US - Hippocampus

Our Mission & Impact

We transform lives of underserved children through high quality education

Hippocampus’s journey in delivering educational outcomes provides many insights on how such impact may be created in a commercial framework. Our journey is a definitive case study of a pioneering commercial venture addressing a huge social need.

Hippocampus assists private schools and community centres in running better schools, pre-schools and libraries. These programs have been implemented across India and the world through our partners.

Our journey so far

The journey started in 2003 with Umesh Malhotra and Vimala R Malhotra starting the Hippocampus library in a suburb of Bangalore called Koramangala to satiate their son’s appetite for books. The library captured the imagination of Bangaloreans and quickly became a part of the cultural landscape of the city. Instead of opening more centres for middle class children, we expanded our work with libraries to reach out to poor children studying in government schools and attending community centres in slums.

The early experiments in driving educational outcomes scaled considerably but were largely philanthropic. We however realised that without creating value for all stakeholders these forays would not endure. Therefore, Hippocampus’ journey can be said to have begun in earnest from 2011 when the venture started rolling out preschool centres across Karnataka.

The venture found ready acceptance in the villages they opened in. The number of centres was ramped up. Hippocampus had more than 100 preschool centres. Additionally, Hippocampus decided to start its first school too.

Hippocampus operates more than 17 schools and today, Hippocampus is one of the largest and most respected operators in rural India.

In 2020-21, while Corona destroyed the world, digital and online learning became a reality around the globe. Hippocampus makes a foray into the online after school learning segment with the The Ninja programs – Chatterbox Ninja for Spoken English and Reading Ninja for joyful readers. From a modest start of 50 students to 500 students in a few months … Hippocampus is growing at a fast pace.

Who We Are

We work with young children, and there is no bigger joy than a smile on a child’s face. This is the single motivating and unifying factor for all our team members –from the teachers to their managers and the team at the head office. We have a diverse team from different geographies and socio-economic and educational backgrounds; however, all of us will give an arm and a leg to make sure each child is safe and learning joyfully.