After the recent funding from Nexus Venture Partners, quizzing platform Quizizz aims to enter South Asian markets by adding features on the platform that help teachers customise classroom quizzes.

Nexus partners backed Quizizz, a multiplayer quiz platform, is a Bengaluru-based edtech startup founded by BITS Pilani graduates, Ankit Gupta and Deepak Joy Cheenath.  They wanted to design an academic product used in schools harnessing technology as a tool to drive attention instead of distraction.

Quizizz, helps teachers design quizzes pertaining to a topic by modifying the curated content available on the platform. Students then take the quiz in their classroom after which teachers can review the performance with the collected data.

Learning from a past venture

This is not the first venture by the duo. Prior to Quizizz, they had co-founded Wizenworld, a math-based role-playing game for middle school students. Wizenworld was one of the 11 startups chosen by GSF Global 2014 program and they were mentored by individuals from different locations including San Francisco, Boston, New York in the US along with Singapore and India.

Through Wizenworld they were able to connect with schools in the Unites States which started using their product. “Wizenworld was a great learning experience for us. Whatever pain points we got as feedback, we set out to address that with our next product- Quizizz,” says Gupta.

Two significant pieces of feedback they received were on the content itself and the element of interactivity.  First, with Wizenworld, content was provided by the team. “Teachers wanted the freedom to add their content,” Gupta says. So the quizzes on the Quizizz platform can be altered and modified according to the lesson plan of the teacher.

Second, students wanted to be involved with their classmates and wanted a multiplayer experience. The team added a feature through which a quiz-taker can see how quickly fellow quiz-takers answered a question and how many got the answer right. Further, after every question attempted, a meme is displayed along with the answer.

“The product is seeing tremendous growth without the team spending a single dollar on marketing.” – Ram Gupta,MD, Nexus Partners

How they tapped into schools

Another area where their Wizenworld experience helped was in networking. Gupta and Cheenath had been in touch with many schools and teachers which helped Quizizz reach almost 50 per cent of the schools in the U.S. Word-of-mouth has been extremely powerful with teachers recommending it on Twitter, tagging the official Quizizz account.

This momentum on Twitter is something the team leverages for marketing with periodical updates on new features being added, inviting suggestions and feedback and merchandise giveaways. They also had a stall at the International Society for Technology in Education conference in Chicago where teachers live-tweeted and shared their Quizizz experience with fellow teachers.

“We are fortunate to have received the response from school teachers in the US. They have been very involved with regular feedback and suggestions,” Gupta says.

Integration with existing softwares

Over the past months, they have added new features including one of third party integration. That is, the data that they collect gets automatically added to the existing platform that is used in schools. One such integration is with Google classroom, a web service that helps create, distribute and grade assignments virtually.

“We sat with the education team from Google to integrate data from our platform to the existing service at schools,” explains Gupta. While they have expanded rapidly in the U.S., their presence in India is nascent. “India is not their focus right now,” he says, adding that it may take at least 2 to 3 years before Quizizz gains mass adoption in the country.

The Funding from Nexus

In August this year, Quizizz raised US $3 million from Nexus Venture Partners. Ram Gupta, Managing Director, Nexus Partners says, “The most promising sign about Quizizz was the high organic adoption among users. The product is seeing tremendous growth without the team spending a single dollar on marketing.”

The product is useful to both students and teachers, which will help the company to scale rapidly, he notes adding that the founders have the skill to build it into a large company.

Focus in the coming years

Apart from India, the company’s future focus will be on the Southeast Asian markets. Besides English, the platform is available in five other languages that include Spanish, French, Dutch, Polish and Russian. They are also looking at expanding their European presence, says Gupta.

Speaking of their revenue model, Gupta says “the platform is currently free, adding that the team is likely to explore pricing options in the future.” The company currently has 10 million users on their platform with half a billion questions answered.

The goal moving forward is to add new features to customise based on the curriculum offered at different schools and make it more student and teacher friendly through the feedback they have been receiving.

Snapshot: Quizizz

Founders: Ankit Gupta and Deepak Joy Cheenath

Started: 2015

Funding: Nexus Partners

Profile: Multiplayer quiz platform where teachers can design quizzes for their lesson plan and assess students