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Tag: Edtech startup

  • Toppr: A Journey into Student-Centric Learning and Innovative Solutions

    The worldwide education sector is seeing a major shift towards online platforms in the quickly changing field of educational technology (EdTech), where digital transformation impacts the future of learning. As the need for customized and easily accessible learning experiences grows, EdTech is essential in meeting the many needs of students in today’s dynamic learning environment.

    In the evolving EdTech landscape, Toppr stands out as a dynamic platform, redefining learning by placing students at its core. It addresses the changing demands of learners in the digital era by exploring the larger EdTech context. Toppr anticipates a time when learning is an immersive experience and responds to the demands of education today with tailored learning paths and creative solutions.

    In this article, let’s explore the world of Toppr—its founders, business and revenue model, funding, growth, and more

    Even amidst the unprecedented times of the Covid19, one sector that has seen exponential growth is the EdTech industry. With the nationwide lockdown, as announced at the end of March, and many other successive lockdowns and strictures in numerous Indian metropolitan cities, most industries faced severe roadblocks to barely run their operations let alone, maintain or improve profitability. However, amidst the pandemic, online education and e-learning platforms have seen astonishing adoption and growth. This, however, is not surprising because the educational institutions are shut, making 1.5 billion students resort to a variety of digital education sites like Toppr to ensure learning continues. The company had seen good growth before it was acquired by Byju’s on July 24, 2021, in a deal consisting of cash and equity shares, as it acquired Great Learning.

    According to a report by BARC India and Nielson, there has been a 30% increase in the time spent on education apps on smartphones since the lockdown. The Edtech sector worth Rs 15,000 crore, has been battling challenges with the low B2C market penetration. The current surge of usage is thus, proving to be pivotal.

    Edtech startups are attracting many more investors in the post-Covid19 world, thanks to the increased adoption of digital learning during the lockdown. The learning app Toppr focused on students in classes 5 to 12 and had managed to raise around $112.1 million till July 29, 2020, it’s Series D funding round. Toppr had previously competed with unicorn companies like Byju, Unacademy, Vedantu, Meritnation and more. However, after it was acquired by the edtech giant, Toppr’s revenue declined. The revenue of Toppr noticeably shrunk by 40% in FY21, as per the reports dated January 19, 2022.

    After the lockdown subsided, and the coronavirus became less active in terms of potency and the people affected, the edtech sector has been seeing a huge downfall. Layoffs or job cuts and decreased security now wrap the edtech domain. So, here’s learning about when Toppr was founded, how it has served in the pandemic, Toppr’s funding, Toppr’s business model, Toppr revenue, valuation and more.

    Toppr – Company Highlights

    Company Name Toppr
    Headquarters Mumbai, Maharashtra
    Founded On 2013
    Founders Zishaan Hayath and Hemanth Goteti
    CEO Zishaan Hayath
    Employees 501-1000
    Operating Revenue $6.80 mn (Rs 50.6 crore in FY21)
    Products & Services Toppr Learning App

    About Toppr
    Growth of Toppr During Covid Pandemic
    Toppr – Subscriptions
    Toppr – Educational Products
    Toppr – Funding
    Toppr – Business and Revenue Model
    Toppr – Growth and Revenues
    Toppr – Layoffs

    About Toppr

    About Toppr

    The logo of Toppr
    The logo of Toppr

    Toppr is a Mumbai-based Edtech startup, which had seen a 100% growth in paid users on a monthly basis, with free user engagement witnessing a 100% spike. The company was founded in 2013 and offered questions, solutions, concepts, practice tests, videos, and more to students. It also prepared them for competitive entrance exams such as IIT-JEE mains, BITSAT, and NEET.

    When the platform announced free access to live classes and video classes, the CEO and Founder of Toppr, Zishaan Hyath said, “in the view of the evolving situation around the Covid19 pandemic, many schools are shut, hence why we are making Toppr live classes completely free for all students in classes 5 to 12. Besides that, our video classes have always been available as a free learning resource”.

    Growth of Toppr During Covid Pandemic

    Toppr Operational Revenue FY18-FY21
    Toppr Operational Revenue FY18-FY21

    The Edtech firms have also taken to the digital media to acquire users and inform people about the free live classes on offer. There had been a 128% growth in digital ad spending by edtech apps during the lockdown, as per the BARC Nielson report. It is not just the big players that spent on advertising as they also acquired an impressive count of users abroad.

    Amid Covid, there were more than a dozen Edtech startups including Byju’s, Vedantu, etc., that have raised funding as investors through platforms that have registered strong growth during the pandemic. The learning sessions on its app per month had also witnessed a 2x growth, which was 14 to 15 million before Covid and became 32 million post-lockdown.

    Toppr already had around 60,000 students on its learning platform and was aggressively seeking to bring around 2.4 lakh students onboard. The Edtech segment is likely to be on a roll ahead as investors globally are expected to put $87 billion in the world market over the next 10 years. The Indian market is also believed to grow at over 20% per annum to hit $2 billion sizes by 2021.

    Though Toppr, which is now a part of Byju’s, showed good growth in FY20’s financials when the company recorded its operational revenues at Rs 84.3 crore from Rs 56.4 crore, which it saw in FY19, FY21’s revenues for Toppr dipped by 40% to stand at Rs 50.6 crore. The last known Toppr valuation was over $100 mn, when it was sold to Byju’s.

    Educational Tools for Students for Online Classes, Learning, and Assessment
    Educational tools for students for online classes, fun learning, engagement, and assessments including Edmodo, Socrative, ClassDojo, Animoto, and Toppr learning
    StartupTalkyAnsh Mehrey

    Toppr – Subscriptions

    The company had emerged as the highest traffic destination for K-12 learning and hosted over 1 million sessions every day. The community of 50,000 educators from across the country had contributed to the platform with over 35 lakh learning pieces, including questions, solutions, concepts, games, and videos curated for the students.

    This is was because the annual subscription for the academic year 2020 to 2021 on Toppr started at Rs 20,000, which is cheaper than its competitors. For example, Vedantu’s annual subscription for all subjects for a class 10 student costs Rs 48,599. Given the high costs, the penetration of Edtech platforms was limited, which is why Toppr decided to bring down the cost of their subscription to get more users to the platform.

    Some of the well known competitors of Toppr
    Some of the well-known competitors of Toppr

    Furthermore, the company changed its product strategy and created packages of shorter duration to help people tide over the current crisis. Toppr now has a 3 month and six-month package, starting at just Rs 3000. Both Toppr and Byju’s have registered an increase in paid users during the lockdown, Toppr has seen a four-fold increase, while Byju’s has seen its paid subscriptions double. However, things toppled in FY21, when the company’s operational revenue plunged by 40%.

    Facts About Edtech Market Expansion In India
    Educational technology is the integrated use of computer technology (software, hardware), educational theory, and training. The emergence of coronavirus has a major impact on the Edtech sector of India. Educational institutions changed into online because of lockdown.
    StartupTalkyATHUL C K

    Toppr – Educational Products

    Apart from the main product, which is the school learning app, Toppr also spends on teaching coding to kids and their school operating system (OS) built for teachers and administrators. Toppr School OS is an app for schools and teachers through which they can map curriculum, plan lessons and manage class timetables, automate attendance, assign homework.

    Toppr school is an artificial intelligence-based Operating System to run “in school” and “afterschool” learning, creating a standardized and personalized experience. This helps in continuing to engage and explore various features and includes parents and students who are trying online learning as a go-to learning resource in these difficult times.

    It also helps in taking tests, correcting test papers, etc. during or after school hours to save time. On the other hand, the coding product, which is called Toppr codr, launched recently, is another opportunity for the company to raise at least $50 million, if let’s say, the overall opportunity for us in digital learning is around $200 million.

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    Toppr – Funding

    Toppr raised a total of $112.1M in funding over 11 rounds. The latest funding of Toppr was raised on Jul 29, 2020, from a Series D round as edtech startups continue to benefit from the pandemic-driven online learning boom. This last round of Toppr funding was worth $44.31 mn. A Dubai-based investment firm, Foundation Holdings, led the fresh investments into the Mumbai-based e-learning platform. Existing investors such as Kaizen Private Equity also participated, according to a statement.

    Date Name of the Funding Round Deal Value Lead Investors
    July 29, 2020 Series D $44.31 mn Foundation Holdings
    June 12, 2020 Series C $189.90K Kaizenvest
    April 10, 2019 Debt Financing $5.57 mn Milestone Trustee Services
    December 19, 2018 Series C $35 mn –
    May 9, 2018 Debt Financing $1.96 mn Alteria Capital
    October 23, 2017 Series B $5.69 mn –
    April 24, 2017 Venture Round $336K WGG International
    October 30, 2015 Debt Financing $2 mn –
    May 7, 2015 Series B $10 mn Eight Roads Ventures, Helion Ventures, Elevation Capital
    May 24, 2014 Seed Round $2 mn –

    Toppr – Business and Revenue Model

    The Toppr business model is similar to a freemium business model, which remains the same even after it is acquired by the edtech giant, Byju’s. The company offers free live and offline classes, which can be availed full-fledged if the users go for paid subscriptions. The majority of the Toppr income comes from the classes and their subscription fees. The Toppr revenues witnessed a 3X growth between 2016-2019, where revenues received from the students from 5th-12th grade was equally split.

    Toppr – Growth and Revenues

    The operating revenues of Toppr grew by 49.5% to $11.44 mn (Rs 84.3 crore) during FY20 from $7.65 mn (Rs 56.4 crore) earned in FY19. Furthermore, the income from financial assets of Toppr also witnessed a 46% growth to nearly $814K (Rs 6 crore) during FY20.

    Looking at the side of expenses of the company, Toppr spent around $27.63 mn (Rs 203.7 crore) in total during FY20. Thus, it has registered a 31.6% increase when compared to the aggregate costs, which were Rs 154.8 crore during FY19. Coming to the unit level, Toppr has spent Rs 2.41 to earn a single rupee of revenue during FY20, which can be stated as a marginal improvement from what it was during FY19.

    However, it is evident that Toppr failed to save its scale in terms of its financial performance in FY21 when BYJU’S acquired edtech startup reported a 6.2X of cash outflow, which increased from Rs 20.74 crore in FY20 to Rs 128.07 crore during FY21. The revenue of the company in FY20 was recorded to be Rs 84.32 crore, which plunged by 40%, thereby recorded at Rs 50.6 crore. The company has also been noted to have lost Rs 128.3 crore in FY21, which increased by 13.1%.

    Coming to the unit level, Toppr spent Rs 3.54 to earn a single rupee of revenue. This is reported to be around 46.3% more in contrast to what Toppr spent (Rs 2.42) during FY20. Besides, the acquisition of the company might also be a result of Toppr’s inability to raise follow-on capital, and to scale.

    Toppr – Layoffs

    Toppr has announced that it would be firing close to 300 employees as of June 30, 2022. This news came when BYJU’S owned WhiteHat Jr. has already reported laying off around 300 employees. The Toppr layoffs would be close to 300 with immediate effect, and this can also go up to 500 later on, according to some reports.

    FAQs

    When was Toppr founded and who is the founder of Toppr?

    Toppr edtech startup has been founded by Zishaan Hayath and Hemanth Goteti in 2013.

    Who are Toppr’s competitors?

    Some of the top competitors of Toppr are:

    • Unacademy
    • Brainly
    • Meritnation
    • Vedantu
    • Khan Academy
    • TutorVista
    • Mockbank
    • Embibe
    • WizIQ

    What is Toppr codr?

    Toppr codr is an app for learning coding made specifically for kids.

    What is the revenue of Toppr in FY21?

    The revenue of Toppr stood at INR 50.60 crore in FY21, which decreased by 40% from INR 84.32 crore in FY20.

    Is Toppr acquired by Byju’s?

    Yes, Byju’s acquired both Toppr and Great Learning on July 24, 2021. Therefore, Toppr currently stands acquired by Byju’s.

  • WhiteHat Jr – Success Story of the Byju’s-owned Coding Startup

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by WhiteHat Jr.

    Coding, as we know, is the language of computers.

    The world has changed today for good and coding drove a significant part of the change. From a set of instructions to the machines called computers, coding has now turned into something familiar, a language that is similar to the other languages we can speak or write, one of our native languages.

    Technology, computers, and coding sprawl along such a large and significant part of the human civilization that we simply cannot imagine us living without our dear machines.

    Nowadays, we not only use coding to make the computers understand what we think but with it, we innovate, invent and demystify the world of riddles we are living in!

    If coding interests you, then there is WhiteHat Jr. It simply reveres coding.

    WhiteHat Jr. is an online coding platform specially designed for kids between the age group of 6 to 14 years. The company also extends numerous trials for its students for free app design. With WhiteHat Jr, kids can now sit back at their homes comfortably and learn from the demo classes. WhiteHat Jr was acquired by Byju’s in August of 2020, but even after that, the company has been operating as an independent entity.

    Let’s go through the WhiteHat Jr. success story and know about the Whitehatjr, its founders, Whitehat Jr fees, competitors, revenue, business model, funding & more here in this article.

    WhiteHat Jr – Company Highlights

    Company Name WhiteHat Jr
    Headquarters Andheri, Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
    Sector EdTech
    Founder Karan Bajaj
    Founded 2018
    Total Funding $387.3 million
    Revenue $63.39 million (INR 483.9 crore in FY21)
    Parent Organization BYJU’S
    Website whitehatjr.com

    WhiteHat Jr – About
    WhiteHat Jr – Startup Story
    WhiteHat Jr – Mission and Vision
    WhiteHat Jr – Founder And Team
    WhiteHat Jr – Name, Tagline and Logo
    WhiteHat Jr – Business Model
    WhiteHat Jr – Revenue Model
    WhiteHat Jr – Funding And Investors
    WhiteHat Jr – Growth and Revenue
    WhiteHat Jr – Partnerships
    WhiteHat Jr – Advertisements and Campaigns
    WhiteHat Jr – Challenges and Controversies
    WhiteHat Jr – Competitors
    WhiteHat Jr – Future Plans

    WhiteHat Jr – About

    WhiteHat Jr is the leading computer programming learning website for kids to code. It is a platform that connects kids with the top coding teachers. The fundamentals of coding reasoning, algorithmic and structure thinking are taught to the kids for creative outputs at WhiteHat Jr.

    WhiteHat Jr – Startup Story

    Though WhiteHat Jr was there as a company it got known to almost all of us when its present parent company, BYJU’S acquired it for $300 million in an all-cash deal on August 5, 2020.

    Moving to the startup story of the brand, WhiteHat Jr. Founder and Former CEO, Karan Bajaj, traced the foundation of WhiteHat Jr. to one of his deeply personal experiences with which he wanted to bring a change to the world.

    Bajaj was a father of two daughters back then, and he felt that technology, truly, is bringing paradigm shifts in every possible industry, and therefore, his daughters also need to rein in the power of technology to absorb the upcoming shifts in their workplaces and their lives. Therefore, he wanted his daughters to be always at the centre of creating technology and coding. Besides, he also went through research that claim that if kids are used to coding from an early age, they tend more experimentative and creative. All of these factors worked at the back of Bajaj’s mind and propelled him to create an organization that will act as an institution for coding for children and adults.

    Karan had MIT and TUFTS in his mind but founding one such organization was certainly difficult, with his passion and dedication, he finally founded WhiteHat Jr in 2018

    This company was founded in 2018 by the former Discovery Networks CEO (Karan Bajaj). This platform was planned to empower children. When Karan approached the investors to raise funding for his brand, they were surprised as he was pitching without a working product. Then, he explained to them that the investment thesis had already changed since 2015.

    WhiteHat Jr – Mission and Vision

    The mission and vision of WhiteHat Jr are to “empower a whole generation to become creators versus consumers of technology.”

    WhiteHat Jr – Founder And Team

    Karan Bajaj is the founder of the company WhiteHat Jr. and had also been the CEO of the company before announcing his resignation on August 4, 2021. He also led Byju’s Future School, a key element of the company’s international expansion for a year, after WhiteHat Jr. was acquired by the Edtech giant, Byju’s on August 5, 2020. Bajaj had served as the CEO of Discovery Networks India before he stepped down in 2018 to fully focus on WhiteHat Jr., which he founded in the same year.

    Aside from his professional career associated with his company, he is also a renowned Indian author, whose first two novels, Keep Off the Grass (2008) and Johnny Gone Down (2010), have been best-sellers.

    Bajaj initially got a BE degree in Mechanical Engineering from The Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra and then went on to pursue an MBA in Marketing from The Indian Institute of Management(IIM), Bangalore. He started off his corporate career with The Procter and Gamble Company, where he served as an Assistant Brand Manager. He assumed various leading positions in a range of distinguished companies including Ariel India, Herbal Essences, Kraft Foods, Boston Consulting Group, and more before he founded WhiteHat Jr. in 2018.

    Karan Bajaj was born in 1979 in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh, and spent various stages of his childhood in different places, owing to his father’s transferable job.

    Karan Bajaj, CEO, WhiteHat Jr
    Karan Bajaj, CEO, WhiteHat Jr

    Karan Bajaj quit WhiteHat Jr. on August 4, 2021. The founder and CEO of WhiteHat Jr., has made way for Trupti Mukker to take his position. Trupti had served successfully as the head of the customer experience and delivery in BYJU’S and is declared the CEO of the company.

    After the acquisition of WhiteHat Jr. by Byju’s in 2020, Bajaj continued to be the CEO of the company and resigned exactly after 1 year.

    The company founder and ex-CEO Karan Bajaj previously mentioned that the company had 400 employees and 1,500 teachers in 2020 and disclosed the company’s plans to double its employees and teachers.

    “Your Own Personal Teacher Live, Online Classes” is the tagline of the company.

    WhiteHat Jr - Logo
    WhiteHat Jr – Logo

    WhiteHat Jr – Business Model

    The business model of the company is particularly based on teaching coding to young kids. The Edtech startup has now extended the students’ grades and is now accepting students from grades 1st to 12th grade. The company targets children and guardians to offer various programming courses for a better future in this digital environment. The teaching format of WhiteHat Jr. is live 1:1 online classes. Furthermore, the company also offers free trial classes.

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    WhiteHat Jr – Revenue Model

    WhiteHat Jr’s portal has got more than 700,000 registrations and around 7000 classes are conducted daily routine for kids. Each class conducted costs around INR 600 to 700. There are different course levels, which are priced at Rs 5,999, Rs 29,999, Rs 89,999 and many more. The student resurrection rate for the paid classes is around 75%. Suddenly, the refund fee has become 3% which is very low for an Indian Edtech company.

    WhiteHat Jr – Funding And Investors

    The company has raised a total amount of $387.3 million in funding over the 3 funding rounds it has seen.

    Date Transaction Name Money Raised Lead Investors
    August 3, 2021 – $376 million Byju’s
    September 9, 2019 Series A $10 million Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network
    April 16, 2019 Seed Round $1.21 million Nexus Venture Partners, Omidyar Network

    The company is funded by 3 investors. Byju’s infused $376 million in its latest towards its acquiree on August 3, 2021.

    WhiteHat Jr – Growth and Revenue

    Before the lockdown began, WhiteHat Jr. went from Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 crores in revenue. Since the lockdown, the value started doubling. When BYJU’s approached in June, the revenue of the company was running at $75 million. The revenue run rate was reported at $150 million as soon as the acquisition was completed. Then, in August, the first month after the acquisition, the rate was again reported to be $220 million. The revenue of the company has surely seen quite a growth over the years. The company had listed revenue of INR 19 crore from its operations in FY20, which stood at only INR 6.7 lakh in FY19.

    Byju’s had owned WhiteHat Jr. in a deal worth $300 mn in August 2020, which made FY21 a special year for WhiteHat Jr. Apart from the Byju’s acquisition of WhiteHat, the startup also witnessed a surge in its revenue under the ed-tech juggernaut.

    WhiteHat Jr. Revenue Breakdown

    The revenue from operations in FY21 was recorded to have surged by 25.5X to be INR 483.9 crore. Around 99% of its revenue came from the course fee it charges from the students, which increased 25X from INR 478.3 crore during FY21 from INR 19 crore in the previous fiscal. Apart from that, WhiteHat Jr. obtained INR 3.36 cr in revenue from the sale of goods or course materials that it offers students whereas another INR 2.27 cr in income was received from other operating revenues. Also, WhiteHat Jr. received INR 74 lakh as interest income.

    WhiteHat Jr. Revenue Verticals FY21 FY20
    Course Fee INR 478.34 cr INR 19.01 cr
    Sale of Goods INR 3.36 cr –
    Other Operating Revenue INR 2.27 cr –

    WhiteHat Jr. Expenses Breakdown

    WhiteHat Jr.’s expenses also surged along with its scale, which witnessed a 31X increase to INR 2175.2 cr in FY21 from INR 69.7 cr in FY20. Looking at the expense verticals, the company lost quite some money to arrange for the employee benefits, which contributed 42.9% of the total WhiteHat Jr. expenditure during FY21.  The costs for the employee benefits witnessed a 27X rise from INR 33.5 crore to INR 932.4 crore. The costs for the advertising and promotions of the company rose by 43.6X to INR 891 crore from INR 20.42 crore. Nearly all of its expenses verticals saw a rise including support services, IT and communication costs, legal, professional, and recruitment fees, and more. Here’s a brief look at the expense breakdown of WhiteHat Jr:

    WhiteHat Jr. Expense Verticals FY21 FY20
    Employee Benefit Expenses INR 932.37 cr INR 33.50 cr
    Advertising and Promotional Expenses INR 890.93 cr INR 20.42 cr
    Support Service INR 110.54 cr INR 2.28 cr
    IT and Communication Expenses INR 81.39 cr INR 2.69 cr
    Legal and Professional Fees INR 44.23 cr INR 3.80 cr
    Recruitment Expenses INR 39.76 cr INR 2.71 cr
    Other Operating and Admin Expenses INR 75.98 cr INR 4.30 cr

    WhiteHat Jr. Financials

    Looking at the overall financials of WhiteHat Jr. in FY21, the company operating revenues surged by 25.5X, and its total expenses jumped by around 31X, which made the losses jump too. The annual losses of WhiteHat Jr. soared by 34.5X from INR 48.95 crore to INR 1690.5 crore. The unit economics of the company states that WhiteHat Jr. had spent INR 4.49 to earn a single rupee of revenue in FY21. The EBITDA margins of the company worsened too, which was recorded at -338.31% in FY20 and became -235.17% in FY21.

    WhiteHat Jr. Financials FY20-FY21 Comparison
    WhiteHat Jr. Financials FY20-FY21 Comparison

    WhiteHat Jr – Partnerships

    WhiteHat Jr has witnessed a number of partnerships throughout the years of its existence. Here’s a review of some of the most noteworthy collaborations of the company:

    • WhiteHat Jr. partnered with software giant Microsoft to offer a “Code with Minecraft” course for the students on December 23, 2021. This association of Microsoft and WhiteHat will ensure that the students master important coding concepts with the help of a highly curated curriculum based on Minecraft.
    • WhiteHat Jr. collaborated with FutureSkills Prime, which is a combined initiative for digital skilling of students by Nasscom and the Electronics and IT Ministry on September 2, 2021.
    • The company, in partnership with 500+ schools, declared on 3rd August 2021, that it would extend the coding curriculum to the students, the number of whom are expected to be around more than 1.25 lakh.

    WhiteHat Jr – Advertisements and Campaigns

    WhiteHat Jr has been quite infamous in terms of the advertisements it has encouraged all the while since it came into being. The advertisements of the Byju’s-owned startup were allegedly based on imaginary kids and their unreal geniuses after they attain WhiteHat Junior’s academic programs. For example, in one of its advertisements, a 7-year-old has been projected as an app developer and a TedX speaker. This has largely been condemned by all including the ASCI, who had processed around 15 ads from WhiteHat Jr and has identified that 5 of these ads are in potential violation of the ASCI Code, which eventually led to the pulling off of such ads.

    Furthermore, there also have been numerous aggressive claims of Whithat Jr via its social media platform. However, when they came on the radar of ASCI, they were already very old and most of them were already taken off. However, ever since BYJU’S acquired WhiteHat Jr, Byju Raveendran himself has ensured that the advertisement and the messaging of the brand would be proper and would address the mass as well as the kids properly.

    Refreshing its promotional efforts, Whitehat Jr. has seen to be concentrating on the real kids and the real apps they are capable of building. The campaigns that WhiteHat Jr launched under #RealKidsOfWHJr and #YoungAchieversOfWHJr focused on the real-world applications of coding featured by real kids. The coding platform that was acquired by Edech giant Byju’s also demonstrated a change in its social media activities, where Whitehat Jr now started posting the feats of real children. Furthermore, Whitehat Junior also collaborated with multiple celebrities including Hrithik Roshan, Mahesh Babu and R Madhavan after its Coding Seekho Duniya Badlo campaign went live on TV in the first week of November 2020.

    The latest advertisement that Whitehat Junior launched featured Hrithik Roshan. Promoted as #PickItUp, the popular Bollywood actor was seen picking up the guitar. This Whitehat Jr ad is designed to wipe off the notion that age is a bar along with encouraging the students and others to choose music classes from Whitehat Jr and make music.

    #PickItUp Campaign

    WhiteHat Jr – Challenges and Controversies

    WhiteHat Jr has seen its fair share of challenges since it was founded, which were associated with the scaling and growth of the company. WhiteHat Jr came under the radar of the Advertising Standard Council of India (ASCI) after the startup made false claims of imaginary kids who learned coding from WhiteHat Jr and landed jobs at Google and other organizations, became TedX speakers, and more. WhiteHat Jr also sued Pradeep Poonia, who shared posts against Whitehatjr.

    Pradeep Poonia Defamation Case

    Pradeep Poonia claimed that WhiteHat Jr.’s advertisements are all false and based on imaginary characters like Wolf Gupta, who the company has shown landing a job at Google after learning to code from the Karan Bajaj-led startup then. Poonia also referred to the startup’s instructors as “uneducated” and “housewives”. Though the company later had to remove the advertisements involving Wolf, WhiteHat Jr. filed a defamation case worth Rs 20 crore against Poonia’s statements and later withdrew the same. In the last court hearing, the court prevented Pradeep Poonia from:

    • Telecasting and transmitting any information received by hacking the servers of WhiteHat Jr.
    • Helping others take down the content of WhiteHat Jr.
    • Using his social media handle WhiteHat Sr. on Youtube
    • Using the URLs using the name “WhiteHat”
    • Keeping the tweets posted on September 12, 2020, that contains defamatory comments on WhiteHat Jr.
    • Keeping the tweets posted on September 5, 2020, where Poonia has called WhiteHat Jr.’s business a “pyramid scheme” and other tweets he shared in September and October of 2020

    In another case, the company also filed a defamation suit against Dr Aniruddha Malpani. All of these had already cost the company much in terms of its revenue and reputation.

    Employees’ Resignation

    More than 800 employees dropped their resignation letters in around 60 days’ time after the company asked them to join work from the office within a month. Employees from across teams including the coding, sales and math department resigned from the office after being asked to join offices from their respective locations. On March 18, 2022, WhiteHat Jr. sent an email informing them to join their offices within April 18, 2022, which is why the employees have voluntarily put down their papers. Employees termed this decision of the company as a cost-cutting exercise.

    Yes, it surely can be a method of cutting costs where we have already seen the bad market conditions that the ed-tech companies are dealing with. Unacademy and Vedantu, two other unicorns from the ed-tech space together have already laid off close to 1200 employees. Lido Learning is another ed-tech company that has laid off around 150 employees recently.

    WhiteHat Jr. Layoffs

    Byju’s-owned WhiteHat Jr. has laid off somewhere close to 300 employees in its recent batch of layoffs, as confirmed on June 29, 2022. The layoff exercise, which went through the whole of the 3rd week of June has led to the trimming of the WhiteHat Jr. workforce that was engaged in code-teaching and the sales team of WhiteHat, where some of them even worked in Brazil. The sales, operations and marketing team was mainly affected by this round of job cuts. Reports claim that the total count of laid-off employees can also go as high as 600. Business restructuring is sighted as the reason behind these layoffs. The laid-off employees were asked to submit their office laptops and IDs on the same day, as the reports went.

    The edtech sector, importantly, has been hammered lately by the layoffs in the post-Covid-19 period. The Covid-19 period, however, has seen problems like the Great Resignation. Apart from the edtech companies of India and various other companies and startups laying off their employees in huge chunks fearing a funding winter in the country, many other companies, which feature among the top companies of the world, have also pronounced their layoffs in 2022.  

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    WhiteHat Jr – Competitors

    The top competitors of WhiteHat Jr are Coding Blocks, Coding with Kids and Camp K12.

    Coding Blocks Pvt Ltd

    It is the top #2 competitor of WhiteHat Jr. The company is headquartered in New Delhi, India. It was founded in 2014. It operates in the Educational Technology industry.

    Coding with Kids

    It is also one of the competitors of WhiteHat Jr. The company is headquartered in Redmond, WA. It was founded in 2013. It conducts classes and camps for kids between the age of 5 to 18.

    K12

    It is the top #3 competitor of WhiteHat Jr. Headquartered in the US, K12 was founded in April 2000. It is a company that offers online schooling and curricula. It is an organization that provides education designed for the people searching for it online.

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    WhiteHat Jr – Future Plans

    The company is currently ramping up its women-only teacher base in India. Presently, the platform is having over 7000 educators and is actively recruiting teachers for all its core disciplines and music from all around the country. The company is eyeing to make its teacher-base to 20,000 shortly. The continuous ramp-up base is aiming towards matching the growing base of students across countries like India, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, and the UK.

    FAQs

    Who founded WhiteHat Jr?

    Karan Bajaj founded WhiteHat Jr., who was also the CEO of the company before he resigned on August 4, 2021. He is an Indian author and technology entrepreneur.

    What is WhiteHat Jr Business Model?

    The business model of the company is on teaching coding to young kids. The Edtech startup has now extended the students grades to 12th from grade 1. The company targets children and guardians to offer various programming courses for a better future in this digital environment. The teaching format is a live 1:1 online class. It also offers free trial classes.

    Who are the Top Competitors of WhiteHat Jr?

    The top competitors of WhiteHat Jr are Coding Blocks, Coding with Kids, and Camp K12.

    How much is WhiteHat Jr Revenue?

    WhiteHat Jr. recorded a revenue of $63.39 mn in FY21.

    What are Whitehat Jr fees?

    The WhiteHat Jr. fees start from around Rs 6500 only and go up. The Whitehat Jr fees per month depend on the duration and the complexity of the course it offers.

    What are Whitehat jr free courses?

    Whitehat Jr has free/trial classes that give the students an opportunity to test the kind of classes/lectures they receive before going for WhiteHat Junior.

  • The Future of Ed Tech Startups In The Wake of The New Offline Normal

    The ed startups in India saw an unprecedented rise in their demand and popularity as the country went on a nationwide lockdown on March 25, 2020. When the pandemic was supposed to be a tough year for all the entrepreneurs out there, the edtech industry in India alone raised a whopping $2.2 billion with Byjus singlehandedly raising over $1 million out of it.

    2020 for that matter can be considered the year of ed-tech in India with a plethora of startups mushrooming in the market. However, two years after the pandemic, things have started to get back to the new normal where students and aspirants of the various competitive exams have been embracing the offline journey.  

    It is time for the ed-tech startups to come a full circle by tapping into the offline market which a lot of them have left unattended within the comfort of online classes and management.

    The startups in the education technology field that reeked $11.7 billion in the first quarter of 2022 in funding only saw $3.4 billion flowing in the month of April without any Unicorns being produced. While in May, although the country saw the entry of its 100th unicorn, the ed-tech industry only saw $1.6 billion coming in with a drop of 53% on a monthly basis.

    Venture Capital firms including Sequoia and Y Combinator have already announced alarm bells warning startups to cut costs and increase runaways. The market situation is pushing these startups to go hybrid now more than ever before.

    This article will look at some of the ed-tech startups and their plans to soft-land into offline classes again while making sense of the current market scenario of the industry.

    List of Edtech Startups Planning to Enter the Offline Market
    The Other Side of the Emerging Market Situation

    List of Edtech Startups Planning to Enter the Offline Market

    Byjus

    The growth of Byjus over the years in general and during the pandemic, in particular, have been phenomenal. In 2020, it became the highest valued startup in India at over $22 billion.

    Byjus has relaunched its offline classes in and around the capital already. With the offline classes and the pre-recorded online tablet classes costing the same, the startup looks forward to establishing more and more offline classes in the country.

    Himanshu Bajaj, Head of BYJU’S Tuition Centre has made it clear that the firm is planning to launch 500 more tuition centres in over 200 cities across the country.

    Unacademy

    From beginning as a humble Youtube channel to revolutionising the very idea of online education, Unacademy has been a significant part of online pedagogy during the pandemic.

    Within a span of two months, the startup grew from being valued at $2 billion in November 2020 to reaching $3.4 billion in August 2021. Unacademy has also made announcements of the launch of its various offline classes across the country.

    On 8th June 2022, they launched their offline classes for NEET, IIT – JEE and other foundation courses for students from classes 9-12 at their Unacademy centre in Delhi.

    During its launch, Co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal said, “We are confident our foray into physical learning centres with the best curriculum at a competitive pricing will help learners in cracking their goals and look forward to scaling them up across India”. The startup aims to enrol 15000 learners across its various centres in Kota, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Delhi and Patna

    Physics Wallah

    It is the latest entrant into the unicorn club by receiving $100 million in its maiden funding led by WestBridge Capital and GSV Ventures in May 2022. This ed-tech platform that helps students prepare for various competitive exams was founded by Pandey and Prateek Maheswari in 2016.

    Currently, they employ 1900 people including 500 teachers and 100 tech experts. This is apart from a versatile group of associate professors who would be answering the queries of the students online.

    Physics Wallah plans to open 20 offline centres in 18 cities. They plan to enrol at least 10,000 students for the 2022-23 academic year.

    Imarticus Learning

    Imarticus Learning was launched in 2012 with the goal of training individuals to transfer careers in the fields of financial services, analytics and AI, business analysis and core technology.

    By closely working with the demands of the industry, this ed-tech startup has been able to attract a lot of students as they collaborate well with relevant players in the market like IBM, KPMG, Genpact, Rise Mumbai by Barclays, Moody’s Analytics, Motilal Oswal etc.

    They use dynamic technologies and learning methods to train their students. However, the post-pandemic wind has laid this startup a little low as well. So as to maintain its hold even in the offline educational situation, the firm is planning to launch more offline centres in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

    The CEO Barshikar opinionated that “There are numerous advantages of the hybrid model. You can cater to a larger audience and often give learners an option to pick what suits them best”.

    The Other Side of the Emerging Market Situation

    The market scenario does not look great for ed-tech startups as classes worldwide are retreating back to complete offline classes. Switching to offline mode also means that the capital and competition involved are going to skyrocket.

    Investors have started to demand proof of profitability over revenue generation possibilities. At a time when investments from VCs and other investors are crunching, the demands of the situation will only make things difficult for the ed-tech industry.

    The anxiety inherent in the situation is seen clearly with the rampant layoffs that these startups have embarked on. Indian ed-tech startups have already laid off 6000 employees.

    It is expected that the industry might see another 60,000 layoffs this year. Vedantu alone has laid off 1200 employees already. Unacademy had announced that they laid off 600 employees in April as a part of their cost-cutting initiatives.

    This is apart from the 325 part-time workers that they had laid off earlier. Another leading ed-tech startup named Lido Learning laid off more than 150 employees in February 2022 as the financial crunch was too much.

    Many startups are on the verge of closing down despite funding as their venture in itself loses its meaning in the offline world.

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    Conclusion

    There is no doubt in the fact that ed-tech startups have made a difference in the learning process that Indians were used to. They have played a significant role in reducing the digital divide during the pandemic. As schools and colleges are rolling out their offline classes, it is time for the hitherto online platforms to embark on the hybrid modes of classes. As investments dry up and offline classes reign, the future looks grim for ed-tech startups.

    FAQs

    Why do ed-tech startups fail

    Many ed-tech startups fail to figure out the right business and revenue model which is one of the reasons that most edtech startups fail in India.

    Why is the ed-tech industry booing

    As all the schools were closed many edtech startups started providing quality education online which was the reason edtech startups started booming in India.

    Is ed-tech profitable?

    Yes, ed-tech is one of the most lucrative and profitable industries in India.

  • Lido Learning – Democratizing Education For Children, Or Not?

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Lido Learning.

    These days conventional on-campus, in-person education is being replaced by online education.  According to some research done in 2019, it was shown that the online education industry will surpass $230 billion by 2025, and considering the significant influence of the COVID-19 outbreak, online programmes are expected to experience much more growth by 2025.

    In reality, the pandemic has proved how effective and long-lasting e-learning can be. It ensures that education is available in the event of a public health emergency, natural calamity, or another event that prevents students and instructors from travelling. It may serve students from all around one country and beyond, bringing in perspectives from all over the world. In addition, it has also been observed that the e-learning atmosphere promotes a better work-life balance.

    Lido Learning is an ed-tech business that uses an engaging online platform to transform education for every kid in India. So, there are several other online platforms for Indian students to engage with. What is Lido Learning doing differently?

    In Lido Learning’s online platform, students benefit from cutting-edge content such as interactive games and animated videos as well as a personalised platform for homework, quizzes, tasks, and motivating professors, thanks to their fascinating and enjoyable live online lessons. Despite all such perks, Lido Learning surprisingly shut down its operations in February 2022.

    Read this article further to know more about Lido Learning’s founder, business model, revenue model, funding, downfall, and more.

    Lido Learning – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Lido Learning
    Also Known As Lido
    Legal Name Quality Tutorials Pvt Ltd.
    Industry Ed-tech
    Headquarter Mumbai, Maharashtra, India
    Founders Sahil Sheth
    Founded 2019
    Areas Served India
    Website www.lidolearning.com

    About Lido Learning and How it Works?
    Lido Learning – Industry
    Lido Learning – Name, Logo and Tagline
    Lido Learning – Founders
    Lido Learning – Startup Story
    Lido Learning – Vision and Mission
    Lido Learning – Business Model
    Lido Learning – Funding and Investors
    Lido Learning – Competitors
    Lido Learning – Downfall

    About Lido Learning and How it Works?

    Lido is India’s top Small Group Tuitions platform, offering sessions in Math, Science, English, and Coding to children from Kindergarten to children in 10th standard. Cutting-edge interactive animated video material and gamified learning taught by India’s top 5% of teachers are part of the Lido experience. Each class has a maximum teacher-to-student ratio of 1:6 to ensure that the students get ample mentoring, feedback, and clarification.

    A student requires a face-to-face connection in a group of no more than 6 students with an instructor to educate them, interactive content to keep them interested, and tailored technology to boost results for optimal student learning. These three elements have been integrated at Lido to create a 21st-century classroom that is entertaining for children, trustworthy for parents, and empowering for its instructors.

    Lido Learning’s exclusive Roblox game development platform is for kids to take their first leap in a game development environment.

    Roblox teaches youngsters how to:

    • Basic understanding of the Lua code language for Roblox studio scripting.
    • Roblox game development fundamentals such as model creation, terrain editing, cutting through portions, and adjusting game lighting.
    • How to use Roblox to publish and share functional games so that others could benefit from their new game production abilities.

    Lido is the finest option for kids because it outperforms all other digital learning applications and tutors.

    • Individual Attention: Every Lido lesson is engaging and interactive with just 6 students, ensuring that each child receives personal attention, continuous feedback, and the chance to clear up any doubts right away.
    • Interesting Content: Each lesson includes interactive games, HD animated films,  and live quiz contests in class, all designed by Stanford, Harvard, and IIT alumni to ensure that the kids learn ideas and enjoy learning.
    • Real-world Qualities: Lido addresses both school and non-school abilities such as teamwork, leadership, and imagination, preparing children to be job creators rather than job seekers.

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    Lido Learning – Industry

    During the COVID-19 pandemic, the education sector in India has been the most impacted. Today’s learning is no longer restricted to specific conventional classrooms. The government’s limits and tight safety measures have prepared the way for the new approaches.

    The government, public and private schools, coaches, coaching institutions, students, and instructors have all been inclined towards embracing the digital style of the learning experience, which is a result of COVID disruptions, resulting in the EdTech revolution we are experiencing today.

    The Indian EdTech business is reported to have garnered $16.1 billion in venture capital financing, up from $500 million in 2010. The K-12 segment, higher education, and upskilling sectors are driving this industry’s expansion.

    India’s EdTech business is expected to reach $30 billion in the next ten years, thanks to the increasing popularity of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and distance education.

    The widespread usage of mobile phones, on the other hand, is thought to improve students’ connectivity and learning capacities. Nevertheless, even as accessibility improves, pricing remains an issue for specialised EdTech devices, particularly for lower and lower-middle-income families, restricting their reach.

    EdTech startups in India are looking forward to focusing on improving educational objectives, results, and student engagement through improved technical and innovative solutions.

    Lido Learning – Name, Logo and Tagline

    Lido Logo
    Lido Logo

    The tagline of Lido Learning says, “#MakeSuccessAHabit”

    Lido Learning – Founders

    Founder of Lido Learning - Sahil Sheth
    Founder of Lido Learning – Sahil Sheth

    Lido Learning was founded by Sahil Sheth in 2019.

    Sahil Sheth

    Lido’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer is Sahil Sheth’s purpose is to use technology to aid students to realise their maximum potential by making learning engaging and exciting. Sahil has been involved in India’s EdTech movement since its inception, about a decade ago. He sold his first firm, Infinite Student, to Byjus and served as the business’s vice president until 2018.

    During his time at Byjus, Sahil discovered that, while children enjoyed viewing self-paced videos, they favoured the real-time engagement and flow of opinions with friends and peers which can only be achieved during face-to-face, small group, live tuition lessons. Sahil completed his bachelor’s in science, mathematics, and economics from Duke University, America.

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    Lido Learning – Startup Story

    Sahil has been involved in India’s EdTech movement since its inception, about a decade ago. He sold his first firm, Infinite Student, to Byjus and served as the business’s vice president until 2018. During his time at Byjus, Sahil discovered that, while children enjoyed viewing self-paced videos, they favoured the real-time engagement and flow of opinions with friends and peers which can only be achieved during face-to-face, small group, live tuition lessons.

    After figuring out all the prevailing shortcomings of conventional tuition classes, Sahil created Lido learning to compensate for the same. Lido Learning was founded with one clear aim, which is, to revolutionize the conventional local group tuition class sector by providing tech-enabled learning tools to tutors and world-class learning to all children, allowing them to achieve their maximum capabilities in the classroom and even beyond.

    In 73 days, Sahil Sheth and his team built the platform. The platform’s testing began with kids in Delhi and Mumbai, followed by Chandigarh and Lucknow.
    Moreover, the creators discovered that their concept was more interesting and engaging than traditional tuitions throughout the testing.

    During the trials, they discovered that parents in smaller cities were delighted that their children were receiving the same high-quality education as children in larger cities.

    Sahil Sheth commented on this, saying, “Students in smaller towns were thrilled to be getting the same product and the same quality of teachers that students in the bigger cities were getting. That is when Lido’s vision changed. It was not just about making tuition classes convenient anymore, it was about democratizing education for all.”

    The student-to-teacher ratio at LIDO is 1:6. LIDO is also giving their kids a “Rockstar teacher” who will educate them with “interactive content” to keep them engaged. They also have a customised platform to help them enhance their outcomes.

    Lido Learning – Vision and Mission

    Lido’s mission is to inspire and empower every child for the future.

    Lido Learning – Business Model

    Lido’s business model is B2C Education Solutions – companies that provide online courses, tutoring, educational materials, interactive toys, learning games, and so on.  

    Lido is a platform enabling students to take live online lessons. Math, English, and science are among the disciplines taught online. It offers self-paced lessons, discussion-based lectures, individualised practice, performance monitoring, and other features for smaller groups of students.

    Its income strategy is subscription-based. Lido Learning now offers materials and tutorials for classes V through X, however, for the firm to stay afloat, customers must pay a price to have yearly access to the tutoring.

    Lido Learning – Funding, and Investors

    Some of the most well-known angel investors sponsored the EdTech firm, Lido Learning. Mukesh Bansal, founder of Myntra, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm, Anupam Mittal, founder of Shaadi.com and a Shark Tank India judge, Ronnie Screwvala, founder of UpGrad, and Ananth Narayanan, founder of MedLife.

    Date Round Amount Lead Investors
    Sep 10, 2021 Series C $10M Unilazer Ventures
    Nov 25, 2020 Seed Round – –
    Mar 29, 2020 Series B $7.5M BAce Capital
    Nov 11, 2019 Series A $3M Ronnie Screwvala

    Lido Learning – Competitors

    Lido Learning’s top competitors include Vretta, Cuemath, WhiteHat Jr., Vedantu, BYJU’s, ENpower, Lawpilots and Uvaro.

    Lido Learning – Downfall

    Lido Learning is an EdTech firm, based in India, whose demise came as a huge surprise to the market. Lido Learning abruptly pulled the plug on February 4, 2022, leaving 150 employees with serious doubts about the future of the company.

    Inability to Pay the Workforce Their Salaries

    Employees are a firm’s foundation; without them, the firm would not be able to run properly. Now, a corporation must adequately care for its employees to achieve this. When the teachers and personnel of Lido Learning were not paid, a red flag was raised. Teachers and employees resorted to social media to express their dissatisfaction with the firm when their salaries were not paid. They still haven’t paid pending salaries for the people they fired back in January 2022.

    Inability for Collecting Funding

    Even though Lido Learning has raised $24 million in funding to date from well-known investors such as Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Anupam Mittal, several organisations who intended to participate in the startup backed out at the last minute owing to the epidemic. Several investment arrangements with firms like CureFit and ByteDance were cancelled. As a result, the company’s reserves were depleted, causing financial troubles.

    No Refunds for Customers

    Another major cause for this EdTech’s collapse is that the company’s consumers were not effectively treated, their needs were not satisfied, and the service was poor.  Some expectations were not met when clients requested to end the trial period, and refunds were not issued. The termination of their memberships resulted in poor word of mouth and negative comments from consumers, and the company’s image suffered as a result.

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    Lido Learning – FAQs

    What does Lido Learning do?

    Lido Learning is an ed-tech business that uses an engaging online platform to transform education for every kid in India.

    When was Lido Learning founded?

    Lido Learning was founded by Sahil Sheth in 2019.

    Who founded Lido Learning?

    Sahil Sheth founded Lido Learning in 2019.

    Has Lido Learning shut its operations?

    Yes, Lido Learning abruptly pulled the plug on February 4, 2022.

  • Gradeup – India’s Largest Online Preparation Platform for Competitive Exams

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Gradeup.

    With exponential growth in the number of internet and smartphone users in India, online learning has become popular irrespective of the age group. Think about it this way – you have notes, recorded lectures and other reference material piling up. The million-dollar question is – where do you start? When do you think you’ll finish? How do you plan out your study schedule and ensure that you’re actually making progress, rather than just convincing yourself of it? These are some of the challenges that Gradeup, with its online Live Courses, is successfully addressing.

    With a vision to be India’s largest and most comprehensive online preparation destination for competitive exams, Gradeup was established in 2015 to help students prepare actively for various exams & score better. They have established & nurtured highly engaging exam-specific communities of students and mentors for SSC, Banking, Railways, Teaching, JEE, GATE, NEET, UPSC, Defense, and State level exams.

    Gradeup was co-founded by Shobhit Bhatnagar, Vibhu Bhushan, and Sanjeev Kumar. Gradeup was acquired by the Edtech giant, Byju’s on September 7, 2021. The Noida-based online exam preparation platform currently serves as Byju’s Exam Prep, as rebranded by Byju’s. Read on to know more about the Gradeup success story, Revenue, Business model, Funding, Growth and more.

    Gradeup – Company Highlights

    Startup Name Gradeup
    Headquarter Noida, India
    Sector EdTech
    Founders Shobhit Bhatnagar, Vibhu Bhushan, Sanjeev Kumar
    Founded 2015
    Revenue/Turnover $3.17 million (INR 60 Crore in FY21)
    Total Funding $10 million
    Parent Organization GradeStack Learning Pvt. Ltd
    Website gradeup.co
    Contact support@gradeup.co

    Gradeup – About and How it Works
    Gradeup – Target Market Size
    Gradeup – Founders and Team
    How was Gradeup Started?
    Gradeup – Products/Services
    Gradeup – Business Model and Revenue Model
    Gradeup – Growth and Revenue
    Gradeup – Name, Tagline and Logo
    Gradeup – Startup Challenges
    Gradeup – Funding and Investors
    Gradeup – Recognition and Achievements
    Gradeup – Future Plans

    Gradeup – Latest News

    September 8 2021 – Byju’s acquired Gradeup in its 8th acquisition in 2021.

    October 12, 2021 – Byju Raveendran of Byju’s feat and his brother join the Gradeup board as Directors.  

    Gradeup – About and How it Works

    Gradeup is India’s largest online preparation platform for competitive exams with a strong user base of more than 20 million exam aspirants. Through Live classes and emphasizing a structured methodology i.e. a daily study plan, they’ve made exam preparation highly effective; while optimizing the process by connecting students with peers pursuing similar objectives to facilitate the exchange of notes, clear doubts, and take better preparatory decisions.

    Development of a Community – With the core belief that ‘people prepare better when they prepare together‘, Gradeup focuses on developing exam-specific communities, which are driven by, and focused towards, aspirants. It is the first & only Indian online platform to build a highly engaging community of expert mentors and students; where an aspirant can ask doubts, share updates, and interact with mentors and peers to develop a 360-degree perspective on every topic in the most engaging manner.

    Gradeup – Target Market Size

    The EdTech industry can be divided into segments such as the K12 segment, which can be further classified into two categories i.e. KG to 7th class & 8th to 12th; followed by the Test preparation segment and upscaling (vocational training). Within these segments, Gradeup caters to the Test preparation segment of the market. The approximate market size of Test prep is 35 Million students. And Gradeup is one of the biggest players in the market with more than 20 Million registered students.

    More students are now gravitating toward online education. More than anything, this short term situation is increasing the trust of students and their parents in EdTech. The impact of the current situation on EdTech, in the long run, will be its increased acceptance as an alternative to current offline options.

    Gradeup – Founders and Team

    Gradeup was co-founded by Shobhit Bhatnagar, Vibhu Bhushan, and Sanjeev Kumar in 2015.

    Gradeup founders - Vibhu Bhushan, Shobhit Bhatnagar, and Sanjeev Kumar
    Gradeup founders – Vibhu Bhushan, Shobhit Bhatnagar, and Sanjeev Kumar

    Shobhit, Vibhu, and Sanjeev collaborated and established Gradestack Learning Pvt. Ltd. All three of them are self-made and left their jobs to start their entrepreneurial journey. They started without any external support.

    Shobhit Bhatnagar

    Shobhit Bhatnagar, CEO of Gradeup, takes care of Marketing and Community Development. He is an MBA from the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta; and a B.E in I.T from Punjab Engineering College. He has over 9 years of experience. Before Gradeup, he worked as a consultant with Ernst & Young and Opera Solutions. Shobhit has been a quizzer in his college days, likes travelling, and is an avid reader.

    Vibhu Bhushan

    Vibhu Bhushan, CPO/COO of Gradeup, takes care of the Product and Operations. He completed his B.E in I.T from the Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology. He has over 13 years of experience. Before Gradeup, he worked with Yahoo, Infoedge, and was a founder of Floost; an interest-based network and a product of Nogle Technologies. He has been a marathon runner and has a keen interest in athletics. Vibhu has more than 7.5 years of experience in mobile and backend technologies.

    Sanjeev Kumar

    Sanjeev Kumar is CTO at Gradeup. An engineer by profession, Sanjeev secured his B.Tech degree from MBM Engineering College, Jodhpur. Before Gradeup, he was associated with Infosys as System Engineer. In his free time, he likes to play sports.

    Hiring is the most critical part of an organization when it is scaling at a pace. The following three things play a very important role in the company’s hiring process:

    • Culture fit
    • Passion for work and the right attitude
    • Depth in the area of expertise

    Current Company Size: The total number of employees in the organization is 330+.

    How was Gradeup Started?

    Gradeup forayed into the Edtech and test preparation space in 2013. At that time, it worked with publishers and large institutes to mobilize their content and deliver it in an online, mobile-friendly manner for students preparing for competitive examinations.

    While this focused on utilizing content in the online space, it was clearly not enough. The learning process lacked the right level of engagement and was, thus, ineffective in improving learning outcomes. It required better direction and planning to help the aspirants.

    The team realized that by focusing on learning outcomes, they can contribute significantly to this space and to a student’s preparation journey. And this inspired the founders to solve this problem and fulfill the existing gaps to make online preparation more effective than ever.

    “We did tons of student interviews to understand the problems that they face. While doing it we became more and more confident that these issues can be solved easily with the help of Technology. And that’s when we decided to launch Gradeup.”, recalls Vibhu Bhushan, Co-founder of Gradeup.

    Shobhit, Vibhu, and Sanjeev, co-founders of Gradeup, had conversations with all major VCs before they got funded. Their pitch was based on the fact that EdTech as an industry has huge potential. Access to high-quality education across all segments of the country is an area of growth and has huge market potential, especially in tier 2, 3, and 4 cities. The question they addressed was “how we can come up with a unique approach that differentiates us in the market and helps us scale faster”.

    “During that period, we were in conversation with various investors who all agreed to the fact that sooner or later technology will act as an agent of change in the education sector. And it was just a matter of right time and product that could initiate the disruption process for the offline education model. Our goal was to revolutionize online live learning and emerge as a pioneer in this segment.”, said Vibhu Bhushan.

    upGrad – Founders | Competitors | Funding | Revenue | Business Model
    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified informationon different startups and organizations. The content in this post has beenapproved by the organization it is based on. With an exponential growth in the number of internet and smartphone users inIndia, turning online…
    StartupTalkyChayanika Goswami

    Gradeup – Products/Services

    Gradeup offers two main programs – Gradeup Classroom and Test Series.

    Gradeup Classroom is a one-of its kind integrated program, with its online live courses providing a comprehensive learning experience from start to finish. It uses a number of tools and teaching techniques to enhance preparation including:

    • Live quizzes and analysis
    • Weekly discussions, mock tests,
    • 24×7 mentor support
    • Mind maps
    • A day-wise study plan for each course is designed and delivered by the best teachers in the country.
    Gradeup Classroom
    Gradeup Classroom

    Taking this a notch above is Test Series, which gives students access to mock tests based on the latest exam patterns along with previous years’ question papers and fresh questions regularly created by expert faculty. Students get provided with-

    • Detailed solutions
    • An in-depth analysis of their performance
    • They’re all India Rank and Scorecard so that they know where they stand.

    It also has an education news portal – NewsEd by Gradeup, which is aimed to help the community to stay updated with all the latest news in the sector.

    Gradeup classroom has the following features:

    The Learning Process:

    The course begins with a Live class on the relevant topics. This is followed by the students accessing ‘Mind Maps’, a unique concept through which students get to recap what they have gone through in digestible nuggets of information, resulting in complete revision in the least amount of time possible. Students are then given chapter-wise quizzes to test how much they have retained, and the answers to these quizzes are discussed along with expert faculty for greater conceptual clarity.

    Systematic Study Plan:

    Offered to the students, the team focuses on creating a plan not just for completing the syllabus, but finishing it in a convenient way while remaining motivated throughout– something that they will get hooked onto and can follow within and outside of class hours.

    Unique and Evolving Framework:

    Strengthening the collective model through the contribution of each participant is a mantra Gradeup follows dearly.

    Verified Peer-to-Peer Learning:

    Gradeup has managed to build a learner’s community of sorts, which is now at the heart of the learning process. Students interact with other students and mentors to solve doubts and ask questions to enrich their learning experience. As much as 95 percent of doubt-solving happens peer-to-peer!

    Validation Mechanism:

    What sets them apart is that the company has multiple fact-checking processes in place on its platform to filter answers based on their quality. In this way, students are only consuming material that is fact-checked and relevant, so that they do not end up misguiding each other unintentionally.

    Building Confidence:

    A constant knowledge-focused engagement also builds a sense of camaraderie, confidence, and healthy competition, which is extremely important for comprehensive personality development especially if they are aiming to crack prestigious competitive examinations.

    Mentor:

    When students enroll for a course on Gradeup Classroom, a personal mentor is assigned to them who is available 24×7 to instantly resolve any doubts that they may have.

    Also, Gradeup has a dedicated cross-function Student Success Team that-

    • Manages core elements of quality content, the comprehensive study plan, constant feedback, and updates, amongst others.
    • Evaluates every piece of this data puzzle and link together the major internal and external stakeholders – aspirants, faculty, and parents – to establish a transparent communication system.
    • Keeps the parents informed, the teachers cognizant and the students motivated. Every stakeholder is kept abreast of the progress through virtual Report Cards.
    • It addresses students’ challenges, either academic or technical, sends reminders for daily academic activity, monitors students’ performance, and organizes live online parent-teacher meetings twice a month.
    • Lastly, for faculty, the team manages the interface that they can view to check overall batch performance, student-level information, and activity-level information.

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    Gradeup – Business Model and Revenue Model

    Gradeup is a freemium platform. Anyone who is preparing for competitive exams can download the app and visit the website to prepare for their respective exams – they can join the community – interact with fellow peers & mentors to get their doubts answered and they can access preparation material like previous years’ papers, quizzes, etc. All of this is free of cost.

    Additionally, on the platform, there are certain paid services like a) Green card– For Purchase of Test series and b) Classroom – Live classes, which aspirants can avail to add further value to their preparation.

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    Gradeup – Growth and Revenue

    From 2019-2020, Gradeup grew 4x and closed the year at 30 Crore revenue. Some of the current metrics are:

    • 350M+ Learning Minutes per Month
    • 25M+ Student Registration
    • 2.5 Lakh+ Paid Users
    • 18M+ App downloads
    • 60,000+ Students Enrolled for Live Courses
    • 3.5M+ MAU

    The tagline of Gradeup is “Prep Smart. Score Better.“

    Gradeup Logo
    Gradeup Logo

    Gradeup – Startup Challenges

    When Vibhu forayed into the Edtech and test preparation space with his business partners, in 2013, he worked with publishers and large institutes to mobilize their content and deliver it in an online, mobile-friendly manner for students preparing for competitive examinations.

    His low point at that time was that they made a business model that couldn’t scale. Also, they were quite dependent on external partners; for whom it was too early to change and evolve.

    “However, the high point in my entrepreneurial journey was having the realization that our learning processes needed to have the right engagement levels. And this could be done by upgrading our pedagogy systems and product by making them effective and interactive.”, said Vibhu Bhushan, co-founder of Gradeup.

    He also realized that students prepare better when they prepare together. Hence, the co-founders decided that moving forward they will have a community-based model where verified peer to peer learning and validation mechanisms builds trust and reliability towards the content and the platform.

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    Gradeup – Funding and Investors

    The Gradeup funding can be seen in the fact that it has raised a total of $10 million to date.

    Date Stage Amount Investors
    July 2013 Pre Seed Round $20k –
    March 2014 Seed Round $3 million Times Internet
    August 2015 Funding Round – –
    September 2016 Funding Round – –
    November 2019 Series A $7 million Times Internet

    There is only one external investor – Times Internet.

    Gradeup – Recognition and Achievements

    35 under 35 Young Entrepreneur 2020 – Shobhit Bhatnagar.

    Gradeup – Future Plans

    The company is going to launch Goprep – a live online coaching app that will specifically cater to the academic needs of students from 8th to 12th; especially those preparing for JEE and NEET. Through the app, it will also offer one-year courses for students from class 8th to 10th for board exam preparation and Olympiads such as NTSE.

    Apart from that, Gradeup is planning to raise funds in the coming months. The team will continue to emphasize Live classes as they can deliver high impact outcomes on a large scale. They plan to expand faculty up to 100 and subject matter experts up to 200. The company also plans to further manifest its presence in tier 2, 3, and 4 towns across the country. Hence, the next round of funding will also be utilized to scale the product and tech capabilities.

    Gradeup’s vision is to deliver quality exam preparation across the country through the means of technology. In the next 5 years, they plan to cater to most of the exams that happen across India.

    Our superior education quality will be able to help 5 crores + Indians who prepare for different exams. We will be able to deliver the best results among our peers because of our strong focus on quality. – Vibhu Bhushan.

    Considering the traction that its live online courses have received so far, Gradeup expects the number of enrollments to touch 60,000 students by the end of FY20, and cross 150,000 by the end of FY21. However, the app was later acquired by Byju’s, after which it has turned into Byju’s Exam Prep, serving 3 crore+ students across the country.

    Gradeup – FAQs

    Who is the founder of Gradeup?

    Gradeup was founded by Vibhu Bhushan, Shobhit Bhatnagar, and Sanjeev Kumar.

    What is Gradeup?

    Gradeup is a freemium online edtech platform to preapre for competitive exams.

    How much is Gradeup Revenue 2020?

    For FY2020, Gradeup had received around INR 24 Crores worth of revenue.

    Is Gradeup Free?

    Gradeup offered a freemium platform. You can join the community – interact with fellow peers & mentors to get your doubts answered and can access preparation material like previous years’ papers, quizzes, etc – all free of cost. However their live classes and test preps, you will need to pay a subscription fee.

    Who is Sanjeev Kumar?

    Sanjeev Kumar is the Co-founder & CTO at Gradeup. An engineer by profession, Sanjeev secured his B.Tech degree from MBM Engineering College, Jodhpur.

    What is Gradeup?

    Gradeup is India’s largest online preparation platform for competitive exams with a strong user base of more than 20 million exam aspirants. It currently serves as Byju’s Exam Prep after being acquired by Byju’s in an undisclosed deal.

  • Vedantu Marketing Strategy | Promotion & Pricing Strategy

    Covid-19 has been witnessed as one of the reasons for the surge of online learning. In other words, it can be said that the Novel Coronavirus and the lockdown have boosted the growth of edtech platforms. This gave an edge to all the online learning platforms to bring their services to a broader audience.

    Likewise, Vedantu came up with a marketing campaign saying India’s Learning Won’t Stop asking users to Study from the safety of their home. The brand has come up with various learning services to cater to all school and college-going students, having a vision that no child is left behind from learning.

    About Vedantu
    Vedantu’s Pricing Strategy
    Vedantu Marketing Strategy
    Vedantu Viral Marketing Campaigns
    Vedantu’s Target Audience

    About Vedantu

    Vedantu Logo
    Vedantu Logo

    Vedantu is an edtech startup that provides a Live Online Tutoring facility to students from their homes. Vedantu provides live interactive classes with unlimited doubt solving for students from pre-school, Class 1-12, JEE, NEET and other entrance examinations.

    Vedantu provides a seamless user experience. One can avail of their services by downloading its app or by signing in to its website.

    Vedantu can handle more students in one session since it is a virtual class. There may be up to 600 students during a paying session while free lessons maybe 2,000, Krishna said, who’s a professor himself. He also runs Lakshya Institute before selling a big stake in Mumbai’s K-12-based tutoring and test-processing company MT Educare, which helps students prepare for undergraduate studies, until early 2014. It has created a proprietary method called WAVE (Whiteboard Audio Video Environment), which tests about 70 criteria, including whether the student is watching the screen, in order to ensure students are aware of and recognize their vulnerabilities.

    Vedantu’s Pricing Strategy

    Vedantu Live Class
    Vedantu Live Class

    A Bangalore-based startup, Vedantu has raised an additional $24 million as a part of the Series C funding round, which runs a learning app for students. This was in addition to the $42 million raised in August 2019.  In July 2020, Vedantu raised $100 million in funding led by a US-based Coatue. With the latest funding, Vedantu’s total fund tally stands at over $200 million.

    Vedantu offers free access to all live classes and content. However, there is a subscription model as well where students are charged based on the tenure of the courses which are categorized as long-term, short-term, micro-courses and crash courses.

    You can also select pocket-friendly plans or opt monthly subscription instead of paying all amounts together. Also, they provide free demo classes that would help you in making a vital decision for enrolling in the course or not. One can browse various courses both on its application or website.

    Vedantu Marketing Strategy

    Vedantu Live Online Classes
    Vedantu Live Online Classes

    Vedantu has appointed two senior executives, Kunal Dubey as Marketing Head and Lucky Saini as Brand Head in its marketing unit. This charismatic pair has been playing an active role in driving business growth. Their aim is to promote Vendantu’s services in such a way that it gets more students day by day. They are making efforts to place the Vedantu brand among students and parents as the most favoured and valued Edtech.

    Vedantu’s culture reflects the organization’s rock-solid foundation as well as empathetic leadership. I am humbled to take on this role and believe that a strong culture leads to great business stories. I look forward to building a passionate marketing team that lives and breathes our brand purpose every day. – Kunal Dubey, Marketing manager of Vedantu.

    Dubey worked for eBay India, Flipkart and PhonePe over a period of 15 years of his career whereas Ogilvy, Autumn Gray, Flipkart, Manipal Education and Manipal Group have managed to share Saini’s career.

    Here are some interesting features of  this e-learning firm:

    • Personalized LIVE training from home comfort. This means that a pupil receives a committed teacher’s full attention and studies at his own speed. Teacher-student relationships are powerful, bidirectional, and technologically controlled for quality improvement.
    • They have also introduced experiments such as video games which are not only fun but knowledgeable in order to make the class more interactive and student-friendly.
    • They have a feature of the feedback system where teachers frequently inform parents about the success of their child. This provides an edge over the conventional PTM meeting held twice or thrice a year at schools/colleges.

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    Vedantu Viral Marketing Campaigns

    Aamir Khan Promoting Vedantu | Vedantu Marketing Campaign

    Vedantu marketing strategy included marketing campaigns that went viral and gained good publicity to attract students and parents.

    • Vedantu markets its packages on its website, Google advertising and forum digitally.
    • It is a tuneful and captivating commercial telecast on TV & social media channels that catches the interest of children.
    • Aamir Khan being the brand ambassador of Vedantu portrays wonderfully the role of an interested father and gives the character its own charm.
    • The TV ad is very attractive and linked to a fun, jingle-filled learning experience.

    “Samajh aayega toh maza aayega, maza aayega toh samajh aayega”

    • The TV ads add credibility and allow the brand to explain its message to a broader audience. These ads help to drive the social campaign as well. There is more chance that the customer is going to visit your social or digital platform once they see your ads.
    • The Initiative underlines the need to make the children’s learning experience more exciting and successful by using LIVE streaming lessons.

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    Vedantu’s Target Audience

    Vedantu's target audience
    Vedantu’s target audience 

    Vedantu’s target audience is all school-going children and college students. As they provide free access to all live classes and content of pre-school, class 1-12, JEE, NEET, and other entrance examinations. The platform also targets teachers who teach unique subjects and who are able to devote multiple hours teaching online and to seek extra revenue. It also approaches coaching institutes that can teach online to a range of tutors. So far, the brand has covered 500+ cities Worldwide with 39,787,257+ happy students.

    Conclusion

    Here, we understood the marketing strategy of Vedantu i.e, Vedantu’s Pricing Strategy and Vedantu’s Target Audience. The sole aim of the organization is to create an educational world that is readily available to all. Individually flexible in terms of experience better than community classes and options that the online platform offers, for example, the instructor preference, time schedule and, most notably, study standard.

    FAQs

    What are the five marketing strategies?

    The 5 Ps of Marketing are:

    • Product
    • Price
    • Promotion
    • Place
    • People

    What is the business model of Vedantu?

    Vedantu operates on a B2C business model whereby the company provides services like live online tutoring to students from K-12, college students, and also the one who is preparing for various competitive exams.

    How does Vedantu make money?

    Vedantu earns money mainly by providing education support services and charging a fee for the same. They have different fee structures as per the different subscription plans.

    Who are the competitors of Vedantu?

    Some of the top competitors of Vedantu are:

    • BYJU
    • Unacademy
    • Chegg
    • Meritnation
    • Toppr
    • Wonderschool
    • Simplilearn

    Who is owner of Vedantu?

    Vamsi Krishna, Pulkit Jain, Anand Prakash, and Saurabh Saxena are the founders of Vedantu.

  • Taghive – Providing AI-Powered Self-Assessment Solutions for Students via Class-Saathi

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by TagHive.

    The Indian education system is the largest in the world with 170 miliion students and 1.5 million schools. Education sector in India is growing at a huge pace as it makes the foundation of social and economic growth of the Nation.

    The School systems in India are getting Tech-Savy with the technological transformation. The use of technology in the education system stimulates student engagement in learning. TagHive has brought Class Saathi app for helping students improve their performance and competency.

    Read to know more about TagHive, founder, the startup story, and more.

    TagHive – Company Highlights

    Startup Name TagHive
    Headquarters South Korea
    Industry Edtech
    Founder Pankaj Agarwal
    Founded 2017
    Total Funding Raised $3 Million
    Website tag-hive.com

    TagHive – About
    TagHive – Industry
    TagHive – The Idea and Startup Story
    TagHive – Products and Service
    TagHive – Founder and Team
    TagHive – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    TagHive – Business Model
    TagHive – Customer Acquisition
    TagHive – Challenges Faced
    TagHive – Funding
    TagHive – Advisors and Mentors
    TagHive – Competitors
    TagHive – Tools Used in the Company
    TagHive – Recognition and Achievements
    TagHive – Future Plans

    TagHive – About

    TagHive Inc., is a Samsung-funded education technology company, incorporated on April 25, 2017 is headquartered in South Korea and has an office in India. The company’s offerings include AI-powered self-assessment solutions and clicker-based classroom response systems. The company offers its solutions under the “Class Saathi” brand in India and under the “Class Key” brand globally.

    TagHive has 22 registered patents and trademarks and 10 others are pending. The company’s solutions are used in over 1,000 schools (adding 2-3 schools daily) and over 340,000 students have downloaded the Class Saathi self-assessment solution.

    Their vision is to be the learning platform of choice for schools around the world, by building a unified platform that connects all stakeholders in the education ecosystem to improve learning outcomes. They believe that education is the greatest equalizer, and that technology shouldn’t be only for students for privileged backgrounds. Class Saathi is designed to empower the current system rather than disrupt it.

    TagHive – Industry

    There are over 1 million public schools in India, with over 170 million students; who on an average, do not have access to resources to learn that a majority of more expensive private school students do. With an average per student spend of Rs. 15,000 from Governments per year, there is little to no space for solutions that aren’t built to be low cost.

    Class Saathi is designed to work exactly in this space, for teachers, administrators and parents to create a supportive ecosystem of learning for students who, if not attended to, could be at risk of dropping out. A report by KPMG shows that India is the second largest market for edtech in the world, behind the United States. By 2030, the Indian edtech industry is poised to become $30 billion in size, but this current trend is focused on the private and higher paying segment of customers. Students in higher need across public schools are not a focus area, which is exactly what Class Saathi focuses on.

    TagHive – Founder and Team

    Pankaj Agarwal - TagHive Founder
    Pankaj Agarwal – Founder of TagHive

    TagHive Inc. currently has 25 full time employees, 9 in Korea and 16 in India. Primarily, the Indian team looks at partnerships, operations, development and communications; while the Korean team focuses on research, innovations and operations beyond India.

    They believe that trust and ownership is paramount, which is why even though the Indian team is fully remote, they have full liberty to lead and be accountable for their role. They are an organization on a mission and truly value people with passion and drive to transform the education ecosystem. It is a long and difficult journey, but if anyone is ready to walk on this path with us, we’re more than happy to have them!

    Pankaj Agarwal about TagHive Startup Story

    TagHive – The Idea and Startup Story

    As a student who began his journey in a small school in a village in Bihar, I had the incredible opportunities to then study at IIT Kanpur, Seoul National University, and Harvard Business School. Studying in 3 countries made Pankaj Agarwal the person he is. Education is always highly valued by him.

    When Pankaj Agarwal started TagHive in South Korea, one visit brought him back to the school where he studied, and even after decades, he realized that hardly anything there had changed. He was surprised to see that while the world had changed, schools remained the same, and students were still not getting the resources they needed. This was when he decided to create Class Saathi to be used in schools even without internet and electricity. They took inputs and got feedback from teachers and government officials in the space, and built features and functions according to what they need, and the response was great because most solutions weren’t designed to be used in under-resourced schools and classrooms.

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    TagHive Logo
    TagHive Logo

    The ‘TagHive’ name came from their original idea to use physical (hardware) and software ‘tags’ to enhance experiences across the real and virtual world in pretty much all domains, including but not limited to play, education, entertainment, fitness, and more. They wanted to represent energy and connectedness, which is why they chose that name.

    The ‘Class Saathi’ name however, surprisingly was something that came to me in a dream. Originally it was something the founder had put as a placeholder, but as they continued developing the product, it turned out that their users actually resonated with it, and despite their reservations about it not sounding ‘global’; the idea behind it was something even TagHive’s investors and supporters in Korea loved.

    TagHive – Products and Service

    Class Saathi is a clicker based smart classroom platform that makes formative assessment easy and fast.

    Class Saathi is a combination of a clicker device for each student and a mobile application for teachers, parents and administrators. After teaching a concept in a class, the teacher can ask a few questions using Class Saathi to gauge the understanding level of each and every student. The administrators and the parents can also see the learning data on their respective screens. Class Saathi app has over 50,000 questions (in English and Hindi combined) on Maths and Science for students of Class 6 to Class 10 and is based on NCERT curriculum.  Over 6.2 million questions have been solved on Class Saathi as of April 5, 2022.

    Class Saathi is aligned with New Education Policy’s objectives of micro-learning and continuous assessments. “Data First” approach ensures greater accountability at all levels. It is the world’s first and only clicker solution that works on a mobile phone, and doesn’t require internet or electricity to function inside classrooms. This enables it to be used across absolutely any context, especially in schools with the highest need in rural contexts.

    The app is also powered by AI, enabling Personalized Adaptive Learning (PAL) for students beyond the classroom. It adapts to student learning levels to give them questions that can challenge them and help them learn, which allows for learning to happen at home without any teacher assistance. Parents are also able to understand student progress through the rich data dashboards, and support their children in learning.

    TagHive – Business Model

    Class Saathi primarily works with governments and organizations to achieve scale and impact. Through funding by either the government bodies themselves, grants, or private channel partners, they implement its solutions across a wide range of schools.

    TagHive – Customer Acquisition

    They started directly working with governments because that was their target group, and because they were developing the solution with their on-ground feedback. Through this, they were able to reach out to their first set of users, and word of mouth helped us scale up and get even more users.

    They didn’t focus on paid marketing to spread the word about Class Saathi, but rather let their impact do the talking. Being a unique solution addressing age-old challenges in the Indian education ecosystem, they were able to begin conversations with like-minded early adopters from Governments and organizations, who then helped us begin pilots.

    These pilots were able to show impact in a very short amount of time (learning outcomes and attendance increased by 8% and 10% respectively in 30 days alone), which then enabled us to continue with larger-scale implementation and also spread the word about the potential of the solution. Additionally, since Class Saathi is extremely affordable and constantly evolving based on need, they were able to invest stakeholders who saw the value in it.

    TagHive – Challenges Faced

    One of the biggest challenges was to show stakeholders in the education system like teachers and administrators the value of Class Saathi. Most, if not all of them had already worked with some other education technology solution and were always of the opinion that it would be an additional burden. However, since Class Saathi is designed to empower rather than disrupt, they had to do multiple conversations to invest in Class Saathi and help them see that it will only help them.

    They truly believe that teachers are still the cornerstones of a great education, and their idea has always been to make life easier for them so that they can strategically focus on the learning outcomes of their students, armed with data and a platform that lets them build a more conducive learning environment.

    TagHive – Funding

    Date Stage Amount Investors
    June, 2017 Seed Funding $0.5 Million Samsung Ventures
    December, 2021 Series A $2.5 Million Forest Partners

    Funding and support from Samsung Ventures and Forest Partners has allowed us to expand their development to create an even better product that truly addresses the needs of stakeholders in the education system today; and to build a high-performing team to multiply and expand this impact across India.

    TagHive – Advisors and Mentors

    Yes, they have multiple advisors and mentors from India and Korea, who’ve helped us with challenging their assumptions and connecting us to people and resources they need. They come from a variety of backgrounds and have been instrumental in helping us grow.

    TagHive – Competitors

    While there are other edtech companies in India and globally, their solution is uniquely addressing problems in the public education ecosystem. Having said that however, some of their competitors are:

    TagHive Competitors in India:

    • ConveGenius
    • EI Mindspark
    • Gooru Navigator

    TagHive Competitors Globally:

    • AssessPrep
    • EdCite
    • ClassKick
    • Formative

    TagHive – Tools Used in the Company

    The tools they use in TagHive are:

    • Google Suite
    • Asana
    • Slack
    • Trello
    • WhatsApp
    • Zoom

    TagHive – Recognition and Achievements

    Many awards and recognition has been received by TagHive:

    • TagHive was Asia Pacific finalist in the Harvard NVC in March 2021
    • Won the 2020 Time2Leap Award (presented by Ministry of SME, Govt. of India)
    • Recognized by India AI as top 5 startups reinventing Education in India with AI
    • Awarded Education Startup of the Year 2019 at DIDAC India, Asia’s largest and India’s only exhibition and conference for education
    • Founder & CEO was on the Fortune India 40 Under 40 list released in June 2021
    • 1000+ schools in Korea

    TagHive – Future Plans

    TagHive operates in South Korea and India, and works with partners like The Ford Foundation, Kaivalya Education Foundation, HCL, Google, Samsung, and the Governments of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Odisha, with even more in the pipeline.

    Over the next 3 years, their goals are to:

    • Implement Class Saathi (both at-home learning app and in-classroom assessment solution) in State Government and Central Government run schools and networks (State Board Schools, Kendriya Vidyalayas, Tribal Welfare Schools, and more) in India first and then go global
    • Integrate into NDEAR, NEP 2020 implementation, and relevant National Education Technology frameworks through technology platform sharing, service provision, or technology partnerships
    • Partner with large scale nonprofits and foundations to implement Class Saathi across their school networks

    They are currently and constantly developing new features based on requirements and feedback from their stakeholders on the ground. By April end, they will have a completely revamped teacher-facing app, which adds in a wealth of features that they have been asked for. They are also developing new dashboards and reporting functionalities to further ease the lives of their administrators.

    FAQs

    When was TagHive founded?

    TagHive was founded in 2017.

    Who is the founder of TagHive?

    Pankaj Agarwal is the founder of TagHive.

    Who invested in TagHive?

    TagHive is funded by Samsung Ventures and Forest Partners.

    How much funding has TagHive raised to date?

    TagHive has raised a funding of $3 Million.

  • How Can Edtech Startups Generate Leads?

    Every visit has the potential to generate a lead. To build a connection and convert casual visitors into qualified leads, you must provide current and relevant information while encouraging interaction with the material on your website. It would be ideal if you tried to meet prospects’ needs in every buying process.
    Customers that visit your website will thank you for your efforts by providing you with their contact information if you do it correctly. Making visitors into sales-ready leads involves a multi-pronged strategy that utilizes a variety of formats and platforms across several channels.

    Through marketing activities focused on brand development, growing product awareness, earning customer trust, and establishing your position as an industry expert, we can generate a lead.

    Continue to produce content that piques people’s curiosity while also offering answers, and your warm leads will become hot leads. So, what exactly is the content?

    Lead Generation Strategies That Work for Edtech Startups

    Getting Marketing Qualified Leads Into the Sales Process

    Lead Generation Strategies That Work for Edtech Startups

    Blog Posts

    Blog Posts for generating leads for edtech Startup
    Blog Posts for generating leads for edtech Startup

    The way you create and position your blog material will become more important as search engine optimization evolves. It is no longer enough to use keywords with high search traffic merely. You’ll attract leads seeking particular solutions if you use a topic cluster – which involves identifying the main issue in your company and selecting 8-20 subtopics using relevant search phrases – to organize your content.
    As an ed-tech firm, you can be certain that your prospects are well-educated. As a result, you want to deliver articles that provide a solution to their issue and provide answers to particular concerns they may have. Please use internal linkages to redirect readers to more related pages and route them to a pillar page with more in-depth information. We’ll go into further detail about this in 7.

    Live Chat

    Live Chat for generating leads for Edtech Startup
    Live Chat for generating leads for edtech Startup

    A chatbot allows visitors to connect with your brand while maintaining their privacy. A website visitor may have questions, but they may not be ready to speak with a salesperson immediately.

    Although your sales representatives are really helpful, many casual browsers are put off by the prospect of establishing human contact, especially when they are in the early phases of decision-making. In certain cases, an online discussion might allow a long-term relationship to develop.

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    Posts on Social Media Platforms

    Continue to follow education leaders to stay on top of issues in the sector and generate material to address those issues. Product announcements and other news relevant to your market should be sent out through Twitter. Take advantage of hashtags to ensure that your target market can discover you.
    This industry has highly qualified individuals. A LinkedIn marketing campaign is one of the most successful methods accessible to edtech companies for locating new consumers. Even while Facebook is less formal, it still enables you to use eye-catching photos of your product in action to draw attention to it. Facebook is also an excellent location to publish photographs and videos that others can share.

    Explainer Videos

    Explainer Videos for generating leads for Edtech Startup
    Explainer Videos for generating leads for Edtech Startup

    Identify subjects in your area of expertise that may be highlighted by a video presentation and make a list of them; rather than selling, attempt to educate. When people watch television, they are bombarded with advertising.
    Explainer videos simplify complicated concepts or business news into digestible chunks that anybody can understand. For example, when selling school administration software, you could wish to target your market with a video that describes changes to the state’s teacher evaluation measures.

    Podcasts

    Podcasts for generating leads for Edtech Startup
    Podcasts for generating leads for Edtech Startup

    Set up an educational technology podcast series to address difficulties or analyze developments in your particular section of the tech industry. Podcasts appeal to professionals who desire a hands-free approach to keeping up with the latest developments in their sector or learning something completely new.
    Expert interviews, educator profiles, and sneak peeks at the newest advancements in educational technology are all possible topics for podcasts to cover.

    Webinars

    Webinars for generating leads for Edtech Startup
    Webinars for generating leads for Edtech Startup

    Provide free training, insights into new technologies, and methods to education professionals in exchange for their time. Please include a link to a slide deck that can be downloaded to improve the likelihood that your webinar or sections will be shared with others.

    Pillar Pages

    Long-form material that focuses on a primary subject relevant to your products or services is a pillar page. By creating a series of blog entries focused on subtopics that your audience is interested in, you will have the material necessary to create a pillar page that is both instructional and attractive to your audience. Even though pillar sites are not gated, you may provide visitors with a PDF to download, generating leads.

    Media Coverage

    Identify and cultivate connections with education reporters in local and national news sources, and provide interviews, insights, and responses to current events that impact education. Identify well-known blogs in your sector and offer to guest write on their sites.

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    Getting Marketing Qualified Leads Into the Sales Process

    In the marketing funnel, prospects connect with your company at various phases. They arrive at your website with varying degrees of curiosity. Your digital marketing plan must include a mechanism for recognizing this and serving visitors with material relevant to their current requirements.

    Depending on the prospect, some may be interested in your product but not quite ready to buy, while others may be ready to talk with someone from your sales department. A page-hijacking form requesting an email address, phone number, and “best time to call” will result in the marginally interested visitor departing your website without ever looking at it.

    Another option is to send the lead to a sales representative if a contact has subscribed to your newsletter, downloaded marketing literature, and enquired about price through your chatbot. It is known as being at the bottom of the funnel. An automated marketing platform will assign a score to each step a lead performs.
    The lead will be transferred to your customer relationship management software when a tipping point is achieved.

    Conclusion

    Delivering the appropriate information to the right person at the right time is essential when it comes to lead generation and turning those leads into sales. You can turn your website into a lead-generating engine if you have a complete digital marketing plan in place and a method to gather and qualify data.

    FAQs

    How can Edtech Startups generate leads?

    Edtech startups can generate leads by using these lead generation strategies:

    • Blog Posts
    • Live Chat
    • Posts on Social Media Platforms
    • Explainer Videos
    • Podcasts
    • Webinars
    • Pillar Pages
    • Media Coverage

    Which are the top Edtech Startups in India?

    Some of the top Edtech Startups in India are:

    • Byju’s
    • Unacademy
    • UpGrad
    • Vedantu
    • Toppr
    • Coursera
    • Cuemath

    How big is the EdTech industry?

    The global EdTech market size was valued at USD 106 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 127 billion in 2022.

    How to market for EdTech Startups?

    Marketing strategies for Edtech Startups are:

    • SEO
    • Email Marketing
    • Content marketing
    • Video Marketing
    • Social Media Marketing
    • Paid Ads

  • College Vidya – India’s Largest Online Portal to Compare Online Universities

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by College Vidya.

    Be it humans or Industries, evolution is an undeniable fact for all. Every industry is seeing major changes with time, as for the education industry, the base industry for all, this evolution is an ongoing process. This is happening at a higher pace with the introduction of online education, or as some call it, virtual learning.

    With evolution, comes questions and confusions. While more and more students are getting attracted towards online education due to its growing importance, more questions are being raised on how to spot fake online universities, things to look at before selecting an online university, important approvals, comparison among two universities on the basis of placements, Student Ratings etc and many such questions.

    To rescue students from such problems a venture was started, College Vidya. It is an initiative to help students by giving them answers to all these questions at an unbiased education platform, fully dedicated to online universities. This platform contains every bit of information a student will require in order to make the right decision.

    College Vidya – Company Highlights

    Startup Name College Vidya
    Headquarters Noida
    Founded 2018
    Co-Founder and CEO Mayank Gupta
    Co-founder and COO Rohit Gupta
    Industry EdTech
    Parent Organisation Blackboard Education & Research Foundation
    Website collegevidya.com

    College Vidya – About
    College Vidya – Founders and Team
    College Vidya – Startup Story
    College Vidya – Name, Tagline, and Logo
    College Vidya – Vision and Mission
    College Vidya – Counsellors
    College Vidya – Future Plans
    College Vidya – Challenges
    College Vidya – USP
    College Vidya – Marketing Strategy
    College Vidya – Competitors
    College Vidya – Recognition

    About College Vidya

    College Vidya – About

    College Vidya was started in the year 2018, under the Parent company Blackboard Education and Research Foundation. It started as an informative educational portal. With time it recognized real problems faced by students, this inspired it to become a comparison platform. One might ask why a comparison portal? Because the vision of College Vidya was clear, they wanted students to get the best university for their career.

    To educate a lot of students, College Vidya also started a youtube channel named,  “College Vidya”. This channel purely gives information of different online & distance and online universities, courses, common mistakes made by students, things to look at before selecting any online university, advice given by experts and topics as such.

    After gaining over 6k followers College Vidya spread its empire by starting yet another youtube channel by the name of “College Vidya Talks”. This Channel was started with the vision of offering knowledge to students which will help them in their career journey as well. For the same purpose this channel is divided in 3 sections:

    College Vidya has adopted a ‘master of one’ approach, meaning they are only dedicated to universities providing online education. The venture takes pride in being unbiased and working for students, instead of universities.

    College Vidya – Founders and Team

    College Vidya was founded in 2018 by Mr. Mayank Gupta.

    Mayank Gupta – Founder and CEO of College Vidya

    Mayank Gupta - Founder and CEO of College Vidya
    Mayank Gupta – Founder and CEO of College Vidya

    ‘Tough journey leads to a beautiful destination’ this saying perfectly goes hand in hand for College Vidya founder Mayank Gupta, Mayank had an interesting journey, he started by working in an organisation where his responsibility was to conduct surveys. After a period of time he realised his interest lies in the educational sector so he bought a franchise of NIIT.

    After understanding the industry better, Mayank decided to do something of his own, so he opened ICFE, an institution which offered students accounting courses. His venture saw enormous growth and success, until the government decided to give the same courses for free.

    After facing many hardships Mayank decided to be true to the distance & online education sector. The reason behind Mayank being inclined towards distance & online education was that he himself pursued his undergraduate and post graduation from distance while working.

    Rohit Gupta – Co-founder and COO of College Vidya

    Rohit Gupta, Co-founder of College Vidya saw his part in hardships too. Starting as an educational counsellor, he paved his way through. From being one to having thousands of counsellors working under him, Rohit is a true inspiration story.

    Throughout his journey Rohit worked in different industries, playing different roles. This only made him realise his true purpose and the need of the hour in the education sector.

    College Vidya – Startup Story

    College Vidya startup story is rather interesting. As Mayank himself pursued his higher education from distance learning, he knew about the struggles that come with it. He wanted to give students a platform which not only helps students by giving them correct information but also assists them.

    From the start Mayank was aware about the importance of distance & online education. With the concept of online education being introduced, he knew what was coming in the future, evolution. Mayank was well aware about the importance of online education, and how it would grow exponentially in the future. This is when College Vidya came into picture, he wanted students to have a trusted and unbiased ed tech portal to turn to in their time of need.

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    College Vidya Logo and Tagline
    College Vidya Logo and Tagline

    The name College Vidya, explains it all. It simply means ‘Knowledge about College’ which clearly states that this educational platform gives all the information about online colleges and universities.

    The tagline of the company is ‘Chuno Wahi Jo Hai Sahi’.

    College Vidya – Vision and Mission

    From the very start the vision of College Vidya was to be an unbiased platform that helps students in getting genuine advice for free.

    Mayank Gupta firmly believes that the youth has the power for bringing changes required, and education is the key to do so. A student with no proper guidance has higher chances of making a wrong decision and regretting it later. This is why the mission of College Vidya is to help more and more students in making the right decision when it comes to their education.

    College Vidya – Counsellors

    As of now College Vidya consists of 1000+ highly educated and experienced experts. This strength is made up of Assistance Managers, team leaders and many Counsellors available on call & video call for students.

    College Vidya – Challenges

    During this interesting journey, College Vidya faced many problems as well. These problems were faced while building trust and standing apart. Due to so many portals that were unable to maintain trust, students were very skeptical at first. When College Vidya was introduced it took a lot of time and hard work of its team to gain and maintain the trust of students.

    College Vidya – USP

    How College Vidya works?
    How College Vidya works?

    The reason why College Vidya stands apart from the rest is, its unique features. Compare and suggest me a university.

    Compare – this feature allows students to compare between top online universities on different features. The motive behind this is to help students in selecting a university which best suits them according to their own specific needs like budget, study hours available, purpose behind doing a degree etc.

    College Vidya has carefully designed a list of top online universities all around India (Approved by UGC-DEB), this helps students to explore more options and decide which of these universities are catering to their needs.

    Suggest me a University – with the AI based technology, College Vidya’s Suggest me a University feature gives a specially curated list of universities, according to students need, after analysing their answers. Suggest me a University is the best option for those students who want to remain hassle free and just want to know the best option for them.

    Video Consultation – this feature allows students to connect F2F with their counsellor, in seconds for a better counselling session. The motive behind introducing video consultation was to improve user experience and make them feel present and more connected with their dedicated counsellor.

    The major USP of College Vidya is that it saves students from the hassle of going through hundred different websites and sources to gather information. It is an all inclusive portal which has answers to every question a student can possibly have in making this irreversible decision.

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    College Vidya – Marketing Strategy

    College Vidya has adopted a simple yet effective marketing strategy through “the word of mouth.” They stand unbiased and only promote information that is true and helpful for students without any partiality.

    They also try to build a healthy relationship with their audiences through other mediums like blogs, videos, google ads, social media marketing & even remarketing.

    Recently College Vidya also launched its campaign “Chuno Wahi Jo Hai Sahi”. The aim of this campaign was to make students aware about the importance of selecting the right university after carefully comparing different aspects like approvals, budget and interest.

    The marketing strategy of College Vidya is not only limited to the virtual world, the organization has also stepped outside to educate the population of tier 2 and tier 3 cities about the growing importance of online education and how to select the best for them at an affordable price.

    College Vidya – Competitors

    The main competitors for College Vidya are:

    College Vidya – Recognition

    College Vidya has been recognized by many big names due to its innovative method of helping students.

    Here is a list of the places College Vidya got recognized at:

    • Hindustan Times
    • Forbes
    • ANI
    • Webindia123
    • Lokmat Times
    • yahoo!finance
    • CNBC Awaaz
    • The Hindu
    • The Economic Times
    • Financial Express
    • The Telegraph

    College Vidya – Future Plans

    In a short period of time College Vidya received a great response from students and working professionals. According to the CEO of College Vidya, the next step would be to expand by providing more information about online and distance & online universities around the globe.

    Soon, students who wish to study abroad will also be able to compare and select the best online university for them along with free expert guidance.

    FAQs

    Who is the founder of College Vidya?

    College Vidya was Founded by Mayank Gupta.

    Is College Vidya Free of Cost?

    Yes, College Vidya is absolutely free and does not charge a single penny. They also do not have a bank account.

    Who are the competitors of College Vidya?

    Main Competitors of College Vidya are:

    • Shiksha
    • Collegedekho
    • Collegedunia

    When was College Vidya Started?

    College Vidya was started in the year 2018.

    Is College Vidya app free?

    Yes, College Vidya App is free to be used.

  • Prepare for Government and Competitive Exams With Ixambee

    Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by ixamBee.

    A Government job is the first preference of many-educated young adults in India. Every year millions of graduate and undergraduate students appear for competitive exams to secure jobs in the public sector. As shown by surveys conducted by the Lokniti research program at the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS) in 2016, 65% of the Indian youth preferred a Government job. Again, a huge chunk of these Government job aspirants belong to the rural areas and a lot comes from financially weaker sections.

    However, this section residing in backward areas and having a low income does not get adequate opportunities to prepare for competitive exams, owing to lack of infrastructure or money. Considering this scenario, ixamBee, a New Delhi based startup is offering free mock tests on its online platform so that all the govt job aspirants can prepare well for their dream job, irrespective of economic status, and from anywhere.
    StartupTalky interviewed ixamBee CEO Chandraprakash Joshi to understand the startup better.

    Startup Name ixamBee
    Headquarter New Delhi
    Founders Chandraprakash Joshi, Arunima Sinha & Sandeep Singh
    Sector EdTech
    Founded 2016
    Website www.ixambee.com
    Parent Organization ATOZLEARN EDUTECH Pvt. Ltd.

    About ixamBee and How It Works
    Online Education and Ed-Tech in India
    Founders of ixamBee and Team
    How Was ixamBee Started?
    ixamBee – Name and Logo
    ixamBee – Revenue Model
    ixamBee – User Acquisition
    ixamBee – Startup Challenges
    ixamBee – Advisors and Mentors
    ixamBee – Growth
    ixamBee – Future Plans

    About ixamBee and How It Works

    ixamBee is a platform that lets Government job aspirants prepare for various competitive exams online. ixamBee is the only website where all the mock tests are available for free to the users to practice and prepare for various competitive exams and that is their USP.
    ixamBee makes a large number of questions at a very low cost. These questions are made in-house, after thorough research and analysis of past trends, matching the difficulty level of the exam and following the same exam patterns as the real exams. The platform offers mock tests for more than 50 exams in Banking, Insurance Teaching, Railways, SSC and other categories.

    ixamBee also provides comprehensive online learning courses for exam preparation. These learning modules are a package of short video lessons, study notes, practice questions and live sessions with the expert faculty.  Besides online practice tests and speed tests offered in the platform helps the users be better prepared to face the exam. Here, you can find over 500 video lessons to learn from and over 10000 practice questions. With paid subscriptions to these online courses, students can learn from anywhere and anytime convenient to them.

    Some highlights of ixamBee courses are–

    • Users get exam preparation tips from exam toppers and subject experts.
    • Offers career guidance by successful professionals.
    • Exam focused on comprehensive and concise study materials.
    • Content is available in vernacular languages too.
    • Extensive question banks that help students prepare better.
    • Video lessons for difficult topics.
    • ‘Adaptive Practice’ tests, where difficulty level of questions are adjusted as per performance.
    • ixamBee also offers topic wise and section wise performance accelerating analytics.

    Online Education and Ed-Tech in India

    There are 300 million students in India and a large majority of them live in villages and small towns where quality learning material is not easily accessible. Online learning provides an equal opportunity for anyone to learn from anywhere. As per reports, the size of the Online Education market is expected to reach $325.48 billion by 2026.

    EdTech market is very competitive, probably due to the low entry barriers. However, considering the large market, we have always been confident to make our own space. Today ixamBee is growing fast because of its focus on the quality of content that helps students in clearing the exam. In the time of information overload, our crisp and to the point content which is created by Subject Matter Experts is helping students get success.

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    Founders of ixamBee and Team

    ixamBee was founded by the trio, Arunima Sinha, Sandeep Singh and Chandraprakash Joshi in 2016.

    Chandraprakash Joshi is the CEO of ixamBee. He received his formal education in the field of agriculture and finance. He held reputed positions in RBI as Manager (Hyderabad) and Assistant General Manager(Lucknow). He also held various positions in esteemed organizations like Oriental Bank of Commerce, Regional Rural Bank and Yes Bank before starting ixamBee.

    Arunima Sinha, a born teacher, quit her government job (as Manager–SIDBI) and started Stratagem – a coaching institute for the preparation of competitive exams. She being an educator was very keen to work on a project for the betterment of society, combining the benefit of her teaching with tech skills, which made her join the founding team of ixamBee.

    Sandeep Singh has extensive technical experience as he used to manage various technical departments in brands like Make My Trip, Carnation Auto India Pvt. Ltd and Sirez Ltd. Sandeep also co-founded an E-commerce site ‘Babyhugs.com’ which dealt in baby care products.

    ixamBee Team

    ixamBee has a team of qualified and dedicated professionals having diverse skillsets which have helped it get established as a known name amongst students.

    How Was ixamBee Started?

    Chandraprakash Joshi did his schooling from a village and had no proper awareness and guidance to choose the right career. While travelling to different parts of the country during his field visits for YES Bank, he interacted with a large number of people living in small towns. The observation made him realize, that the people were willing to invest in education, however, there were hardly any options that made quality education accessible. Increased access to internet services in rural areas has created an opportunity for online education so Chandraprakash grabbed the opportunity with both hands. He always wanted to do something beneficial for the youth of the country, and his experiences during personal and work-life turned into a passion to teach, that finally led to the conviction of starting up ixamBee.

    “We wanted a name that is related to education and exam preparation and also wanted to include an element of nature in it,”  said Chandraprakash explaining the idea behind the name ‘ixamBee’.

    ixamBee Logo

    Bees are the most social, systematic and intelligent insects having a crucial place in the cycle of life by helping plants grow, breed and produce food.  Therefore, the word ‘exam’ is clubbed with ‘bee’. The ‘e’ of the exam is replaced with ‘i’ as the company name starting with ‘I’ makes it personalized for every user and every team member of ixamBee.

    ixamBee – Revenue Model

    ixamBee provides free mock tests for more than 50 exams and it is the only platform where students get mock tests without paying anything for that. ixamBee’s revenue comes from the comprehensive online learning courses that students subscribe to for the preparation of competitive exams such as Bank PO, SSC, RBI, NABARD, SEBI, LIC, and others.

    ixamBee – User Acquisition

    ixamBee launched the mock tests in April 2017 and reached customers using social media such as Quora, Facebook, and Youtube. Students visit the website to attempt mock tests because of the quality of questions, answer explanations and personalized feedback analytics that helps them in improving their performance. More than 300 million questions have been attempted by 750K plus users on the website.

    For a B2C player in the online space, it is tough to reach customers, and one needs to spend much on digital marketing. However, social media did the magic for ixamBee, in getting its first 1000 registrations in the first month itself. Due to good content quality, very quickly the word spread among the online student communities across various social media.

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    ixamBee – Startup Challenges

    “I always believe, What doesn’t kill you, makes you stronger”-Chandrapraksh says.

    At ixamBee, there was a big challenge to get qualified and experienced professionals on board when the company has little money to pay them. Again, there was a challenge to make students realize the quality of the content.

    To some extent selection of students in the first year of the course launch and appreciation by users about the ixamBee experience has helped us grow at a good pace. We are continuously learning how to manage these challenges in a better way and are also preparing for the bigger challenges we are going to face in the coming years.

    ixamBee – Advisors and Mentors

    Keyur Joshi, Co-Founder of MakeMyTrip is mentoring ixamBee since the beginning. Sandeep (co-founder and CTO) has earlier worked with Keyur in MakeMyTrip. Keyur’s continuous guidance has been extremely valuable for crafting the differentiation strategy and growth plan for ixamBee.

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    ixamBee – Growth

    ixamBee is growing very fast and becoming popular among students because of the value they are getting. Today the company has 1 million-plus monthly visits on the website and the number is growing constantly. There are more than 45 million page views on the websites and students have spent a total of 800,000 plus study hours at ixamBee.com. These numbers are growing at the rate of 80-100% month on month.

    The average ticket size for each course ranges from INR 3,000 to INR 60,000 per course. The company claims to have about 1,500 paid users.

    ixamBee – Future Plans

    iexambee plans to keep investing the profits into the business to launch more courses, they have already launched a mobile app and added more languages on the platform.

    “We have still not reached even 1% of the student in the market. We have lots to be achieved and we are preparing in the right direction.” Chandraprakash says.

    ixamBee’s aims to reach 100 million students by 2025. Recently, in 2021, it has raised $300,000 in seed funding.

    FAQs

    When was ixamBee was founded?

    ixamBee was founded in the year 2016.

    Who founded ixamBee?

    ixamBee was founded by Chandraprakash Joshi, Arunima Sinha and Sandeep Singh.

    What is ixamBee?

    ixamBee is an online platform that helps in learning and preparing for competitive exams for like Banking, SSC, Railways and others.