: IIT Kharagpur Alumnus Mix Board Games With AR; Bag 7 Lakh Customers Around The Globe #IndiaNEWS #Entrepreneurs Imagine an augmented reality (AR) globe that not only acts as a 3D atlas but also tells

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IIT Kharagpur Alumnus Mix Board Games With AR; Bag 7 Lakh Customers Around The Globe #IndiaNEWS #Entrepreneurs
Imagine an augmented reality (AR) globe that not only acts as a 3D atlas but also tells you about different cultures and cuisines or a physical-cum-digital board game platform that uses physical figurines to drive digital gameplay on screen.
These engaging and immersive AR experiences have been created by PlayShifu. Founded in 2016 by Vivek Goyal and Dinesh Advani, the company encourages early science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills.
Having known each other for over 15 years now, the founders are also graduates of IIT Kharagpur.
Once they completed their graduation, they both went their own way, but the desire to collaborate and work on their own startup always egged them on. Speaking to The Better India, Vivek says, “We explored different verticals and after some research, we zeroed in on wanting to build a consumer product. At the same time we wanted something that would be impactful. �
This was also around the time when both Vivek and Dinesh were raising toddlers of their own and felt the need to have more products to engage their kids.
“While most of the toys that we found in the market were just for pure play, we found a gap in games that could enhance cognitive skills. This is the market that we wanted to explore further,� he says.
Dinesh Advani
Speaking about the startup’s name, Vivek says, “We did not want an identity that sounded preachy and were leaning towards something playful. Taking inspiration from the Shifu character in the movie Kung Fu Panda (2008), we named the brand PlayShifu. ‘Shifu’ in Chinese means ‘Master’. �
When toys go digital
Exploring this new toy.
“While the US markets seemed to have enough toys to engage young minds and help hone their cognitive and thinking skills, we found a gap in the Indian market,� says Vivek. They were so convinced of their idea that they quit their jobs to work on bridging this gap.
What started as a single idea in 2016 has now turned into a thriving business. Initially, the startup was bootstrapped. The duo agree that the only way to have ‘skin in the game’ is to seed fund your own ideas.
Venturing into a new space meant finding the right people for their team while also developing a product.
The duo zeroed in on the final product after several rounds of iteration. They engaged with several stakeholders — parents, child psychologists and teachers — to understand the market and realised that they needed to attract kids to the digital medium, even while retaining the physical form factor of the play to get the best of both worlds.
“With kids spending so much time on various screen devices, we were sure of wanting to build something around it.

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