Meet Anoushka Jolly, a student of Class 8 who became the youngest entrepreneur on reality show Shark Tank India. The 13-year-old appeared on the show to pitch her anti-bullying app called ‘Kavach’ for which she received Rs 50 lakh funding.
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The aim of the app is to educate the children and people regarding the importance of anti-bullying. It will also hold webinars and one-on-one talks and workshops across the country against bullying.
‘Kavach’ app will allow students and parents to report incidents of bullying anonymously, giving opportunity to schools and counsellors to tactfully intervene and take action. She aims to build a strong network of anti-bullying ambassadors, who will track the progress of those impacted directly or indirectly through the platform and application.
Jolly took his forward as she was also a victim of bullying.
The first event happened when Jolly’s friends mocked her while she cried, an experience she shared on the show while pitching showing her idea. This was followed by another episode of bullying when she witnessed her fellow students mocking a six-year-old girl during a school function.
She went on to form an ‘Anti Bullying Squad (ABS)’ with the help of educational institutions, social organizations and experts. It has helped over 2,000 students from over 100 schools and universities. The 13-year-old has been running ABS digital platform for over three years now.
The platform also sells anti bullying merchandise. “However, during the process, I realised that most of these incidents do not get reported and hence, do not get resolved. So, I came up with an idea of creating a bullying reporting mobile app ‘Kavach’ to anonymously report incidents,” Jolly toldĀ PTI.
“The idea was well received by judges of (Shark Tank), two of whom even stepped forward to invest in my app at Rs 50 lakh in valuation to help me widen its scale and reach,” she added.
The sharks who stepped up to help Joly are Anupam Mittal, founder and CEO of People Group (Shaadi.com) and Aman Gupta, co-founder of boAt.