A parent's frustration, a clear gap
Prashanth Ravichandran (Ravich) and Allen Lin are tech entrepreneurs and long-time business partners. When Allen's daughter was in Primary 5, she was struggling with her English essay writing. Despite attending additional tuition, her progress stalled.
The root cause was clear: the feedback she was getting wasn't specific enough to act on. After trying several tutors, Allen realised that by the time school results reflected the gap, the PSLE was already around the corner.
Built from first principles
Ravich set out to build a solution. He developed an AI tool that delivers precise, consistent feedback grounded in the PSLE marking rubrics - the same criteria examiners use.
Students could upload handwritten essays and practise with questions in the same format they encounter in school. Features like "Try Again", category-based feedback tracking, and a "Model Version" of each essay gave Allen's daughter - and students like her - a structured, individualised path to real improvement.
The results spoke for themselves: she went on to achieve AL1 in English at her PSLE.
Shaped by the people who use it
Word spread quickly. Ms. Eileen Tan, founder and director of The Little Academy, became one of EssayAce.AI's earliest adopters.
She gave candid feedback and articulated the real pain points that tutors and tuition centres face - grading inconsistency when substitute tutors step in, the time cost of onboarding new teaching staff, and the need for a centralised question bank. Armed with that insight, Ravich built these capabilities directly into the platform.
He also built out per-student score tracking and progress reporting across each grading category - spelling, grammar, vocabulary, structure, and relevance - so tutors and parents could see exactly where a student was improving and where they still needed work. EssayAce.AI also proved to be a highly effective tool for virtual and remote teaching.
Opening the doors wider
At a sharing session for parents and educators, Ravich met Kendrick Chia - a volunteer tutor working with underprivileged children at Yew Tee Community Club.
Hearing about the barriers these students faced inspired Ravich to open EssayAce.AI to children in need - making the same powerful learning tool available to underserved communities and the organisations that champion them.
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