In early 2024, Nikhil Nirmel founded AnyLearn with the hopes that his artificial intelligence-powered educational platform could fill in the learning gaps for anyone, anywhere, anytime.
“With the genius-ification of AI, it’s gotten a lot smarter in recent years, it seemed that you could use it to organize information in a way that’s as good as or better than professionals in various fields,” he said recalling his inspiration for creating the platform, which has already generated over 30,000 courses and been accessed by 48,000 unique devices across 185 countries.
Today, he hopes that as AnyLearn grows and scales, it can one day soon also help teachers — especially those in Delaware — get a boost with a personalized educational tool that could serve as an aide in the classroom.
This past winter, Delaware-based AnyLearn was one of five tech startups that got their own technical boost to meet business growth goals through seven weeks of catered coaching earned through their selection in Delaware’s third Bronze Valley VentureLab accelerator program. The program is a partnership between national accelerator gener8tor’s gBETA efforts and the nonprofit venture capital fund Bronze Valley’s efforts to support “diverse, underrepresented and underestimated founders.”
“Once you enter the network, you’re in it for life,” Bronze Valley President and CEO Neill Wright told Delaware Business Times. That long-term relationship, on top of the personalized coaching, assistance and networking provided to the Winter 2025 gBETA cohort, can help introduce companies to future investors and opportunities that otherwise might not seem in reach.
“Our approach has always been one of inclusivity,” Wright said. “The capital is not equitably distributed to everyone. Our goal is to make sure that we uncover those uncut gems and give them some attention, give them some nurture and help build the next generation of innovative startup companies.”
Darren Stephenson, director of Bronze Valley Venture Lab Delaware, said the program’s ultimate goal is to make those connections with as many entrepreneurs as possible.
“Venture is not one-size fits all,” he said, noting that the customized consulting-style approach of the program caters to the goals and strengths of the individual companies and their founders.
For Rahmi Halaby, co-founder and CEO of Philadelphia-based startup Ideate, being part of the program helped fill a knowledge gap when it came to scaling the business side of his AI-driven tool that aims to take more of the “mundane, operational tasks” off the plate of highly skilled creatives like designers, to free up both time and project costs.
At first, Halaby admits, he was hesitant to apply to the gBETA program because it didn’t come with any direct funding. But it turns out that actually took some pressure off, he said, and allowed him to “really focus on being there for the resources.”
Halaby co-founded Ideate in February 2024 and his team hopes to publicly launch the company this fall. So far, they already have a waitlist of about 5,000 designers, which Halaby says they hope to grow to 40,000 by launch.
In addition to Nikhil’s AnyLearn and Halaby’s Ideate, the winter 2025 cohort also included Finhound, an AI-backed tool for audit and finance teams; WearableDose, an AI-powered patch used for precision radiation therapy; and DiTech Solutions, an AI-based platform for cybersecurity needs. The five finalists were chosen from more than 50 startups vying for the free accelerator program.
The program’s culmination was celebrated during the public Bronze Valley VentureLab Pitch Night on March 6. According to a press release, the program also is supported by Delaware State University, the State of Delaware, Longwood Foundation, Barclays, Justworks.org, JPMorgan Chase and TD Bank.
While the program did not come with any funding award for the five participating startups, Wright said an investment accelerator program will be coming to Delaware later this year.
“Our goal is we utilize this programming as a way to help the growth and development of startups we can potentially invest in,” Wright said. “It has been really a holistic approach.”
