Expop is a learning platform that schools license to teach entrepreneurship, financial literacy, and career readiness. Schools purchase per-student seats, typically as a class of 15–30 students, and receive a full syllabus alongside platform access. For educators, Expop works as an experiential learning operating system: students learn by building a real venture, completing weekly "quests" that break the startup journey into structured steps, and submitting reflections and materials that are graded on-platform. Teachers get dedicated accounts with analytics on individual and class-level progress, plus downloadable grades and reports.

Seats are priced between $99 and $120 per student, depending on enrollment timing and class size. Expop is headquartered in Philadelphia, PA, and is backed by The Motley Fool.

Where We Came From

Expop grew out of Ascendance, an entrepreneurship education company founded in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, in 2015 by four teenage founders who met through the ET Ideas incubator platform. Ascendance has partnered with Malaysia's Ministry of Education since 2018, received the Diana Award in 2019, and reached seven-figure annual revenue in 2023, fully bootstrapped. Harsha Ravindran, an early team member who joined as CMO, became CEO in 2020 and led the company through its growth years.

In 2025, members of the founding team incorporated Ascendance US Inc as an independent American company — a spin-out of the Ascendance model, with no legal relationship to the Malaysian entity, which continues to operate its programs in Malaysia. Later in 2025, the U.S. company rebranded as Expop and rebuilt the model around schools: rather than delivering programs directly to students, Expop now provides the platform and curriculum that teachers deliver in their own classrooms.

Some earlier press coverage describes Ascendance's direct-to-student programs; Expop's customers today are schools.

Timeline

• 2015 — Ascendance founded in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

• 2018 — Partnership with Malaysia's Ministry of Education begins (ongoing)

• 2019 — Diana Award for young changemakers

• 2020 — Harsha Ravindran becomes CEO

• 2023 — Ascendance reaches seven-figure annual revenue, bootstrapped; wins Best Entrepreneurship Education Project at the Money Awareness & Inclusion Awards

• 2025 — Ascendance US Inc incorporated as an independent U.S. company; rebrands as Expop; raises pre-seed investment from The Motley Fool

• 2026 — First Expop Entrepreneurial Challenge winner announced; Fall 2026 Challenge launches with a $50,000 SAFE investment prize

Our Impact, and How We Count It

As of 2026, Ascendance and Expop programs have reached 55,000 students across 25 countries.

We count a student as reached when they participate in a program delivered by our team or a verified partner educator. Our annual impact reports break these figures down by program, cohort, and country: [link to impact reports].

Readers comparing older coverage will notice figures that differ — 35,000 in a 2022 profile, 58,000 in our 2022 impact report, 50,000 in coverage from 2023 onward. In 2023, we deliberately restated our impact figures by tightening what qualifies as a student impacted, focuses more on specific programs than individual events. The figure has since grown to 55,000, with exact breakdowns available in each impact report

The Expop Entrepreneurial Challenge

The Expop Entrepreneurial Challenge is a six-month competition in which students build a business from the ground up — modeling, market testing, and pitching a real venture.

In May 2026, Colin Salas, a senior at Springside Chestnut Hill Academy in Philadelphia, won first place from a field of hundreds of students for Soothe Pops, a chamomile-infused wellness popsicle for kids, earning $2,500 in seed funding and a summer learning opportunity at the Wharton School. His win was covered by his school and the Chestnut Hill Local: [link to SCH article] · [link to Chestnut Hill Local].

The Fall 2026 Challenge raises the stakes: the winning student venture will receive a $50,000 SAFE investment from The Honors Fund. This is the first cycle offering the investment prize; the award decision is expected in April 2027.

Team

Expop was founded by the team behind Ascendance. All three founders deliberately chose flexible degree programs so they could run the company full-time while completing their studies.

Harsha Ravindran, Co-Founder & CEO. Bachelor of Applied Arts and Sciences, College of Liberal and Professional Studies, School of Arts and Sciences, University of Pennsylvania (2026). Led Ascendance from 2020 to seven-figure revenue; co-founded StartMyName (acquired by Newwave Synchronizer) and the NextGen Entrepreneurship Network. Diana Award recipient (2019).

Heerraa Ravindran, Co-Founder. Bachelor of Liberal Arts candidate, Harvard Extension School, Harvard University. She is also a professional musician and member of the Recording Academy, the organization behind the GRAMMY's.

Mathura Kannan, Co-Founder. Master of Liberal Arts (Finance) candidate, Harvard Extension School, Harvard University. She also runs the ET Ideas Business Incubator, supporting small and medium businesses.

Partners

Ascendance's corporate partners have included Avery Dennison and Franklin Templeton. In 2025, Expop presented a session at OpenAI Academy as a community partner; the session content was produced by Expop.

Contact

For press, partnership, or diligence inquiries: admin@expop.io. Our data room is available to investors on request.