Meet Rajan Singh, who left his IPS officer job to create a multi-crore EdTech startup

Success story of Rajan Singh: Clearing UPSC exams and becoming a well-respected civil servant is one of the most prestigious professions in India. Aspirants who clear UPSC go on to become IAS, IPS, IRS, IFS officers among others. While most UPSC success stories go one to serve on esteemed positions for decades, some like Rajan Singh choose different paths.

From being the Commissioner of Police for a major city, Rajan decided to enter management and went on to found disruptive tech firms, Concept Owl and HabitStrong. Today he is an entrepreneur, a consultant and an investor disrupting the education landscape in the country and empowering brilliant minds from rural India to realize their potential and excel. Here’s his inspiring success story:

Journey to becoming an IPS officer

After completing his graduation in engineering from one of India’s most prestigious institutions in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, he decided to move ahead with his interest in civil service and started preparing for the UPSC exam. Singh appeared for UPSC after completing his engineering degree in 1995. After clearing the exam, he joined the Indian Police Services from the Kerala cadre in the 1997 batch.

Choosing a different path

Singh served in the capacity of an IPS officer for eight years, holding various positions in Kerala as he went on to become one of the youngest Commissioner of Police (Thiruvananthapuram) in 2001. As an IPS officer, Singh gained his early management experience, motivating 3,500 strong police personnel, resolving civil disturbances and conflicts, crime control, etc. However, he found life as an IPS getting monotonous and an urge towards bigger plans.

Barely in his 30s and unable to see himself serving for the next few decades, Rajan Singh quit his IPS officer job in July 2005.

Entering the world of Entrepreneurship

Rajan Singh then decided to pursue MBA and went to one of the world’s best institutes at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, which has produced alumni like Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Tesla’s Elon Musk and Warren Buffet. After MBA, Singh worked first in New York and then in Mumbai before founding his first venture, Course Brew, a video-based e-learning platform, in 2012.

Creating successful companies

Next came ConceptOwl in 2015, a disruptive startup that focused on science education for school students and competitive exams aspirants. As per Crunchbase, ConceptOwl has received a total funding of around Rs 3.5 crore. The company reportedly earned a revenue of Rs 2 crore in 2019 and is poised to grow tenfold.

Continuing with his knack for entrepreneurship, Rajan Singh founded Habit Strong, a new habit-based learning platform amid the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. ConceptOwl has now merged with Habit Strong.