Describe your company in three phrases.
- Efekta Education is an AI and software company that gives every student in the world their own personal learning companion and every teacher their own teaching assistant.
- The learning companion knows exactly what students are good at, what they struggle with, and the best way to help them learn.
- The teaching assistant helps classroom teachers plan lessons, analyse progress and focus on who needs support most – freeing them up to inspire, motivate, and spend more quality time with their students.
What inspired you to start the company?
I think one of the biggest priorities for education today is equity of access. The quality of a student’s education can vary dramatically depending on their zip code. I’m inspired by the mission to ensure that every child – regardless of background – has access to great teaching and resources, because education is the foundation of opportunity. I’d also like to highlight teacher support.
Teachers are at the heart of the system, but they’re often overworked and under-resourced. If we can give them better tools, whether through technology, training, or reducing administrative burdens, they’ll have more time and energy to do what they do best: inspire and guide students. I believe AI can help with both these issues.
Was there a particular moment that sparked the idea?
I started with a PhD in Computer Science, building tech companies from the ground up. Then I shifted gears into education, spending 16 years leading and expanding Hult International Business School. That experience gave me a front-row seat to what works in learning. And now at Efekta, I’m combining that with AI to transform education on a global scale.
Forty years ago, Benjamin Bloom proved that one-to-one tutoring boosts an average student’s grade from a C to an A. For decades, scalability was impossible due to cost. Large language models changed that. By solving the supply problem, AI makes personalized tutoring economically viable for entire education systems.
How would you describe your company’s mission in one sentence?
To make high-quality learning universally available by empowering every country in the world to adopt AI in education whilst keeping teachers central to the process.
How would your team describe you as a leader?
Direct and uncompromisingly realistic. I see the world for what it is, not what I want it to be, and I hold my team to that standard. By keeping us anchored in reality, we waste zero time on wishful thinking and pivot straight to winning execution.
What’s one misconception about your sector you’d love to correct?
Education technology has a reputation for overpromising and underdelivering. While I firmly believe technology can massively benefit both teachers and students, I’d love to move the industry away from pricing per student and toward pricing on outcomes. This aligns our incentives directly with those of ministries of education.
What keeps you energised outside of work?
Cycling, mostly – I’m on the bike whenever I can be. My wife runs a professional cycling team, so the sport is thoroughly woven through our household. Beyond that, I have a serious weakness for good wine.
What advice would you give another founder entering the international education space?
Your product matters less than your route to market. Founders love to obsess over features, but in global education, the real battle is procurement and scale. If you can’t figure out how to actually get your tool into classrooms across different regulatory environments, the best product won’t save you.
What initiatives are you rolling out in the near future?
Two major areas of focus excite me right now. First is the release of free AI tools for teachers, designed to save them time on lesson planning. Second is our expansion beyond English into core STEM subjects like Physics, where student outcome gaps are most severe.
If you could accomplish one big thing in the next year, what would it be?
To have more than 10 million students learning on Efekta. Achieving that would be a massive milestone for us.
