Gurugram School Girl, 13, Bags Rs 50 Lakh Funding Offer For Anti-Bullying App on Shark Tank India

Founder and CEO of Shaadi.com Anupam Mittal and co-founder of boAt Aman Gupta have invested in the Class 8 student's idea.

Gurugram: Many of us have faced or witnessed bullying in some or other form at some or other point in our lives. But what did we do? Most of us chose to either accept it or ignore it as a rare, once in a while occurrence, didn’t we? But not this 13-year-old. In a major feat at such a young age, this school girl has bagged a Rs 50 lakh funding offer on the popular business reality show ‘Shark Tank India’ for her thoughtful entrepreneurial idea – an anti-bullying app.

Anoushka Jolly was prompted to do something about the menace of bullying when she first witnessed a fellow student getting bullied at a school event at just 9 years of age. The ‘Anti Bullying Squad (ABS)’, with help from educational institutions, social organisations and experts, has positively impacted over 2,000 students from over 100 schools and universities, said Jolly as she spoke about the digital platform, she formed three years ago.

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The Class 8 student has also come up with a mobile application called ‘Kavach’ and it allows students and parents to report incidents of bullying anonymously, giving opportunity to schools and counsellors to tactfully intervene and take action. The incident of the girl being bullied “got registered in my memory and I still cannot forget her face,” she was terrified and felt helpless, said Jolly, who was nine years old then.

Youngest contestant to pitch

“I was attending the school annual day when my friends decided to bully the six-year-old girl who they found annoying. They walked up to her and started calling her names and laughed at her,” she said. “Soon, I realised how common the problem is and saw many other children of my age being victims of bullying and losing confidence,” said Jolly whose social initiative not only made her the youngest contestant to pitch her entrepreneurial idea on TV reality show Shark Tank India but also landed her a funding offer of Rs 50 lakh. Founder and CEO of Shaadi.com Anupam Mittal and co-founder of boAt Aman Gupta have invested in the idea.

About Shark Tank India

Shark Tank India is the indigenous version of Shark Tank, a global entrepreneurial reality show. In India, the show is currently running its first season and has selected 198 candidates out of 50,000 applications The investors in Jolly’s idea are Anupam Mittal, founder and CEO of People Group (Shaadi.com) and Aman Gupta, co-founder of boAt.

(With PTI inputs)