What started as strong belief is slowly becoming the future of education. A brain child of Hemant and Geetika Nanda, CRACS (Centre for Research in Applied Cognitive Sciences) is a phenomenal start-up success that has moved from strength-to-strength in the last decade.
An engineer by qualification, Hemant had a deep passion for human intelligence, cognitive sciences and a streak of creativity & Geetika being a qualified educator had a love for childhood education.
Their passion saw them start with humble beginnings of a mere INR 2 lacs of their own savings and a dream to create world class products based on cognitive science and technology, that would bring a scientific approach to early education.
Today, CRACS stands tall in a place of pride with a post money valuation of over INR 60 Crores.
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Hemant believed that the core objective of education is to enable a child to become a breadwinner as well as a highly successful human being.
But despite spending lacs on a child’s education, the outcomes are often uncertain. He put it quite succinctly when he said “Technology has transformed sectors like banking, medicine, space, infrastructure, information, warfare, transportation etc, but it hasn’t had the same impact on education.”
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Till date, we do not have the luxury of a solution that can trigger a love for education in a child or a solution that can make every child a performer and a superior learner. Parents want their child to be a high performer in a field of his choosing, but the challenge was to eliminate the guesswork in education and career selection.
To bring certainty into educational outcomes; scientific research-based valid solutions that are quick, easy to implement and affordable, are required.
This thought prompted the couple to plunge into R&D, knowing very clearly that India is not an R&D based economy and that R&D as a field requires large budgets. They were aware that the road to success was not going to be easy, but their vision was crystal clear.
What CRACS Does
The company has been creating value for school children by developing cognitive science-based products than can measure and enhance human intelligence levels.
Their product range includes standardized assessment tools that can numerically measure human cognition, world’s 1st learning solutions that are customized as per the learning nature & cognitive abilities of a child as well as highly affordable, research-based online and offline programs.
A Great Idea Executed Perfectly Can Go a Long Way
CRACS, as it is known today, is a great example of how every great idea needs hard work and steadfast execution for any early start-up. Since its inception in 2007, CRACS has been doing just that.
Their hard work has not gone unnoticed as they have received the support of seasoned venture capitalists and investors all along.
This company is a labour of love indeed! The husband-wife duo set out on a journey of entrepreneurship when they decided to turn Hemant’s passion for cognitive science into an R&D based business venture.
With emotional and monetary support from their parents, two employees and a grand vision; they kick started their little venture out of their three-bedroom apartment in Chandigarh.
While the space was less, there was no dearth of potential in this venture. And it was not left unseen. Soon enough by 2008, Hemant and Geetika’s vision had a name – Intellithon, and a seed funding of INR 7 lacs from two local school owners. They began carrying out research and experimentation in several schools in the Tricity area in Chandigarh.
On the personal front too, things were going great for Hemant and Geetika as they welcomed their bonny baby boy in this world the same year.
Their research and development exercise bore fruit when in 2010, they received an angel funding worth INR 20 lacs from an India-born Australian citizen which helped them turn their start-up into a private entity.
The company rolled out concerted efforts into their core research area, focused on high quality content development and conducted large-scale experiments, out of a commercial office now.
The year 2012 saw Intellithon receive another round of funding with a valuation of INR 1 Crore from a Chandigarh based group.
The company, now a limited entity started surging ahead in full gears with a great team consisting of product development, designing and printing, content development and marketing professionals running large scale research experiments across North India.
Their big breakthrough came in 2015 when it was valued at over INR 20 Crores by a PE investor & a business tycoon. The company was now developing standardized educational solutions and offering it to school children all over India.
Under the brand name CRACS, they developed the world’s first customised learning solution UNLOCK which delivers personalised activities & workouts to children based on their learning nature.
They now boast of having the world’s most advanced cognitive assessment tools and the world’s first standardized multiple skill training programme for school children.
By 2017, Intellithon began its B2C sales and operations clocking a sound sales figures of INR 2 Crore within the first year and a post money valuation of INR 60 Crore.
Today, the products are available online as well and CRACS has full scale operations all over India including Bihar, Jharkhand, Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Haryana, Maharashtra, Kerala, Telangana and recently in Bangalore.
CRACS has managed to put cognitive science on the map as a commercially viable business opportunity.
It has created a dent in the education domain with its path breaking products because of the value it adds to its end customers – parents, schools & children.
Visit website here: https://www.cracslab.com
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