A quiz start-up based in Lucknow

Quiz might be a passion for many and work for some but it is a business for Gaurava Yadav, a former employee of Tulip Telecom. He believes quizzing is the best vehicle to take general knowledge (GK) to school students and help them score highly in competitive exams.

While working in Tulip, he conceptualised and executed a social media network called Greygambit.com, in 2009, as part of the company's brand communication strategy. He launched EduAce Services, which works with schools and students across North and Central India, in 2013. Based in Lucknow, the company created a school quiz league, Pratibha Ki Khoj, a state-centric programme for students with a televised grand finale. The company's focus is on tier-II and -III cities.

The league, a brand building exercise, currently covers 25 cities across 2,500 schools in Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. It expects one million students to participate in the contest, from 200,000 last year.

"In the CBSE syllabus, the importance of GK starts disappearing from Class IX. However, all competitive exams increasingly focus on general knowledge, and we found a need gap there," said Yadav. The company also has two paid products, one of which trains and equips teachers on GK.

The paid services are being used by 150 schools. The company has raised $1 million from Foxconn-invested Mo Magic Technologies, to expand the network. The company plans to take its reach to 5,000-7,000 schools by March 2017 and 15,000 schools over a couple of years.