Mumbai, 6th March, 2024 – Leading education software company, Educational Initiatives (Ei) recently announced that HCL Group has made an investment of INR 166 crore to acquire a minority stake in the Company.
Founded in 2001, Ei is a leading B2B education software company that provides schools with research-backed assessments and personalised adaptive learning solutions to help improve learning outcomes at scale. Ei has more than 1 million paid users for its two offerings: Assessments (Ei ASSET and Ei CARES) and Personalised Adaptive Learning (Ei Mindspark) and is present in India, UAE, South Africa, and Singapore.
“We have demonstrated our ability to improve learning outcomes and empower school teachers to achieve their intent of every child learning well regardless of their parent income. I’m excited to welcome HCL Group as investors who share our vision of leveraging the best of pedagogy & technology to improve learning outcomes for millions of students in India and around the world”, said Pranav Kothari, CEO, Ei.
Shikhar Malhotra, Director, HCL Group said, “We’re thrilled to invest in Ei; it is a great organization with technological prowess and a commitment to effecting positive societal change. The organization offers a distinctive blend of scalable technology, impactful social initiatives, and sustainable growth.”
Remarking on the investment, Gopal Jain, Managing Partner at Gaja Capital said, “Ei is a rare example of resilience, high growth, pedagogy and technology coming together in their vision of solving one of the biggest problems of our age – helping every child learn with understanding. ”
Ei stands at the forefront of education with 23 years of pedagogical research, analyzing 5 billion data points to understand student learning patterns. Leveraging cutting-edge research and technology, Ei has developed a suite of assessment and adaptive learning products for both students and teachers. These innovative tools have shown significant enhancements in learning outcomes across subjects.
Ei has a market leading presence in India and the UAE. The company is now looking to expand in South Africa, Kenya, Ghana and Saudi Arabia and is exploring business partnerships in these markets with companies that align with Ei’s mission. The company has also developed offerings like Ei ASSET Arabic to suit the local needs of these countries. Ei is looking to acquire Edtech product companies focused on improving learning outcomes in their respective regions.
Its adaptive learning product, Ei Mindspark, has undergone three independent third-party evaluations by researchers at J-PAL, IDInsight, Harvard and Oxford and is proven to deliver 300% to 700% improvements in learning outcomes compared to the respective control groups in these studies. The B2B Edtech company uses advanced analytics to identify learning gaps and has integrated generative AI into its products to improve students’ reading, writing and speaking experience. It is also investing in discovering how technologies like machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) can aid in student learning. Ei’s newest assessment product, Ei ASSET Computational Thinking and Ei Mindspark Computational Thinking help prepare students for critical 21st century skills. Ei continues to build content specifically for tackling Foundational Literacy & Numeracy (FLN) as part of India’s national mission to ensure children can read and do basic math in younger grades. As part of NEP, Ei has been a technical partner to strengthen assessments at CBSE, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Tripura, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Nagaland.
Educational Initiatives’ (Ei) products have garnered global recognition as among the most innovative and impactful in the field, with accolades from prestigious entities like UNESCO, the World Bank, Brookings Institute, and numerous leading publications, all highlighting EI’s cutting-edge technological contributions to education