Archive: February 26, 2022

“I was my inspiration” says, Adil Meraj Founder and CEO of Gurucool

Here’s an exclusive interview of Mr.Adil Meraj, Founder and CEO of Gurucool only on Business News This Week (BNTW). He shared his insights on the prospects of Edtech sector on many more aspects with BNTW.

Let’s know more about his success story and his vision.

Tell us about Gurucool? What was the inspiration behind Gurucool?

Upon being presented with this question, Mr Adil Meraj says, ‘I was my inspiration.’ He recounts his experience as a high schooler, when he created a confession page on Facebook for his fellow Hamdardians but later realised that the page became more of a space for slanders and rumours than the intended constructive connecting platform for students. Consequently, he closed the page but his quest for doing something towards establishing a purposeful community, continued. Later, while pursuing his civil engineering, he felt out of place. Feeling very disengaged from his classroom, he realised the passion in him to initiate something that would bring actual and significant changes in society. And finally, in 2019, he had his eureka moment. Over a random discussion in a cafe with his schoolmates, he came up with the idea of Gurucool – an Educational Networking Platform for Educators and Learners, where people come together purposefully, and empathetically. The vision of this project, though, boils down to providing an academic space for learning and making quality education accessible for the underprivileged that began with ‘The Parking Kids Project’ and is currently being ensured and advocated through the ‘Padhaai’ Initiative of Gurucool. 

What were the challenges faced while setting up the company? 

Gurucool was set up from ground zero and up. Stepping foot into the venture, the CEO and other core members were new and naive to entrepreneurship and the start-up community. Consequently, the first challenge was to build a skilled, motivated and supportive team to execute the idea of Gurucool. This was overcome with great ease as Mr Adil’s very own friend circle took lead and paved for the Gurucool we know today. 

Secondly, finance is a big aspect of starting a company. The team needed a work-place and renting one initially was quite costly. However, Gurucool now has an established centre to its name and is set to launch many more.

Being an edtech platform, Gurucool required a skilled technical team that could work closely with the interests of the core members and create a platform accessible for all. The search for technically skilled persons proved to be a great challenge initially too. 

Another challenge faced by the team was fluidity in the system. For a new team that is struggling to establish a name and place in the edtech community, coming to a unanimous decision can be a struggle. But it’s all made easier by a common goal and motive. And that defines Gurucool today ~ in our own space and time.

How did the name Gurucool come about?

Gurucool, the name comes about from the past custom of guru (teacher) and shishya (student). The name emphasises the pure, unhindered relationship between a teacher and a student that highlights a transactional bond over knowledge and experience. With the name Gurucool, we hope to invoke similar intimate, and meaningful relationships between our educators and learners, but with an added pinch of coolness. Keeping this in mind, the name Gurucool was coined- a mixture of traditional integrity with some newfangled coolness.

A Coolguru, at Gurucool, aims to pass their patrimony to the CoolLearners’ facilitated by empathetic learning and evolving approach. So, this was the inspiration behind naming the company Gurucool. 

What do you think is the future of Edtech?

Undeniably, education has now become a basic necessity much like food and clothing. And history bears witness to civilizations adopting new educational techniques to cater to different social requirements. With the pandemic, the pace of education has only accelerated. Education clubbed with technology may be a new norm, but is here to stay for long. From schools adopting smart teaching techniques to various skill e-courses available, edtech is facilitating accessibility and availability of quality education for all.

However, the challenge of many edtech platforms is imperative, and it is possible that the sellers outnumber consumers. In such a case, edtech platforms are furthermore challenged to evolve and improve to cater to their learning audience. This positive competition only goes on to prove how much education has progressed and will continue to progress.

Another challenge that edtech platforms face is commercialising. With investments from VCs, edtech platforms are expected to give profitable results. And this takes away from the essence of quality education for all. We, at Gurucool are working to make education digital and democratised to enhance the learning experience for all.

What are the future plans for Gurucool?

Speaking firstly about the short-term plans for Gurucool, we aim to launch 15 centres in 6 different cities pan-India. Gurucool is looking to collaborate with various state governments under the Padhaai venture, and will soon launch an improved version of Paadhai- Padhaai 2.0. The new version will include better features and improved learning resources to facilitate a healthy learning environment.

Gurucool, recently launched its first YouTube channel, and is aiming to launch a few more over the span of the next few months. The upcoming Youtube channels will include Gurucool for Coding, Gurucool for Commerce, Gurucool for Graphic Designing etc, all set for launch shortly. Additionally, Gurucool aspires to achieve one lac learners on the Padhaai platform over the coming 3 months.

As for the long-term goals, Gurucool is planning to become a unicorn venture in terms of valuations and hopes to achieve a user base of 200 million learners by 2025. 

Summing up his entrepreneurship venture with Gurucool so far, Mr Adil concluded with quoting Sultanpuri,

‘ maiñ akelā hī chalā thā jānib-e-manzil magar
log saath aate ga.e aur kārvāñ bantā gayā’.

Exclusive Interview with Mr. Anik Jain, CEO & Co-founder of Symbo…

Business News This Week (BNTW) Team thanks Mr. Anik Jain, CEO & Co-founder of Symbo India Insurance Broking Private Limited (Symbo) for the exclusive interview opportunity. Mr. Anik Jain, (AJ), discussed various aspects such as plans to dominate the embedded insurtech market, strategies set for expansion and fundraising and many more with our Chief Editor, Mr. Neel Achary, BNTW.

BNTW: Can you tell us about Symbo and people who founded it?

AJ: Symbo is an insurtech startup focused on the insurance distribution space. We work with retail and ecommerce partners to distribute relevant insurance products right at the point of purchase. With a simple opt-in in the purchase journey, consumers can insure the product they are buying against common issues like accidental damage, theft, etc which standard warranties might not cover. The insurance coverage is powered by leading insurers of India and some of our largest partners include Lenskart, Bata, Decathlon, among others. We also run a Saas platform business which provides insurers with all the tools they need to manage key aspects of their business effectively i.e purchase, distribution and administration of insurance.

Apart from me, (Anik Jain, CEO & Co-founder of Symbo comes with experience of more than 17 years across varied fields) the other co-founders include Mitesh Jain, CTO & Co-founder, an Experienced Founder with a demonstrated history of working in Technology Consulting and product management and Adrit Raha, Co-founder & Co-CEO, who shares responsibility for overseeing all aspects of the business – from the company’s mission, vision and goals to setting strategy, direction and, most significantly, managing my super talented troupe.

BNTW: What are the advantages that Symbo offers for both online sellers and consumers? 

AJ: Insurance has been traditionally “sold” and we are trying to change that by making insurance a product that is “bought” by the customers. We do so by embedding deep into the buying journey with our partners and attaching insurance products which are relevant and intuitive. For eg: we sell Eyewear insurance which customers can buy when they are purchasing their sunglasses at our partners’s stores.

Consumers get affordable, relevant insurance coverage with zero-friction in the buying process. Sellers can offer a better customer experience and for the first time deliver a care program which their standard warranties might not cover. This leads to brand loyalty and higher revenues.

The insurance on products fosters a feeling of assurance which helps the customers connect with the brand with a heightened sense of built trust and security.

BNTW: Can you describe how Symbo’s plans to dominate the embedded insurtech market? 

AJ: Insurance companies are often considered very monotonous and are known for their lengthy paperwork and legacy processes. Symbo as an embedded Insurtech platform aims to revolutionize this traditional approach and build an “Insurtech” platform that is innovative, agile and backed by advanced technology. We have ushered a new robust approach by providing insurance online, in a seamless and easy manner with hyper-personalized insurance covers on an array of products. By also providing covers in more product categories, we aim to be the leading embedded Insurance platform in the Insurance market space. We also are cultivating an ecosystem for the millennials to educate them about insurtech and the insurance industry through stories on various social media accounts to ensure innovation in the consumer experience. In the long term our goal is to provide at least one insurance by Symbo to every citizen of the country and provide bite size insurance for everything from head to toe.

BNTW: In which categories do you want to grow? 

AJ: We are seeing great traction in e-commerce, logistics and fintech and are doubling down on that.

BNTW: What are your expansion and fundraising strategies in the future?

AJ: We are sufficiently capitalized post our last Series A funding. However, like most high-growth startups we are in talks with a bunch of investors and would bring in the right strategic partner who can help us fuel our expansion.

BNTW: How do you envision the insurance sector evolving in the future to provide better services?

AJ: The pandemic has already brought in a digital explosion. I can confidently say that it will not be long when all insurance companies will start going digital and get into the Insurtech space that we are in today. While the space and services will go digital, they will also evolve drastically in their technology capabilities that will be used even 5 years from now. It is safe to say that there might be a time where Insurance of any kind will be available online and the customers will not have to worry about filling cumbersome paperwork for the same. The next couple of years are going to be very intriguing to look forward to and see how fast this digitally driven world will change the insurance space in the best way possible.

BNTW: What sets Symbo apart from other companies in the same field?

AJ: As I mentioned earlier, Symbo is an embedded “Insurtech ” platform, so transforming the tiring processes of claiming the physical insurance processed to an online, single-click process, is the main difference between us and any other company.

We are also creating categories of insurance products which are new and innovative. With this, we are able to benefit not only the customers but the sellers as well as for the first time, sellers have the right product and technology to start selling insurance.. In this technology-driven world, our biggest advantage is having our services online which makes it all even easier and accessible for everyone by saving their time. Traditionally, insurance has always been ‘sold’ and not ‘bought. Symbo is trying to change that by creating relevant and intuitive coverage products available to the user right in their buying journey, making the entire process seamless and easy.

BNTW: Could you describe how personalized insurance and protection plans work? 

AJ: The personalized insurance varies according to the evolving customer’s need. For example, we provide covers in the mathathon, fitness, spectacle and other spaces as well. Any company that sells a particular product can integrate the API system that is provided by Symbo, which allows the brand/seller to insure the products that they are selling. While on the other hand, for customers who buy products from such brands and Symbo powered sellers they are able to insure the products that they are buying, be it a shoe, spectacles or any other products. Symbo has over 100+ products in their integration system till date that are insured/covered.

BNTW: Could you tell us about your collaborations? 

AJ: We have collaborated with Lenskart wherein we have insured over a million spectacles that are being sold by them. Symbo’s ‘Eyewear Insurance’ is offered to Lenskart customers as an add-on in the buying journey, with a simple click of a button. Similarly, we work with other partners like Redtape, Himalaya opticals, Decathlon, Playo, and have curated coverage programs running for their customers.

BNTW: What have been your accomplishments thus far? Any recognitions?

AJ: We have been awarded the “Digital Insurance Innovation” of the year award from ET BFSI at the World BFSI Congress and Awards 2020. We have also won “Digital-Insurance Broker” award at SBR Technology Excellence Awards in the year 2020.