog.pearson.com/2013/10/edupreneurs_get_unde.trackback.html http://blog.pearson.com/2013/11/edupreneurs_startup.html http://blog.pearson.com/2013/11/edupreneurs_-_andth.trackback.html
www.businessinsider.in/Are-You-An-Edupreneur-Heres-How-Peer-Review-Can-EarnYou-SeedMoney/articleshow/23631803.cms
http://www.4-traders.com/PEARSON-PLC-4000637/news/Pearson-plc--Pearson-invests-in-two-educationstartups-in-India-17501014/
i Härmä, J (2011); Lagos private school census report: a DFID-ESSPIN report; http://www.esspin.org/index/php/resources/abs/lagos/296 iiAffordable Private Schools: Sector Analysis (2012) Gray Matters Capital India iii “From Blueprint to Scale: The Case for Philanthropy in Impact Investing” Monitor Inclusive Markets, Acumen Fund. April 2012
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