Ex-Google VP Peeyush Ranjan Launches AI EdTech Startup Fermi.ai for High-School STEM Learning

Ex-Google Executive Peeyush Ranjan Launches AI EdTech Startup Fermi.ai in India & USA | AIM

Former Google GM and VP Peeyush Ranjan has launched Fermi.ai, an AI-first edtech startup aimed at transforming high-school STEM education across India and the United States. Headquartered in Singapore, the company is rolling out its learning platform through subsidiaries in both countries, beginning with mathematics, physics and chemistry. Fermi.ai is built around what the company calls "productive struggle", a learning philosophy that encourages students to work through mistakes and strengthen conceptual understanding rather than rely on shortcuts. The platform uses AI to analyse how a student arrives at an answer, identifying gaps in reasoning and offering step-by-step guidance instead of direct solutions. "Students today are getting answers faster than ever, but their understanding is getting weaker," Ranjan said, who has also served as CTO of Flipkart and held leadership roles at Airbnb. "We built Fermi.ai to support thinking, not replace it, and to give educators visibility into struggles that usually stay hidden." The startup has emerged from Meraki Labs, where Ranjan partners with entrepreneur Mukesh Bansal, founder of Myntra. Bansal said Fermi.ai focuses on mapping a student's thought process rather than solving problems for them. "It's about showing students how they think, and helping teachers guide them back to mastery," he noted. Bansal also launched Nurix, which is another emerging AI startup focused on building AI-native consumer and internet products. Fermi.ai's platform is built around four core components: an adaptive real-time tutor that provides pedagogically guided hints, a stylus-first smart canvas designed for handwritten equations and diagrams, a concept-linked question bank aligned with exams such as AP, IB and JEE, and an analytics layer that pinpoints where student reasoning breaks down. Before its public launch, the company conducted a three-month pilot with 79 students, covering over 15,000 concept tests. According to the startup, students who initially struggled showed an average improvement of 4.68 points by their final attempts, while heavy users demonstrated higher mastery gains and reduced dependence on hints. The cloud-based platform is currently available for free at fermi.ai, with a dedicated pilot programme for educators launching in 2026.

Ex-Flipkart CTO Peeyush Ranjan launches edtech startup Fermi.ai

The startup was incubated at Myntra founder Mukesh Bansal's Meraki Labs, where Ranjan also serves as a partner. Covering subjects such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry, the AI tutor will guide students to solutions. Peeyush Ranjan, a former Flipkart CTO and Google veteran, has launched a global AI tutor-led edtech startup, Fermi.ai, focused on high-school STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education. The startup was incubated at Myntra founder Mukesh Bansal's Meraki Labs, where Ranjan also serves as a partner. Covering subjects such as mathematics, physics, and chemistry, the AI tutor will guide students to solutions. "We are not going to give you the answer; we are going to help you arrive at the answer, so that in the end you get a feeling of accomplishment, as opposed to just a quick answer," Ranjan told ET. The platform will be rolled out for both schools and consumers. It will initially be rolled out as a free trial in the US and India, before expanding to other markets. "We intend to expand into more areas, starting with physics, chemistry, mathematics, JEE, and AP," Ranjan added. "We will also move into college-level courses and skill-based things such as prompt engineering, statistical analysis, and actuarial science and other areas that can help people access new jobs or perform better in their current roles." This comes at a time of growing disruption in the education sector, with AI reshaping content creation, delivery, and assessment. Recently, Google launched free, full-length SAT practice tests within its Gemini app, directly challenging the mock-test offerings of test-preparation platforms. These AI tools also offer personalised study plans as students increasingly turn to such platforms for their educational needs. "The post-ChatGPT world is very different. Schools and educational institutions have to adopt AI, and they need to do so in the right way because students are already adopting it. We are building a product that enables learning the right way within the AI wave," Ranjan added. Fermi.ai ran a three-month pilot with 79 students, which showed significant improvement in learning, said Ranjan. Students who initially scored around 2 out of 10 improved to an average of 6.7 out of 10 by the end of the pilot, while those scoring about 5 out of 10 rose to nearly 8 out of 10. Ranjan said Meraki will continue to fund the venture until it decides to raise capital from external investors. "The path to external funding is going to follow two more milestones, that is launching the platform and figuring out the market and pricing. Then we will think about external funding," he added.