 "ConveGenius in advanced talks to raise $2.5 million")
"We are in advanced talks with a couple of venture capital firms, and expect to close the deal in a month's time. We intend to deploy the funds in enhancing our product offerings besides targeting the urban poor in the first year," Shashank Pandey, co-founder of ConveGenius, told Business Standard.
Founded in April 2013, ConveGenius has come up with CG-Slate, a self-incentivisation model centered around gamification. CG-Slate envisages the integration of low-cost hardware as was intended by the Centre's Aakash Tablet 4 project, and a software-focused ecosystem to help kids learn in a cool and a fun way.
The startup has partnered Samsung for 1,000 mobile tablets under multi-user licences, and has reached out to over 6,000 students in the last one year. ConveGenius is currently operating in three districts in Rajasthan, two in Telangana and one in Madhya Pradesh, offering its services to government schools and community centres.
CG-Slate, targeted at pre-school to Grade-VIII students, is independent from data connectivity as in places with no Wi-Fi connection, and has an offline model (via an SD card pre-loaded with learning content) with scope for periodic field upgrades.
While the mobile app is free to download, ConveGenius is working towards offering the SD card-based services under Re 1 per day, he said.
"We will be launching the CG-Slate mobile app in two months from now. Our idea is to reach out to 500,000 students, primarily in rural and semi-urban areas of India, this year," Pandey said, adding that ConveGenius generated revenues by running advertisements on the entertainment market place in CG-Slate.