What EkStep does

EkStep Foundation is a not-for-profit organization founded in 2015 in Bengaluru, India by Nandan Nilekani, Rohini Nilekani, and Shankar Maruwada. It builds open-source digital public goods for education, agriculture, and governance, primarily serving underserved populations across India and East Africa. Its foundational product is Sunbird, an open-source digital infrastructure providing modular building blocks used to construct platforms such as DIKSHA—India's national digital education platform hosting 300,000 pieces of content in 30 languages with billions of learning sessions. The foundation has developed AI-powered solutions including AXL (speech-recognition-based reading diagnostics for children), VoicERA (offline voice AI orchestration for low-connectivity environments), and MahaVISTAAR (agricultural AI advisory serving 3 million farmers), extending its scope from education into multi-sector digital public infrastructure.

The organization's business model is philanthropic rather than commercial. All digital public goods are provided free of charge; revenue is sourced from grants, impact investments, and government partnerships with funders including the Gates Foundation, Google Foundation, World Bank, and the Nilekani family. Distribution occurs through government deployments (Government of India, state education departments in Telangana and Maharashtra, Amul cooperative) and open-source self-service downloads. In 2026, EkStep launched the 100 AI Diffusion Pathways by 2030 initiative—assembling 12 founding organizations including Anthropic, Carnegie India, UNDP, and three national governments—to create reusable AI deployment playbooks that compress timelines by 90%+ for subsequent adopters. The foundation positions itself not as a technology vendor but as an institutional architect for population-scale digital public infrastructure, emphasizing that 70% of AI diffusion success depends on non-technical factors (data readiness, language support, workforce adaptation, accountability).

Name

EkStep

Legal name

EkStep Foundation

Website

https://ekstep.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2015

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

EkStep Foundation is a Bengaluru-based not-for-profit that builds open-source digital public goods (Sunbird, AXL, VoicERA) for education, agriculture, and AI diffusion, serving underserved populations across India and Africa through government deployments and philanthropic grant funding.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Digital Public Infrastructure

NAICS

Educational Support Services (611710), Software Publishers (5132)

SIC

Services-Educational Services (8200), Services-Prepackaged Software (7372)

akta.pro primary industry

Education Access & EdTech for Equity (Low-cost Learning, Skills Platforms) (BPAGALAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Digital Learning, EdTech Enablement & Connectivity for Education (BPADAKAH), Digital Development & ICT4D / GovTech Technical Assistance (BPADAEAL)

Keywords

• Open-source digital infrastructure
• AI education solutions
• Digital public goods
• Agricultural AI advisory
• Open-source learning platforms

Headquarters

HQ city

Kormangala

HQ country

India

HQ region

Asia

Offices2 records

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations

Revenue model

1. Non-profit Foundation Model: EkStep is a not-for-profit company registered under the Indian Companies Act 2013. Revenue comes from philanthropic capital, grants, and impact investments rather than commercial product sales. The digital public goods are provided free to users.
2. Philanthropic Risk Capital and Impact Investing: Attracts top talent into the social sector through philanthropic risk capital that helps scale philanthropy. State governments and institutions deploy the open-source infrastructure at scale.

Go-to-market motion3 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels7 records

Core offering

EkStep Foundation builds open-source digital public goods, anchored by the Sunbird modular infrastructure that powers platforms like DIKSHA (the world's largest digital education platform). It also develops AI-powered solutions such as AXL for personalized literacy learning and VoicERA for offline voice AI in agriculture and fintech, providing these as free, reusable building blocks for governments and organizations to deploy at population scale.

Product overview

EkStep Foundation is a not-for-profit organization that develops digital public goods for societal transformation. Its portfolio includes multiple interconnected products: Sunbird serves as the foundational open-source digital infrastructure used to build platforms like DIKSHA (India's national education platform). People+AI fosters an AI community for social good, while AXL provides AI-powered reading assistance for children. The initiative also includes Bachpan Manao (early childhood development), ONEST (decentralized network), BlueDots (economy), and OpenAgrinet (agriculture). VoicERA enables offline voice AI deployment, and the 100 AI Diffusion Pathways by 2030 initiative creates reusable deployment playbooks and toolkits for scaling AI across sectors.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Sunbird: Open-source digital infrastructure offering building blocks for creating digital solutions
• People+AI
• Bachpan Manao
• AXL
• BlueDots
• ONEST
• VoiceAI
• DIKSHA
• 100 Pathways

Products and services

• Sunbird Modular, free and open-source digital infrastructure providing building blocks for governments and organizations to create digital solutions across education, agriculture, and governance.
• DIKSHA The world's largest digital education platform created by the Government of India using Sunbird technology. Hosts 300,000 pieces of educational content in 30 languages, enabling learning through digital technology, radio and TV.
• AXL (Assisted Language and Math Learning) AI-powered, teacher-supported initiative that helps children read by creating personalized, empathetic support for remedial learners through speech recognition, diagnostic tools, chatbots, and practice platforms.
• People+AI

Quantifiable outcome

• 90%+ compression in AI deployment time through shared pathways (9 months → 3 weeks)
• +4 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

AI capability9 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

21 partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• CINECA Leonardo (Italy)coreTechnology or Integration · 20 May 2026Italy provided supercomputing access through CINECA Leonardo's EuroHPC infrastructure as part of the trilateral AI partnership between India, Kenya, and Italy. This enables computationally intensive AI model training and deployment for underserved communities.
• Crane AI Labs (Uganda)coreTechnology or Integration · 20 May 2026Contributed Luganda language models and edge deployment capabilities for offline voice AI in agriculture and fintech applications for African communities.
• MsingiAI Kenya (Kenya)coreTechnology or Integration · 20 May 2026Contributed Swahili language models and edge deployment capabilities for the trilateral AI partnership, enabling voice AI in local African languages.
• Africa Compute Fund and Monarch PlatformcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 20 May 2026Infrastructure layer being developed to host, meter, and monetize African-language AI models for deployment across the continent. Part of the AI Diffusion Pathway model combining 30% tech and 70% non-tech focus.
• NITI AayogcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 28 April 2026Developed DPI@2047 strategic roadmap for India's Digital Public Infrastructure in partnership with EkStep Foundation and Deloitte. Outlines two-phase approach: DPI 2.0 (2025–2035) for livelihood-led growth and DPI 3.0 (2035–2047) for broad-based prosperity.
• Deloitte IndiacoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting Partner · 28 April 2026Partnered with EkStep Foundation and NITI Aayog to develop the DPI@2047 strategic roadmap for India's Digital Public Infrastructure transformation.
• AnthropicflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2026Founding organization of 100 AI Diffusion Pathways by 2030 initiative. Committed to deploying AI at population scale for underserved populations. Dario Amodei highlighted India's potential for 20-25% economic growth driven by AI.
• Carnegie IndiaflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2026Founding organization of 100 AI Diffusion Pathways initiative. Published Use Case Adoption Framework (UCAF) examining hundreds of AI use cases across agriculture, health, education, and government.
• Government of EthiopiaflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2026Built ATI (Agricultural Technology Innovation) deployment drawing on Maharashtra's pathway, operational in one-third the time. Founding organization of 100 pathways initiative.
• Government of KenyaflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2026Partner in trilateral AI partnership with India and Italy for voice AI deployment. Founding organization of 100 AI Diffusion Pathways initiative.
• Government of ItalyflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2026Providing supercomputing access through CINECA Leonardo. Founding organization of 100 AI Diffusion Pathways initiative.
• IIIT-B (International Institute of Information Technology Bangalore)flagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2026Founding organization of 100 AI Diffusion Pathways initiative. Academic partner contributing research and technical expertise.
• Observer Research FoundationflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2026Founding organization of 100 AI Diffusion Pathways initiative. Think tank contributing policy expertise and research.
• QhalaflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2026Founding organization of 100 AI Diffusion Pathways initiative. Contributes expertise in technology deployment and innovation.
• UNDPflagshipStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2026Founding organization of 100 AI Diffusion Pathways initiative. UN development agency supporting AI deployment for sustainable development.
• AI4BharatcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerCollaborated with AI4Bharat to develop AXL (Assisted Language and Math Learning) program that leverages AI for personalized reading assistance for children.
• World BankcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWorld Bank is seeking to embed DIKSHA digital public good across a number of African countries to help them meet their education goals. Shabnam Sinha from World Bank India participated in EY podcast discussing DIKSHA.
• PrathamcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIndian NGO that for 28 years has provided evidence-based tools for teaching and learning at the foundational stage. Through ASER (Annual Status of Education Report), has tracked learning outcomes since 2005.
• Azim Premji FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerThrough relentless support of public education system, has enhanced teacher capability and development of communities of practice around learning outcomes.
• Central Square FoundationcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerHas long nurtured ecosystem for foundational stage, pioneered programmatic support for various states across India for early childhood education.
• Telangana State Education DepartmentcoreImplementation/ SI/ Consulting PartnerGovernment partner for AXL Online deployment in Telangana government schools. Multiple MoUs signed with NGOs including EkStep for EdTech facilities.

Scale indicators11 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights6 records

Broad incumbents

• Google.org (Google Foundation): Philanthropic arm of Google funding AI for social good initiatives globally. Comparable as a major foundation funding AI for education and emerging markets, and a founding partner in EkStep's 100 Pathways initiative.
• OpenAI: Leading AI research lab pursuing AI for social impact, including partnerships with education platforms like Khan Academy. Comparable as a major AI lab pursuing population-scale AI applications and competing for the same emerging-market AI-for-good space.
• Byju's: India's largest commercial EdTech company serving K-12 and competitive exam preparation. Operates in the same Indian education market as EkStep's DIKSHA but with a for-profit, consumer-pays model rather than digital public good approach.
• IndiaAI Mission (MeitY): Government of India's national AI program focused on democratizing AI access and building India-specific AI capacity. Comparable as the primary Indian government AI initiative that EkStep partners with through DPI@2047 roadmap with NITI Aayog.
• Anthropic: Leading AI lab and founding partner of EkStep's 100 AI Diffusion Pathways by 2030 initiative. Comparable as a major AI for-good actor pursuing population-scale AI deployment in emerging markets with substantially larger capital and engineering resources.

Direct peers

• Khan Academy: Non-profit providing free, world-class online education at population scale. Comparable as a free, open-access digital learning platform serving underserved learners globally, though focused on K-12 and test prep content.
• AI4Bharat: India-based AI research lab focused on building open-source language AI for Indian languages. Direct technology partner with EkStep on AXL and shares the open-source, population-scale AI mission in India.
• Pratham Education Foundation: India-based non-profit focused on foundational literacy and numeracy for underprivileged children. Directly comparable as an Indian education non-profit working on the same target demographic (foundational literacy) and a documented strategic partner of EkStep.

Regional players

• African Leadership University: Pan-African higher education institution focused on developing African leaders through technology-enabled learning. Comparable to EkStep's emerging Africa focus (Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia partnerships) but in higher education rather than foundational literacy.

Others

• UNDP (United Nations Development Programme): UN agency supporting digital transformation and AI for sustainable development globally. Comparable as a founding partner in the 100 AI Diffusion Pathways initiative and a potential customer/diffusion partner for EkStep's digital public goods in developing countries.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/eksteporg
• YouTubeyoutube.com/@ekstep5976/videos
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ekstep-foundation

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles4 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about EkStep