Jochi, founded by Yash Dhir, SEAS'24, and Rahul Nambiar, SEAS'24, has been making waves in the Penn startup scene, securing multiple awards and recognition, including Venture Lab's 2024 Startup Challenge's Launch Award, The AI at Wharton Award, The Audience Choice Award, the Draper Bridge Fund Award and has also taken home the prestigious President's Innovation Prize!
This dynamic duo, comprising Dhir, a systems science and engineering major hailing from London, and Nambiar, an applied science in computer science major from Dubai, first met on Penn's campus as freshmen and quickly became close friends. The next year, they became roommates and set out to disrupt how traditional school models support students with diverse learning needs.
With this recent backing, the duo will be graduating this spring and focus on scaling their platform's reach nationwide. Their platform, Jochi, is an integrated management platform that enhances academic support programming for K-12 schools. Jochi equips students with learning differences, such as ADHD, dyslexia, and executive functioning deficits, tools for effortless everyday management - think Asana but for students. For educators and learning specialists, the Jochi platform fosters greater efficiency and more effective support by automating a lot of tedious tasks that inhibit educators from maximizing time spent supporting learners. They are mentored by Amanda Antico, capstone director of the Education Entrepreneurship Program at the Graduate School of Education.
While at Penn, Venture Lab was home to Jochi. The team completed our Venture Initiation Program's Accelerator (VIP-X) in 2022, were awardees of the 2023 Startup Challenge Summer Venture Award, 2024 Innovation Fund Implementation & Launch Awards, and one of our most popular startups among fellows in our Venture Initiation Program Practicum program.
To learn more about how Jochi's platform supports learning support teams at K-12 schools, neurodiverse learners, and their families - please visit www.jochi.info