Chrysalis Success Story
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Chrysalis success story ‘Education is freedom’ said famous Brazilian educator Paulo Freire. Education is meant to liberate us from ignorance. Education in its real sense should allow us to experience the joy of knowing the unknown. However, when we look around we see that in our country education has become a matter of fear rather than freedom. Today’s education system merely seems to be a tool to make children job-ready rather than life ready.
Chrysalis – Company Highlights
- StartupName-Chrysalis
- HeadQuarter (city)-Chennai
- Founder Name-Chitra Ravi
- Sector-Education
- Founded-2001
- Website-chrysalis.world
- Parent Organization-Chrysalis EZ Vidya Pvt. Ltd.
About Chrysalis and How it Works
Chrysalis has innovated an academic program for the formative years (2-12) years of a child’s education – “ThinkRoom”. Through the name itself, schools can easily understand the function of this program, which is to awaken thinking, and where it is applied – in Classrooms. ThinkRoom is designed with a vision of awakening human potential in every child. The Curriculum (pedagogy) is created with a child-centric philosophy.
Framework for Human Potential
Our school system produces children who are tested for memory in exams and not conceptual or thinking skills. In the past children were handed down information, without considering the development of their social thinking, emotional thinking, academic thinking, or meta-cognitive thinking.
Chrysalis does not wish to hand down information. They ensure that the children develop and practice the vital skill of thinking in relation to the subjects being taught, they form habits of collaboration and self-management very early on when their personalities are forming very deep notions about life and how to live in this world.
Chitra Ravi is the founder and CEO at Chrysalis. Chitra Ravi
A management graduate, Chitra has a great passion for education. Chitra deftly combines her skills in conceptualization, story-boarding, and instructional design to deliver products and services which are dynamic and on par with any international curriculum standards.
Chitra has widely traveled to the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, and South East Asia and has participated in many international training programs and conventions including the Project Zero conducted by the Harvard University exclusively for educators. She has also presented a program on the effective use of technology in the K-12 curriculum for one of the biggest satellite channels in India.
How was Chrysalis Started
An English graduate and MBA degree holder, Chitra worked with Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank after graduation and later joined her family real estate business. She had no plans to venture into the education sector until she realized that what her daughter was being taught at school was contributing nothing to bring out her innate potential.
Being a parent she was genuinely concerned to see that most of the energy of the children at school was spent in rote learning rather than gaining practical experience. She noticed that even computer science which should be taught practically was being taught through textbooks rather than through practical training.
Chrysalis – Name, Tagline and Logo
Chrysalis’ logo is a butterfly. Chrysalis is the state of transformation from a pupa to a butterfly, and butterflies are as colorful as the different kids who Chrysalis reaches out to. Nothing better communicates what they intend to do and with whom, they intend to bring a transformation in the education system and love to make products that benefit the children.
Chrysalis – Startup Launch
Chrysalis’ team members were in communication with some schools through ICT program and when they came up with ThinkRoom, they promoted it organically, presented it in a lot of Principal forums, like sahodaya and more. They conducted Principal connect events across their reachable geography according to their capacity at the time.
The startup focused on consistent great product design, direct sales, and events that connected them to the stakeholders. Chrysalis is very organic in the way they proceed.
Chrysalis – User Acquisition
Schools are a complex ecosystem and the teachers, principals, school owners, parents; all of them are crucial, and it is important for Chrysalis that its curriculum is trusted by all these stakeholders. Therefore, it is different from SaaS products or other services offered in the market.
“School partnerships are an emotional bond”, says Ganesh.
Chrysalis team strives to maintain and nurture these valued bonds with its partner schools through continuous communication. Their campaigns are built to inspire transformation in the mind-sets of the stakeholders and, mostly BTL (Below the Line) in nature.
Chrysalis – Business Model and Revenue Model
Chrysalis has a B2B business model and their financial transactions are with the school authorities, specifically, the school owners. Chrysalis ThinkRoom is Chrysalis’ flagship product. A good part of their revenue is from this product.
Chrysalis – Funding and Investors
In 2018, Chrysalis raised an undisclosed amount of funding from investors like Artha India Ventures, Menterra Venture Advisors, and Gray Matters Capital (GMC).
Chrysalis – Competitors
Actually, it is the children who motivate us to do our best – Ganesh says.
As competition is concerned, the Chrysalis team does not see the school ecosystem as a marketplace.Neither, they try to size up the competition to remain ahead of them.
Our product is designed to fundamentally change the nature of education while our competitors, to say it simply, are focused on making the delivery of the current education in its old state itself, faster, easier, better, etc. Yes, the market does perceive Chrysalis in the same category, so we don’t try to stay ahead, but simply communicate the divergent benefit that we are offering, and it requires an empowered school leader who is looking for such curriculum to associate with us – Ganesh says explaining Chrysalis’ view on competition.
Chrysalis – Awards and Acheivements
In 2002, Chrysalis (EZ Vidya) entered into Wipro’s ‘Quality Education Forum’. EZ Vidya within just 6 months from its inception became partners with Wipro for research in education.
In 2011, EZ Vidya received mBillionth Award for innovation in education for ‘Bridge IT’, an initiative to use standard mobile phones for improving quality for teaching.
In 2013 E Z Vidya Pvt. Ltd. was chosen as the Game Changer of the year from a pool of 63000 companies, by ET NOW Leaders of Tomorrow.