At the age of 11, Harsh Songra was diagnosed with dyspraxia,
a neurological disorder that affects motor skills. But that wasn’t a deterrent
for him. At 16, he was an expert at coding for Android-based mobile apps.
He developed My Child—a free mobile app that could help parents monitor the
growth of a child between 11 and 24 months and screen potential neurological,
physical and speech disorders. Launched in January 2015, the app, which aspires
to be a go-to guide for parenting, has been downloaded more than 8,000 times
across 100 countries.
Songra has received seed funding from investors like Pankaj Jain, a partner in
Silicon Valley-based venture capital fund 500 Startups, and Pallav Nadhani,
co-founder of Fusion Charts and a member of the first Forbes India 30 under 30 List. Both
Jain and Nadhani concur that Songra is trying to solve a real problem that his
family faced. “Even, if he is able to save a small percentage of children from
such disorders, that’s a huge impact globally,” says Nadhani. Says Jain: “The
future prospects of My Child are significant. There is a global need for
detecting possible learning disabilities in children.”
Songra has garnered global support and praise, with a mention on Facebook COO
Sheryl Sandberg’s blog last year. He has received technical support and
mentor-ship from Facebook’s FB Start programme.
Songra, who moved from hometown Bhopal to Bengaluru, now has two other
co-founders, Aafreen Ansari and Shreya Shrivastava, both 19.