The company will launch in India and US initially, offering after school coaching for high school STEM courses
Headquartered in Singapore, the company will operate through subsidiaries in both countries, with global expansion in the cards
Future roadmap includes abilities to teach new concepts and the introduction of other concept-based subjects
Seasoned entrepreneur Mukesh Bansal, who had cofounded Myntra and Cult.fit in the past, has partnered with ex-Google top executive Peeyush Ranjan to foray into edtech with the launch of new startup Fermi AI. Based out of Singapore, Fermi aims to disrupt the edtech segment in India and the US by prioritising AI-first learning for school students in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) courses.
In India, the platform will offer after-school coaching for students across 9-12 grades. Initially, the application will offer coaching for physics, chemistry and math in India, and advanced placement (AP) classes for STEM subjects in the US.
Initially a free-for-all launch, the app’s paid rollout is yet to be announced. The company had conducted a three month long pilot earlier comprising of 79 students.
Following its full scale launch, Fermi’s future roadmap will also include adding capabilities like teaching new concepts to students that they haven’t covered in school yet rather than focussing solely on solving after school problems.
Additionally, Fermi would be adding more subjects beyond PCM on its platform like NEET-coaching through the introduction of biology, along with a host of other concept-based subjects like engineering, accounting and data science, among others.
“We are building a long term learning platform. It takes two weeks for us to bring something new. We’ll keep bringing new things as we see what students and teachers are liking,” Ranjan added.
Important to mention that both of the executives are also partners at early stage incubator and venture fund Meraki Labs, which is backing Fermi for advisory and funding.
For Fermi, the immediate focus would be to expand globally while introducing new courses and curriculums to the platform, Ranjan told Inc42.
Explaining the rationale behind establishing the startup, Ranjan pointed out that while AI-powered edtech offerings have been around for some time, most such offerings focus exclusively on building chatbots that provide answers to students directly without encouraging them to learn it themselves. Meanwhile, Fermi acts solely as an AI-assisted learning platform that would guide students through the problem solving process without providing answers upfront.
“Fermi.ai isn’t here to give answers; it’s here to provide the map and the mirror – showing students how they think and giving teachers the visibility to lead them back to the path of mastery,” Bansal said.
The startup will seek to partner with both students and schools to adopt the tech as part of their curriculum. While the platform provides data and analytics about a student’s performance and their weak points, it can also aid teachers in providing targeted learning based on these results.
Additionally, the startup is trying to bring back writing, albeit with a tech layer, by making the application stylus-first. Students can access the application through tablets with a stylus function to get the feel of writing on paper, which improves learning and retention, Ranjan said.
Fermi is yet to raise external funding for its platform. ”Right now, our job is to prove traction because there is serious promise for the product both qualitatively and quantitatively. Once we feel it is time to invest capital to grow it, we will do it,” Ranjan noted.
Edtech Battles Funding Crunch
The launch of the startup comes at a time when the edtech sector continues to grapple with a funding crisis which has been ongoing over the past four years. Funding for the sector has dried considerably since 2022, and startups have been struggling with positioning themselves as viable for both customers and investors.
Funding for the sector reached an 8-year low in 2025 after plummeting 56% YoY to $249 Mn, as per Inc42’s Annual Indian Startup Trends Report, 2025. However, AI has provided a ray of hope for companies that still want to build in this space. It is expected that niche and targeted offerings, especially those that leverage AI, will have a better chance at succeeding in the coming years.
Additionally, investors are now backing newer ventures rather than pumping funds into late-stage edtech startups in the hopes that they would have better operational oversight and will go beyond the K-12 offerings that defined the sector’s formative years.
“Education is fundamental to society’s development and AI is here to stay in students’ lives. If we don’t do it properly, it will continue to be used but in a negative way. Earlier edtech was all about video consumption, and while it did solve the issue of access to content, it was passive in nature. We are building an interactive product, and we feel the timing is right as AI enables us to build without the past challenges,” Ranjan said.
