MOVING THE CLASSROOM ONLINE

With the 2020 pandemic changing the landscape of education, digital has been the buzzword for entrepreneurs. These three women-led EdTech startups are riding India’s online education revolution

-  Neha Kirpal

ANAGHA RAJADHYAKSHA - PLAYYDATE

Anagha Rajadhyaksha is the founder of Playydate, a plat-form for kids’ activity and skills-based classes. Launched last year, Playydate already boasts of a pan-India network of more than 1,000 accomplished educators offering classes and workshops. At any given point of time, there are more than 500 classes and workshops available across more than 30 categories.

With a 15-year long stint in the digital space, Anagha is also the co-founder of the India Food Network and the PING Network. The Columbia University graduate says that the inspiration for Playydate began at home. Her mother has been a teacher for the past two decades, and Anagha observed her profession closely – how parents find her class, get in touch, register and communicate. Further, her brother and Playydate’s co-founder, Aditya, became a father a few years ago. Anagha saw him painstakingly looking for interesting learning experiences for his daughter even as a toddler.

In early 2019, she began to dig deeper and realised this scenario held true across the board. She found a very large but unorganised and fragmented market of educators – extremely talented and accomplished individuals who lacked a platform to get recognised and reach out to parents.