“Do not be afraid of failure” Interview with Akshat Srivastava CEO & Founder of Millionlights from Pune, India

Welcome to a new episode of The Entrepreneur Podcast, today we have with us Akshat Srivastava CEO & Founder of Millionlights from Pune, India.

Millionlights is an education content provider using technology to achieve massive scale which was formed to create a better future for millions of people across India through learning and skill development.

Akshat started his journey as an entrepreneur right after doing his business administration. The entrepreneurship bug hit him after he left his university and started his career in the leather business and thereafter moving onto the IT space in late 2001.

He was the Co-Founder and COO of an IT services company, Xanadutec, which was founded in 2003 and headquartered in the UK. Xanadutec now has grown into a 500 + people multi country IT services and product company. Akshat also founded Alabot in 2006, which provided Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing solutions which got funded by the Malaysian Government Fund and later got merged within their portfolio.

Akshat then founded Millionlights in 2016, a progressive digital learning model which enables learning via multiple screens and through local languages. At Millionlights, he is instrumental in building the company for scale.

Akshat has also been a part of the NMEICT program of the MHRD and was actively involved in policy formation for the ICT program of the Central Government. In his leisure time, Akshat plays golf and travels extensively.

He has done his Bachelor of Commerce from the HR College of Commerce, Mumbai.

Founded in 2016, Millionlights, an education content provider using technology to achieve massive scale, was formed to create a better future for millions of people across India through learning and skill development.

The Millionlights vision encompasses a hope to be able to reach out to the farthest corner of India and deliver skill-based training to everyone. Millionlights believes that for India to be relevant on a global scale there is a need for millions of trained, skilled people. Education is the only way to alleviate poverty and move a large under served segment of the population out of their current cycle of unemployment and make them productive members of society. The inspiration for the brand came from the idea of reaching out to millions of lives and lighting up their future through the use of technology.

One of the key features of Millionlights is access to the best authored and curated content leading to industry recognised certification on all screens (Mobile, Desktop and TV). The technology platforms developed by Millionlights facilitate live lectures, offline viewing, TV programs, and faculty and industry interactions. The learning platforms ensure peer interaction, faculty hand-holding and discussion forums and are based on localised content.

The Millionlights movement aims to be an all-encompassing program which will cater to the needs of a massive under served and often neglected market segment and to provide open access to education and real-world skills to at least 50 million learners in the next 5 years. Millionlights believes that just certification will not create a knowledge economy. An entire system has to be evolved where certification is the end result of learning outcomes. The program proposes to add significant value to the process through the teaching methodologies and industry led partnerships.

The Millionlights vision is aligned to the Digital India mission of providing skill based certification and linking that to the industry needs.

Millionlights is founded and managed by a group of educationists, people with extensive experience at the policy making level in Government and...