‘Dost Education’, an education technology startup from India has bagged a $25,000 (Rs 17 lakh) tech prize along with two other winners from Tanzania and Egypt.

The Next Billion Edtech Prize 2019, by UK-based Varkey Foundation, is awarded to the most innovative technology destined to have a radical impact on education in low income and emerging world countries.

Dost was awarded for its ability to empower parents to take charge of their child’s early education by creating short, friendly audio content that is sent to them via their mobile phones. “Dost software, audio content, and toolkits make it easy, fun and addictive for parents to boost their child’s early development, so low-income families need no longer send their children to primary school behind and without a chance to catch up,” noted the Global Education and Skills Forum (GESF), where the award was announced in Dubai last month.

“It’s really exciting to bring Dost to the global stage at GESF and be one of the three winners of the prize. It motivates us even more to keep working on our mission to help parents to unlock their child’s full potential,” said Dost CEO Sneha Sheth.

The other winners are Ubongo from Tanzania and PraxiLabs from Egypt. From the three winners, Ubongo was crowned the overall winner and took home the Next Billion Prize trophy for its ability to leverage the power of entertainment, the reach of mass media, and the connectivity of mobile devices, to deliver effective, localised learning to African families at low cost and massive scale.

PraxiLabs, the third winner, provides virtual laboratories for schools and learning organisations in the Middle East and beyond.