New Delhi, March 27 -- When Arpit Mittal pivoted his third startup to focus on getting Indian kids unfamiliar with English to learn and speak the language, he was in for a few surprises. His Gurugram-based edtech startup SpeakX began seeing a surge in users from India's tier 2 and tier 3 cities. But that was not all. "It was an eye-opener for us that more than the kids, their parents were learning on our platform," said Mittal.

The idea for SpeakX had germinated from Yellow Class, which provided after-school activities for children studying from home during the covid-19 pandemic. As kids returned to school campuses post the pandemic, Yellow Class had to shut shop in 2023. But its English modules were so popular that Mittal decided to bui...