Pavan Konanur

Pavan Konanur is a British-Indian entrepreneur and the CEO and co-founder of Hoja AI, a London-based education technology company building an adaptive AI study application for school-age learners. Of South Indian (Kannada) heritage, Konanur founded Hoja in 2024 alongside co-founders Shahzad Ahmed and Katherine Tatarinov, driven by the belief that access to high-quality personalised learning should not be a privilege reserved for students whose families can afford private tutors.

Prior to founding Hoja, Konanur built experience as a product manager and angel investor, developing a strong conviction that artificial intelligence was about to create a step-change in what adaptive learning platforms could actually deliver. Where earlier-generation edtech products approximated personalisation through branching question trees and static difficulty settings, large language models and modern AI systems made it possible to build a genuine digital tutor — one that could identify a student’s specific gaps in real time, explain concepts in multiple ways, adjust its approach based on response patterns, and space retrieval practice at the intervals that research shows maximise long-term retention.

At Hoja, Konanur leads the company’s product strategy, commercial development, and investor relationships. The platform targets GCSE students through a freemium model, providing free access to AI-powered chat and adaptive courses, with monetisation through premium personalisation and exam preparation features. The product is multimodal, combining AI chat, adaptive quizzes, and personalised study content that continuously updates based on each learner’s knowledge state.

Hoja raised £1.3 million in 2024. Konanur also has a track record as an angel investor, having backed two early-stage startups alongside building Hoja — reflecting his broader commitment to supporting the next generation of technology founders and his belief in the transformative potential of AI applied to education.