Can't solve a math problem? Upload a screenshot on an app, get the solution

A new app, developed by Gurgaon-based startup Doubtnut, caters to those who dread the subject or don't have access to teachers; it not only solves problems but also explains concepts

Let's assume you're a student who's struggling with a math problem, simply because you're too shy to clear your doubts or simply don't have a teacher who can solve this problem. What will you do then? Well, there is hope around the corner. A new app will soon enable you to upload the picture of the problem and get a solution along with mathematical concepts surrounding it, in video format within minutes. This is what is being attempted by Gurgaon-based edutech startup Doubtnut, which has come up with a technology-enabled service offering for students.

Founded by two IIT-Delhi alumni, Aditya Shankar and Tanushree Nagori, Doubtnut started operations in 2015. The husband-wife duo left their great American dream to pursue their passion in education back in 2008. This was at a time when the students of premier institutions like IIT were chasing six-digit salaries in Silicon Valley instead of staying back in India. As meritorious students all through, the duo decided to set up brick-and-mortar coaching classes in Gurgaon after returning from the US.

Students from classes 9 and 10 were taught in math and science at these classes. Business was good as the fees being charged were twice those demanded by other frontline coaching centres those days. Sometime during this journey, the duo came to realise that classroom teaching has its own limitations. Students with doubts usually don't get them cleared due to fear of being judged or ridiculed by peers. This prompted them to develop an android-based app on which students could post their doubts. After receiving the problem, they began working on a video that would not only solved the problem but would also provide conceptual clarity. It was this initiative that gave shape to the idea of ‘Doubtnut’ in June 2015.

According to Shankar, Doubtnut is trying to solve the problems faced by millions of students from the hinterland, who neither have access to quality teachers nor enough study material to clarify their doubts in a complex subject like mathematics. Currently, Doubtnut enables a student to click a picture of a mathematical problem and upload it on the app. After receiving the question, the answer will be retrieved from Doubtnut's database and sent to the student. Currently, it takes less than a minute to send the video, which not only solves the question but also provides concept behind the solution. The tech startup receives around 90,000 questions a day and is able to send answers to most of them.  

"We have built our app on the top of Google Vision and have written algorithms that can map those pictures. After the picture is identified, the data is retrieved from the algorithm stack. This process takes only few seconds to be completed," said Aditya Shankar, co-founder of Doubtnut. "After the video is retrieved, it is sent to the user. So the entire process, starting from uploading a mathematical question to receiving a video by the user, takes less than one minute," he added. Currently, the entity provides solutions to math questions for classes 6 to 12.

According to Shankar, the company has crowdsourced many mathematical questions from various places and built a solid repository. Based on the similarity of solutions, this repository has categorised them into multiple stacks. "If you look at the question bank for mathematics from classes six to 12, you will find not more than 100,000 questions. So, we have solved those questions apart from preparing videos for the question sets," Shankar said.

The video solutions are currently in both Hindi and English, which gives students a certain comfort level, Shankar added. The startup has recently launched its app in 12 regional languages including Marathi, Punjabi, Telugu among others. This will now help students to send questions on these vernacular languages also.

Given the potential of this application in India's education landscape, investors like WaterBridge Ventures Network and Omidyar pumped in Rs 35 million as part of pre-Series A round funding in March this year.

While the company currently provides the solution for free, is also mulling monetising the app in the near future. "We have thought of various business models like subscription-based model and online tutoring among others. Currently, we are following the funnel model for building up scale through maximum number of users," Shankar said.