TagHive Revolutionises Classrooms With Offline AI-Powered Learning Tools

Technology is massively changing the education landscape. Edtech startups have not only made education accessible now but many of them have also made it highly affordable. Leveraging technology like artificial intelligence (AI), edtechs are now building products that provide personalised learning experiences to students. TagHive is one such startup operating in the education space, which has leveraged technology to provide personalised learning experience to each student. Its Class Saathi clickers, which are the world's first and only Bluetooth clicker devices that connect to a mobile phone and thus can work without internet or electricity, enable gauging the students' learning outcome. In a conversation with Bizz Buzz, Founder & CEO of TagHive, Pankaj Agarwal said that the company has recently launched its AI model SaathiGPT that can help enterprises to gain real insight from its model. He said that the company is planning to raise capital for further scaling up its operations in India.

Can you provide a brief profile of TagHive? What was the thought process behind starting the company in the education space?

After my education at IIT and then Seoul University and Harvard, I worked in Samsung. During my stint at Samsung, I was always looking at opportunities to give back to society- not only in India but globally. I started thinking about education and how to use my technology background to support the community. Then, I visited schools in Varanasi, and Vishakhapatnam, and realised that these schools had very limited technology interventions. So, we wanted to quantify learning outcomes. In management, there is a famous saying that whatever you can't measure, you can't manage. So, we wanted to focus on measuring the learning. Another thing, we had to build something in the technology space, that wouldn't require internet at all. So, the thought process was to build simple products that don't require the internet and a user manual. In 2019, we built 'Class Saathi' and launched in Varanasi. We found a good impact there and then, we launched in other places. We found out that students were more engaged in the classroom due to our technological intervention and they were more participative. Teachers found it very useful. Learning was easy and fun. In this process, we got a lot of data. Four years ago, we built a small AI team to look at the data to understand it. As I am fundamentally a technology person, I am free from biases. That's the reason we have built something, which is useful, leveraging technology.

In South Korea, technology in the classroom is very high. In India, there is a huge need as technology has not come to that extent. A smart classroom means students should be smart. That is the outcome-based approach. How do you make students smart? I think that is achievable through personalised learning. With AI and tech literacy creeping into our lives after the COVID-19 pandemic, technology adoption in the education sector is going to be faster.

How many schools and students have adopted your tech products and platforms? Can you provide some numbers with respect to this matter? How are you leveraging AI (artificial intelligence) and generative AI now? Can you also give some perspective on this matter?

We have touched around 11,000 classrooms with our products. TagHive's Class Saathi clickers are the world's first and only Bluetooth clicker devices that connect to a mobile phone and thus can work without internet or electricity. This provides a real-time view of the learning outcome of each student. Through this, the teacher comes to know which student is weak, and which subject is hard for students to grasp and related things. That makes the learning approach, really personalised.

Meanwhile, we are sitting on tonnes of data. These are all gathered from the click device 'Class Sathi'. Now, we know what time students responded, what was the response, how many times they responded, etc. With so much data and gen AI tools like ChatGPT coming in, we feel that no other company has so much data that we have through our engagement with students in classrooms. These are very qualified and nice data because classrooms are not operating in a controlled environment. Based on this, we have trained our model. These models are so strong that we can provide solutions to customers, which are operating in the education space. So, for any company that is building services in the education space, our models can be very useful. We are saying that while there are many GenAI tools, they are generic. But our model 'SaathiGPT' is customised with deep insights that will help anybody offering services in this sector.

As far as engagement with edtech players is concerned, we have a sound engagement with several of them. Our products are being used by Vedantu, Resonance, Deeksha, and many others. Apart from this, we are present in 500 private schools.

Can you provide some views about your revenue model?

We charge our customers on the basis of usage of our products in classrooms. Now, we are doing the trials for our SaathiGPT' model. The revenue model will depend on the usage. It will be charged as per usage. As far as revenue is concerned, our revenue from India was around Rs 12 crore last fiscal year. That was nearly double that of the previous year. We are aiming for more than double our growth this financial year.

Are you operationally breakeven now? Can you throw some light on this aspect?

Last quarter, we became operationally breakeven. We are in an investment mode. We can manage our cash flow nicely. Our team size of around 50 people. Around 45 people are in India and seven are in South Korea.

Are you planning to raise capital? Can you give some perspective on this matter?

Yes, we are planning to raise another round of funding. Ultimately, we want to for an IPO. We are already cash flow positive. But we want to attain more scale and more marketing spend.

AI is a great enabler and several edtech startups are witnessing more companies coming up leveraging AI. Do you have any such concerns?

I always say you can replicate my idea but you can replicate my spirit. Edtech space is always a long game. Anyone can copy a product but establishing it will take a long time. We have got a lot of experience in working in this space for quite some time. Education is a trust business and customers need that before buying your product.