We bet your eyes have glossed over in boredom at some point in your life. But has learning maths given you anxiety? Are you one of the millions who require math in everyday life yet fail to grasp the fundamentals? Do you find Math boring? If yes, terminologies such as Linear algebra, angle, geometry, and mathematical concepts might just bounce off of you. The world as an entirety is anxious at best about math. You may not find many people who are math lovers and eager to solve mathematical problems. That is until you meet the owner of Bhanzu.
Meet the man who intends to eradicate global math phobia and change how students perceive math- Neelakantha Bhanu. With a staggering 100 stage shows and over 500 classes done while still in college, Bhanu quickly gained notoriety as a math genius. The experiences while doing these shows made him understand that every student is capable of learning and loving math. He shares that 3 out of every 4 students worldwide are math-phobic. The reason, he adds, is that this phobia exists because math isn’t relatable and interesting.
In 2019, a small team led by Bhanu experimented with different styles of teaching math to make it relatable. They started implementing these ideas across 100s of public schools. This led to further student reach, and in 2020 they gained nationwide traction by helping students learn math through TV broadcasts during the pandemic.
Today Bhanzu, a very young ed-tech start-up, is funded by Lightspeed ventures. Furthermore, it has active participation by prominent angel investors such as Nitin Gupta, CEO of Uni; Maninder Gulati, Global CSO at OYO; Ashish Gupta, ex-Helion MD; Gaurav Munjal, CEO of Unacademy; Kunal Shah, CEO of Cred and Biswa Kalyan Rath, the noted stand-up comedian.
Founder and CEO Bhanzu Neelakantha Bhanu opines, “Learning math the right way is a liberating experience that helps humans develop better cognitive abilities. With Bhanzu, we aim to revolutionize math learning to eradicate math phobia and encourage careers in STEM fields among learners globally, especially SEA. To meet that goal, we have raised funds recently to enhance our global operations and building tech infrastructure.”
The story behind the name:
Earlier known as ‘Exploring Infinities’, the team at Bhanzu realized that their primary product, their math programs, are the true brainchild of Bhanu. Immediate impact learning or key learning takeaways such as speed math, academic improvement, and getting a wholesome math learning experience is a thought extension of Neelakantha Bhanu. Every single consumer experience is a condensation of Bhanu’s experience and journey. Children enrolled with Bhanzu understand that Bhanu directly creates their course, and so the decision to go with a synonym was made, and ‘Exploring Infinities’ became Bhanzu.
Know the man behind Bhanzu: Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash
Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash, 22 years of age, holds 4 world records, 50 Limca Records, and is titled the World’s Fastest Human Calculator. He has established himself as a global math figure and is set for the journey to share the joy of learning math. Bhanu has travelled across 23 countries, given keynotes, and interacted with students across cultural backgrounds. He won India’s first-ever Gold Medal at the Mental Calculation World Championship (MSO 2020, London). A St. Stephens graduate, Bhanu has also broken records once held by India’s math legend Shakuntala Devi.
After winning Gold at the Mind Sports Olympiad and being nationally celebrated, he founded Bhanzu in 2020 with the vision to eradicate global math phobia and to change the way students perceive math. Through his immense grit and determination, Bhanu has influenced the transition towards creating intriguing tools and modules that introduce students to the joy of learning math. Bhanu has interacted and addressed the students of Commonwealth Nations and audiences across 23 nations.
What does Bhanzu do?
Bhanzu was launched as an ed-tech. The focus is to create a love for math by offering experiential learning, which leads to enhanced numeracy skills and cognitive development. The curriculum is backed by personalized pedagogy to build confidence in students and make them apply math in real-world situations. An AI-aided technology is under development.
With Bhanzu, the entire school syllabus of the child is covered in the first 75 sessions, with better narratives, more relevant examples, and exactly telling children where these concepts are applied in their everyday life. How is this possible in such a short timeframe? Purely because of the foundation that they have built through speed math. Speed is not the entire journey; it is the perfect launchpad for a child to excel. And it is just the beginning.
Bhanzu’s USP lies in Math confidence, cognitive development, modern exploration of STEM fields, academic excellence, and redefining what learning means are the value propositions provided. The vision of Bhanzu is that the curriculum is not merely a bridge between supply and demand but the outcome of 4+ years of expansive research. The World’s Fastest Human Calculator develops the course, also lauded as the “Usain Bolt of Mathematics”, Neelakantha Bhanu.
Every student is capable of learning and loving math in its truest sense. The Bhanzu way of learning helps students become quicker, sharper at math and helps them ace the school curriculum while encouraging them to explore the STEM fields. The school curriculum approaches math conceptual understanding by making students accept facts as they are. Asking the right questions and emphasizing the WHYs of math rather than the HOWs and the WHATs differentiates Bhanzu from the school curriculum substitutes.
Bhanzu does this through fun story narratives and emphasis on real-life applications. Their customised learning trajectories for students to explore the realms of coding, AI/ML, science, and other social science fields are gaining popularity. Parents are slowly moving towards outcome-oriented learning than eye candy courseware like coding classes, which lack rigour and depth. Bridging the gap between dreams and competence, Bhanzu’s courseware enables students to realise their full potential and never let their math competence be a barrier to innovation.
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Can you make use of Bhanzu?
The course is offered to children from 6 to 16 years of age. Students become faster and better at Math, developing confidence. The right foundation for developing solid cognitive abilities is built. Bhanzu broaches this often-boring subject through modules.
At Bhanzu, they believe that this bottom-up approach helps students learn and master STEM fields. The curriculum introduces the concept of technology, coding, and AI through the lens of Math. Teaching coding and AI to students without this fundamental Math knowledge is an absolute farce.
Interested parents and students may sign up for a free demo class from their website to experience a live class. On completing this demo class, the Business Development team at Bhanzu reaches out to the aspirants should they be willing to sign up for the class.
Their numbers speak for their success story:
- 1M+ teaching hours clocked in
- 30K+ students and parents impacted
- 5+ years of data-driven research
- 20K+ hours of gameplay
- 2M+ doubts cleared
What’s the competition?
The ulterior motive of training in mental calculations or any mind sport is to develop one’s cognitive abilities. Classes like Abacus, Vedic maths or KUMON only teach shortcuts and tricks to solve math problems which defeat the entire purpose of training in mental calculations. The beauty of mind sport is that the journey of solving the problem itself is greater than the final answer. The Bhanzu curriculum makes students 4x quicker at math by building organic methodologies in students in significantly lesser timeframes.
Coding classes promise similar outcomes of logical ability building and making the students future-ready. Still, they are far from catering to that, as the coding curriculum is built on a very thin foundation. Teaching students AI/coding without them understanding linear algebra or other mathematical concepts makes the entire exercise redundant. The live classes at Bhnazu tackle this by sustainably making students approach coding/tech concepts because the difference between a real coder and a mediocre one is mathematical awareness.
This is what Bhanzu’s future looks like
Bhanzu hopes to make all learners see their true potential and understand the infinite capabilities of the human mind as they explore the subject. The company is currently focused on growth, tech platform building, and customer acquisition. This is something unprecedented in the history of ed-tech products, given that technological advancements never really impact pedagogy and the way subject learning intrinsically pans out.
With visionary leadership, what Bhanzu envisions is a true game-changer. To build this learning ecosystem, hiring extremely functional tech teams is their primary focus, and this is where a huge chunk of funds raised will be utilized.
With the course made available to learner from all over the globe, Bhanzu is ready to change the way people perceive math and make learning fun. With an expanding presence in countries like India, the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Middle East, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Japan, Bhanzu is making math accessible to many people. There are steps in place to scale operations to serve the huge volume of students worldwide.
