AAS Vidyalaya

Vikas Mirchumal Kakwani (Co-founder & CEO) carries the education mission at the deepest personal level. Vikas Kakwan is a 50-year-old entrepreneur from Meerut, who completed his schooling from a convent school and went on to graduate from IIT Roorkee and IIM Lucknow. He has worked 20 years in the corporate sector. Ashneer says that he is afraid of IIT-IIM founders. If you have a comfort zone of falling down, you can do anything, and every time you fail, you can go back to a cushy paying job. Leena Kakwani (Co-founder) brings the child psychology and pedagogy understanding that ensures AAS Vidyalaya's content is designed for how children actually learn, not just how adults assume they do. Leena Kakwani has done a child psychology course and is from Kanpur. Her expertise ensures that the platform's lesson design, pace, and engagement mechanics reflect genuine understanding of child cognitive development.

AAS Vidyalaya — Anytime Anywhere School — is India's first online school platform for Classes 6–10, delivering the full NCERT curriculum (and state board curricula including Maharashtra Board Marathi medium) through a mobile app, a website, and physical AAS Vidyalaya Education Cafes in rural and semi-urban areas, targeting the 45% of India's population in the middle income pyramid who have income but lack adequate school infrastructure nearby. AAS Vidyalaya is Anytime Anywhere School. This is just like a real school. The app contains all the classes of all subjects based on the syllabus. Students can take tests after every chapter, Report Cards are available, and parent-teacher meetings are conducted just like in actual schools. They follow all NCERT guidelines, according to which they also hold 200 classes if required.

Amount Asked: ₹1.5 crore Equity Offered: 3% Implied Pre-Money Valuation: ₹50 crore

AAS Vidyalaya's pitch was the second of Episode 17 — following Find Your Kicks India's youth culture energy with something entirely different in register: a husband and wife in their fifties, carrying the weight of 20 years of corporate success and five years of mission-driven sacrifice, opening with a cartoon-board story about two children who could not go to school. Founders of AAS Vidyalaya started their pitch in a very unique manner with the help of two cartoon boards and narrated a story for giving a clear idea of business. The cartoon board storytelling device — a deliberate choice to make the pitch accessible and emotionally immediate — worked because the story it told was true: a girl who is kept home because there is no school nearby, a boy who is sent to the fields because education seems pointless. These are not hypothetical characters; they are the daily reality of India's neglected 45%.

Aman Gupta exited early, citing business model clarity concerns. Aman says that he doesn't understand the business model in terms of financial stability, so he goes out of the deal. Anupam Mittal exited with a strategically interesting counter-recommendation. Anupam says that private funding is not a way to go for this company and they should move towards grants and public funding to raise money, so he goes out of the deal as well. Peyush Bansal was the most enthusiastic and strategically aligned Shark. Peyush appreciates the clarity in the business model. Ashneer Grover, despite his stated concern about IIT-IIM founders having excessive comfort zones, was ultimately convinced by Vikas's five-year commitment to the mission and joined the coalition. Namita Thapar brought Emcure's healthcare social enterprise mindset — her company works extensively with India's underserved populations through affordable pharmaceutical access.

Peyush, Namita, and Ashneer came together to offer the company ₹1.5 crore for 15% of the company. The company countered at 7.5%, which the Sharks rejected, saying it was non-negotiable. The pitchers countered with 7.5% equity for ₹1.5 crore, which was later changed to 10% for ₹1.5 crore. However, Namita Thapar made it clear that the deal was non-negotiable. In the end, the final offer for AAS Vidyalaya was 15% equity for ₹1.5 crore After discussing between themselves, the founders accepted the deal.

On-Screen Deal: Season 1's largest single investment: ₹1.5 crore for 15% equity