Teena Paul was enrolled for the Woman Start-up Programme at NSRCEL with a mission to help children with Learning Difficulties realize their true potential. At the centre of her offering was a technology-enabled screening tool for early identification of Learning difficulties in children. Early identification and the right remediation are crucial for the academic success of children with Learning Difficulties as remediation is more effective during the early years.

She has first- hand experience of the perils of late identification. Her own son was identified at age 13 and this made her determined to develop an easier, faster and more accurate screening that could be offered in the school. She came across the Gaze pattern-based screening tool and pitched the idea to NSRCEL.Her plan was to license the solution but her mentors encouraged her to explore options to develop it.

To transform an idea from paper all the way to your first paying customer -the journey has been challenging but exciting. After exploring multiple options, she found the right collaborators in Bangalore. Together they built the solution that could capture the gaze pattern. Around the same time, she met students from the Socio-Tech Lab at Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering. She went on to sign an MOU with the Computer Science Department of the college. Students from the college work as interns with Giftolexia and have already developed an app to facilitate early reading. She is tapping the power of digital solutions to scale the outreach and use analytics to get non-linear benefits.

“The support of the WSP Cohort -15 strong, successful woman entrepreneurs -has played an important part in this journey. We have formed a very strong bond over the year and is always there to support and cheer each other”-says Teena

Being incubated at NSRCEL, at IIMB helped Teena connect with NIMHANS and other prominent organisations working in the field. To quote her – “It has given me the courage to take up such a challenging task”

Teena’s journey has taken a leap forward with the Maharashtra Government recognising the work of Giftolexia. They will be rolling out their screening and allied services in the Government schools of Maharashtra. This, she hopes, will pave the way for adoption by other schools in the state and other Governments across the country and beyond.