Markus Aurelius said that the first stepof understanding anything is simplicity; he proposed that one should understand the nature of something before dwelling on it. So going by the words of one of the most renowned philosophers in the world, let us understand what is ed-tech or educational technology.
Breaking it down to its simplest form educational technology usually involves the use of computer software and hardware along with teaching pedagogies to facilitate and enhance the learning experience. The ed-tech industry is quite a niche market and its demand has been rising in recent years. so if you are someone who wants to build your own edtech company here’s how you can get started.
While I was researching this topic, I understood that many renowned personalities in this field have suggested first understanding the ed-tech market. For example, before the pandemic started, the US ed-tech sector received 1.66 billion in investments, which is the highest in 5 years.
While many industries were at a disadvantage due to the pandemic, ed-tech companies raised an astonishing 16.1 billion USD. Knowing the market, its demands, and other things like that would ensure any suitor in this sector scale the evidence and weigh the facts.
Narrow Down and Validate Your Idea
You need to understand the concept of divide and conquer when it comes to ed-tech. The ed-tech market is too vast and ever-changing for a single entity to rule over.
The first step is to critically and objectively view your own idea. Find out whether your idea serves the customer’s needs and itself is unique. This will also go on to indirectly help you predict the market, discover the trend of your niche, and identify your competitive advantages.
It may look tempting to start your own ed-tech company when I put it across in such simple terms but we need to understand the problem of validity because before you propose any idea you have to ask yourself these 3 questions,
Does your idea solve a problem that is troubling a lot of people or improve a system that is quite essential in this specific area?
How do you know that you are solving a problem?
Do you have enough data and research backup to support and pitch your idea?
Define Your UVP and Choose the Right Business Model
Any business requires a UVP or a unique value proposition. What can you offer that other companies can’t? Your unique value proposition can be constructed by 3 crucial things,
The value that is delivered by your product.
The customer base that you would like to target.
What is the approach you are adopting to sell your product in this highly competitive market?
The right business model must follow your UVP. A business model usually entails how your ed-tech startup will achieve its goals and earn its revenue. It also describes the main highlights of your product and how it is going to create value for your customers.
You can experiment with a number of business models. Certain business models usually are taken up with the intention of rapid growth and the capture of large market shares, whereas certain others would usually involve selling products to institutions and monetizing your customer base from the beginning.
My advice to anyone who is interested in this area would be to choose a business model that helps you build a sustainable and independent business around a challenge or problem that you are trying to solve.
Build the Perfect Team
Building the Right Team
The right team is necessary for any business to succeed. In the highly competitive ed-tech industry, one needs to have the right team for even his/her idea to even come into consideration in front of investors. The best way to address this problem is to hire a group of professionals who are passionate and have an experienced background in education, which acts as their primary motive and the monetary benefits as their second priority.
Try to build a team that can help you create a scalable monetization model and a go-to-market strategy for your product. Being an ed-tech company’s CEO is definitely a different experience. You should start engaging in educational conventions, start visiting your local schools and understanding their learning demands and start talking to other individuals who are involved in the same business.
Being a startup in the initial stages would usually mean that you would have to work with minimum revenue. It is always better to work with an outsourcing company than pay an in-house team of engineers.
The need to have a skilled CTO – an individual who has the experience and expertise to work on the design of your product and oversee your development team is key to progress.
Have a Proof of Concept/MVP
Theoretically, it is easy to pitch any business idea. Practically every aspect of the product will find it difficult to serve and deliver to different demands of the real world. The best way to resolve this issue would be to build a proof of concept.
By building a proof of concept, you would have a strong base to validate your idea on a minimal budget. This application would usually involve the most important functionality or risky features of your product. Fancy design should not be used here to dazzle users.
Minimum viable product (MVP) works on similar lines with proof of concept. Proof of concept usually involves proving that your product will work in real life but whereas an MVP ensures that your customers are satisfied and pleased with your product.
Finally, in conclusion, we can say that by following these steps, you may have the perfect start for your company, but we should all remember consistency is key for any business to become better. With thorough research and strategy, any business can become successful and so is the case with ed-tech.
FAQs
How does EdTech make money?
Usually, edtech companies make money by selling their courses to students or schools. There are also companies that provide their courses for free but charge a small fee for the certificate.
How do you get funding for EdTech startups?
First, you need to prepare a solid business plan and then you can approach angel investors or VCs to pitch your idea and receive funding.
What is the future of EdTech in India?
India’s EdTech industry is growing at a really fast pace and is expected to reach $30 billion in the next 10 years.
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 Next Education.
Technology is the core of the present economic world. Every domain of study ranging from the health to the service sector is evolving with the regularly updated technology. Similarly, educational sectors have gone through a major transformation in recent times due to technology. Once the rigid 2D notions of learning in classrooms equipped with a Blackboard are now replaced with digital 3D projections to enable a better understanding of the concepts among the students.
Next Education is one of the startup companies that pioneered the ed-tech sector way back in 2007, founded by Beas Dev Ralhan and Raveendranath Kamath. It is a K-12-focused technology-based education solution provider. Know about the Company Profile of Next Education, Founders, Funding, Revenue, Competitors, Business Model, Growth, Acquisitions, How it started, etc., in the article ahead.
Let’s go through the Journey of Next Education along with knowing Next Education Founder, Funding, Business Model, Competitors, Revenue & more…
Founded in 2007, Next Education is an optimal education solutions provider, based out of Hyderabad. Touching the lives of 12,000,000+ students and 240,000+ teachers across 12,000+ schools, their solutions serve multiple purposes of both academic and administrative domains.
Ranging from academic solutions such as TeachNext – a digital classroom solution and NextBooks – a complete textbook series to administrative solutions such as NextERP – a cloud-based school management system, Next Education is an end-to-end education solutions provider for the K–12 sector.
Next Education’s products aim to meet all the academic needs of a learner and make quality education affordable and accessible for every child. While doing so, their belief lies in partnerships with their employees, customers, vendors, governing bodies, and other stakeholders to strengthen the ecosystem over an extended period.
Every step Next Education takes ensures to bring quality education within the grasp of every learner so that younger generation mainly become life-ready.
“Entrepreneurship in the education sector was never about money-making. Keeping an organic approach towards academics to make learners future-ready and not just well equipped for competitive exams, was what we aimed for, which later became the core USP of Next Education.”, says Raveendranath Kamath, co-founder of Next Education.
Next Education rightfully understands that education is all about the holistic development of children pertaining to creativity, adaptability, and critical reasoning. It is about instilling the joy of learning and a hunger for knowledge in every young mind. This is the reason their academic solutions are well equipped with visually intriguing content and tools such as claymations, craftmations, and AR cards.
Next Education – Target Market
India’s education sector offers a great opportunity with approximately 29% of India’s population being between the age group of 0-14 years; is estimated at USD 91.7 billion in FY18 and is expected to reach USD 101.1 billion in FY20. India’s higher education segment is is expected to increase to USD 35.03 billion by 2025.
Seamless integration of content for effective learning and instruction, and smart administrative solutions for improved planning and reporting, has made the company one of the finest end-to-end education solutions providers in the country.
Beas Dev Ralhan and Raveendranath Kamath are the founders of Next Education.
Tech aficionados and brothers working towards the same goal of creating a social impact with technology, co-founded Next Education in 2007
Raveendranath Kamath and Beas Dev Ralhan – Founders, Next Education
Beas Dev Ralhan
Beas Dev Ralhan is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Next Education. Ralhan received his formal education from IIT Bombay and London Business School. As the CEO of Next Education, he brings energy, inspiration, and direction to the company’s vision.
Raveendranath Kamath
Raveendranath Kamath, the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of Next Education plays an integral part in financial planning, product engineering, and supply chain management of the organisation. An alumnus of IIT Kharagpur, Kamath has over two decades of experience in finance and operations.
Next Education has a team of around 1,000+ qualified and dedicated professionals with diverse skill sets, which have helped it establish itself as a known name amongst the academic stakeholders.
Next Education – Startup Story | How was Next Education Started?
His days at IIT Bombay made Ralhan realise that to make an impact on modern society, one has to build companies supported by the latest technologies and utilize the power of the Internet. Raveendranath Kamath, Ralhan’s friend and colleague at PartyGaming, had the same vision. Both of them desired to employ technology to make a social impact in India.
In 2007, a focused market study helped them realize that the Indian education sector was least impacted by technology. With technology as their ally, they wanted to devise innovative methods to make education accessible and affordable for all. Thus Next Education was born with a vision to transform education to suit the requirements of today’s learners.
“More than a decade ago, we had envisaged a not-too-distant future when quality education would be within the reach of every child. We had always dreamt of the day when quality education would no longer be the privilege of a few and our ardent desire to nurture and fulfill this aspiration keeps us motivated.”, recalled Raveendranath and Beas, founders of Next Education.
Next Education – Startup Launch
In 2009, Next Education launched their first product, LearnNext – a self-learning home-based solution for children. The response received for the product was overwhelming and there was no looking back for the team at Next Education thereafter. Next Education’s ecosystem has been steadily enriched with numerous solutions catering to different stakeholders belonging to the academic sector.
NextCurriculum, NextLabs, TeachNext, and NLP are the four vital parts of the Next Education ecosystem, which enhance the significance of learning by incorporating hands-on learning activities and a learner-centric approach.
Next Education’s flagship product, TeachNext, launched in 2010, has been a milestone in terms of digitization of classrooms nationwide. Recently, they have launched NLP, i.e. Next Learning Platform, which is a cloud-based solution equipped with NextERP, LMS, and adaptive learning, meeting all the requirements of academic and administrative stakeholders. The company also offers a teacher training solution for schools called NextDeeksha.
Next Education – Mission and Vision
Next Education aims to “put into practice the best teaching–learning methodologies that will help shape the lives of the torchbearers of tomorrow,” which the company underlines as its mission.
The vision of Next Education is “to bring quality education within the reach of every learner, so that they are prepared for the challenges in life.”
The company started in 2007 as Helix Technology Solutions Pvt Ltd, which was later renamed as Next Education aligning with the spirit of the brand and its products.
Next Education Logo
The name ‘Next Education’ stands for an edTech solutions provider for the next generation, capable of transforming education.
Next Education – Business Model and Revenue Model
Next Education India Pvt Ltd is an end-to-end edTech solutions provider that follows B2B and B2C business models. At Next Education, consistent effort is put to create solutions that meet all the requirements of academic stakeholders pertaining to school set-up, digitalisation of classrooms, implementation of activity-oriented education, administrative guidance and tools etc.
Next Education – Funding and Investors
Next Education raised the initial funding from Anurag Dikshit, co-founder of PartyGaming, who was ranked among the 40 richest Indians, according to ‘Forbes’ Magazine.
Next Education – Startup Challenges
Transforming education is not an easy task. A vast part of our country still follows the conventional methods of teaching and learning, which lays emphasis on teacher centered education. The slow device penetration rate, skepticism about embracing ed-tech products over traditional home tuition and lack of awareness among people regarding integrated education, were initial challenges faced by Next Education.
Hence, introducing innovative products and restoring the faith of people in the transformation formed the central approach towards meeting the challenges, and today, TeachNext is the top-selling digital classroom solution in India with a market share of 65% .
Next Education – Competitors
Next Education directly competes with companies such as BYJU’s, Extramarks, Educomp, Pearson, etc.
“At Next, we believe in healthy competition, as all of us are trying to harness the potential of the present generation of learners for a better tomorrow.”, said Beas, co-founder and CEO of Next Education.
Next Education – Advisors and Mentors
For Beas Dev Ralhan, his father is his best mentor, whose ideas, thoughts and values have inspired Ralhan to begin a startup – Next Education and work tirelessly with hope, motivation, perseverance and patience.
My father has been the most inspirational mentor throughout my life. His entrepreneurial endeavours and never-say-die attitude motivated me to start my venture and shape and nurture Next Education.
He taught me that patience is the key to run a business successfully, which I strongly believe and follow. When you are impatient, you tend to miss critical details and opportunities, which may lead to irrevocable mistakes.
Due to the fast-paced nature of today’s world, we value dynamic actions and quick solutions, but if this attitude morphs into impatience, it will cloud your judgement, ruin relationships and destroy your credibility in the market.
Next Education – Awards
Next Education received following awards and recognition:
Innovation in Teaching Pedagogy award at World Education Summit 2012
Best Multimedia Content for K–12 Education at World Education Summit 2013
Excellent Human Resource Management in Education Industry by National HRD Network
Best Digital K–12 Multimedia Content for Maharashtra State Board in English and Marathi by Wisitex World Education
Best School Books Solution Award at Global Learn Tech Conference and Awards
Best Emerging School ERP award at Digital Edge ICT Conclave on Education
Innovation in Teaching Pedagogy award at World Education Summit 2015
Innovation Excellence Award in Education by ASSOCHAM
Pre-school Pedagogy award at the World Education Summit 2016
“We, Nextians, are learners who embrace achievements with innate happiness and take failures as steps towards learning.” said the founders of Next Education.
Next Education has acquired 2 organizations. Their most recent acquisition was Xolvr on Dec 2, 2016.
Date
Acquired
About
Dec 2, 2016
Xolvr
Xolvr is a convenient & affordable community driven ‘after school study’ platform
Feb 11, 2016
InOpen
InOpen designs and develops educational content and solutions for academic institutions
Next Education – Growth
Next Education presently has an all-India presence and is headquartered in Hyderabad. Apart from Hyderabad, they have offices in Pune, Noida, Kochi, and Chennai. After establishing in the Indian education spectrum, Next Education is off to make its mark at the global level. Since 2016, they have been expanding their business in the Middle East. In early 2019, Next Education has opened a branch in Dubai.
Currently, Next Education is the largest player in the highly concentrated Indian Private K-12 digital classroom sector. The company has reached out to 60,000+ classrooms since the year of inception and has a turnover of 276 crores in FY 19.
“Our main motive is to create solutions for schools that positively impact the education system and help the next generation have a better tomorrow.”, said Raveendranath and Beas.
One of the oldest and the most successful education solutions provider, Next Education has launched Kindernext on October 16, 2019, on the completion of the twelfth year of its operations. This new initiative is launched with an aim to stand as a smart preschool and activity center for 21st-century learners, which will extend fun and interactive space to the young students, thereby advancing their development and honing their desire to be lifelong learners.
Here’s a glimpse at the highlights of the popular features of KinderNext by Next Education:
It is a smart preschool and activity center that is tailor-made with vibrant textbooks, an award-winning digital classroom, detailed mentor manuals, and smart resource kits.
It follows a research-based integrated approach towards learning, laying equal emphasis on developing the five key areas: linguistic, cognitive, physical, social, and emotional.
The curriculum of KinderNext is centred on NCF guidelines for early childhood education.
KinderNext is designed to provide young learners with the right care and attention to foster curiosity and confidence in them. Its distinct features like multimodal learning, explore-and-play technique, and age-appropriate learning approach can help students gain a rich learning experience and ensure continuous progress towards their desired goals.
Speaking on the launch of KinderNext, Next Education Co-founder and CEO, Beas Dev Ralhan said thatKinderNext, with impactful technology, best faculty, and new-age curriculum coming together, is favorable for all its stakeholders – the young students, parents, and schools.
Next Education – Future Plans
Next Education has achieved quite a growth since it started in 2007. The startup believes continuous innovation and becoming a one-stop solution are the way forward.
Next Education – FAQs
What is Next Education?
Next Education is an edtech startup launched in 2007 by Beas Ralhan, Raveendranath Kamath in Noida, UP, which believes in embracing technology to revolutionise the education system of India. All of the products and services that Next Education offers are learner-centric and classroom-friendly.
Who is the founder of Next learning platform?
Beas Ralhan and Raveendranath Kamath are the founders of Next learning or what we commonly refer to as Next Education.
How is Next Education transforming education?
Next Education is fueled by the latest technological advancements, expert teachers, and over 10,000 impactful learning modules, which greatly help the company to transform education.
Although people underestimate the value of education these days because of the “dropout” tag, education is irreplaceable. People need to upgrade their skills instead of just getting a degree.
Schools and colleges are important but the skills which schools and colleges don’t teach us are equally useful. The leading edtech companies of India are changing the scene of education in the country. They are redefining the process of learning. And this contributes towards a bright future for Indian children and youth.
India suffers from a skewed pupil-to-teacher ratio that continues to rise; it compromises the learning experience for students in schools. To counter this skewness, technology-driven learning apps are using gaming elements such as point-scoring, interaction with others, personalization, and data-driven insights to enhance the learning process for students and sharpen their basics in various subjects. These apps are known for their features that enable students to perform better in classrooms.
Edtech startups are emerging as a major business industry in India. The education sector in India was estimated at US$ 91.7 billion in FY18 and was expected to reach $101.1 Billion in FY19 and the edtech market is expected to reach $4 billion by 2025.
Counted among one of the top and biggest edtech companies in India, Byjus is an edtech startup that offers a learning app that provides coaching for competitive entrance exams like IIT-JEE, CAT, UPSC, GMAT, GRE, Engineering & Medical, and courses of grades 6th to 12th. It offers online courses and tablet classes with multi-test and assignment solutions, personal feedback, and in-depth analysis.
After using the Byju’s app, 93% of parents reported a marked improvement in their child’s performance in grades according to the company. Byju’s has 15 million registered users with 900,000 of them taking annual paid subscriptions and an 85% renewal rate. The average app engagement rate, as reported by the company, is 53 minutes per day.
Byju’s is an edtech startup in Bangalore and was founded by Byju Raveendran in 2011. Its current total equity is $5.4 billion. BYJU’S also won many awards like the CRISIL Emerging India Award and the Deloitte Technology Fast 50 Award. It is available on Android and iOS platforms.
2. Unacademy
Founders: Heemash Singh, Sachin Gupta, and Gaurav Munjal
Unacademy Website
Launched as a YouTube channel by Hemaash Singh in 2010, Unacademy is now a famous name in the education technology segment of India. It is a popular e-learning startup and one of the leading edtech companies in Bangalore.
Unacademy has provided lessons to more than 30,00,000 (3 million) students to date. It has tied up with some of the most experienced teachers to tutor its students. You will find over 2400 online courses. Most of the courses are free on this platform; however, you may have to pay for the certifications.
Unacademy has a goal of providing free education. And It has ventured into numerous fields like banking, CA, CAPF, UPSC, CLAT, CAT, JEE, pre-medical and more. The video tutorials are available in various languages and students can follow tutors to get directly courses from them. Unacademy’s business model is primarily based on the plus subscription feature offered on its platform.
Unacademy is an edtech company in Bangalore that serves as an online learning marketplace for courses. It was founded by Heemash Singh, Sachin Gupta, and Gaurav Munjal. The YouTube channel was shifted to an online learning platform in 2015. You can still find many videos on Unacademy’s YouTube Channel.
3. iQuanta
Founder: Indrajeet Singh
iQuanta’s website
iQuanta is India’s Largest online CAT preparation community. The founder and CEO of iQuanta Mr. Indrajeet Singh is one of the top 5 young Indian Entrepreneurs. His indigenous shortcuts and unconventional methods earned entitled him “Wizard of Quants”. iQuanta aims at offering quality education accessible to anyone willing to appear for competitive exams, along with its unique pedagogy at affordable prices. iQuanta is a bootstrap Edtech company.
iQuanta was incorporated in 2017 and today, since its inception, has built a community of 3.5 lakh+ aspirants from all over the world with 10,521 + IIM calls and 1000+ IIM converts in just 5 years.
4. TrainerCentral
Parent Company – Zoho
TrainerCentral’s website
TrainerCentral is a Zoho application, which aims to transform the way people teach online. This all-in-one online training platform empowers solopreneurs, edupreneurs, and anyone who wishes to share their expertise with learners worldwide.
The platform provides tools to help trainers build a fully equipped online training business with numerous integration capabilities. Trainers can create their own website, upload content, create course curriculum, host live classes, manage learner communications, certifications, collect learner fees, and much more, on one unified platform.
TrainerCentral strives to mitigate the inefficiencies caused by siloed tools and the technical complexities involved in building an online training business. Trainers and learners alike benefit from the built-in live classroom feature with chat and payment gateway integration options. Online trainers across the globe are thrilled with TrainerCentral, as demonstrated by its steady MOM growth of 30%.
TrainerCentral offers a 15-day free trial to help explore the platform.
5. UpGrad
Founders: Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgum Komapalli, and Ravijot Chugh
UpGrad Website
UpGrad is an online edtech platform that provides higher education programs. It provides an immersive learning experience through the latest technology that powers well-designed courses. UpGrad was founded in 2015 by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgum Komapalli, and Ravijot Chugh.
6. Next Education
Founder: Raveendranath Kamath, Beas Dev Ralhan
Next Education Website
Next Education is a Hyderabad-based learning website founded by Beas Dev Ralhan and Raveendranath Kamath in 2007 and caters to K-12 students through its technology-based education solutions.
Next Education has leading products such as TeachNext, LearnNext, MathsLab, ScienceLab, and EnglishLab on its platform. These products are used in more than 6,000 schools across the country.
The study material and products are designed to cover the syllabus of CBSE, ICSE, and 23 state boards in 8 major Indian languages. Next Education’s technology platform is based on Linux and open-source resources.
Other technological advancements on the app include 2D and 3D graphics, interactive content of international standards, voice-overs, clear sound, and an innovative course design that is easily accessible via an inbuilt IR remote. The company has invested over Rs. 400 crores and more than Rs. 30 crores on R&D alone.
Leverage Edu started off as a college admissions platform and has now grown to be a full-stack marketplace within a year. Leverage Edu was founded by Akshay Chaturvedi and Aman Arora in 2018.
The platform uses an AI tool to help students in their careers through mentorship products, end-to-end college admission guidance, programs to help them become first-job ready, and one-to-one virtual advisory for multiple career streams.
The app has over 1500+ mentors from Ivy League Universities and individuals from organizations like Apple and Goldman Sachs. The founder was quoted saying, “The platform is in the middle of executing an inspiration product roadmap and will continue to scale and bring onboard great talent aggressively, invest in continuously bettering our experience, and doing more or what we are good at!”
8. NoPaperForms
Founder: Naveen Goyal
NoPaperForms Website
NoPaperForms is a SaaS-based enrollment automation solution startup that aims to transform the admission process in educational institutions in India and abroad.
The platform helps institutions increase their outreach capabilities, enhance recruitment efforts, expand customer service offerings, and improve end results. The entire process is 100% transparent.
NoPaperForms has partnered with more than 190 institutions and claims to have handled 350k+ queries. It has received more than 1.2 million applications and has grown by around 500% in a year’s time to Rs 100 crores. This valuation was achieved after NoPaperForms raised its Series B funding in December 2018.
9. Quizizz
Founders: Ankit Gupta, Deepak Joy Cheenath
Quizizz Website
Quizizz is an interactive teaching platform that allows its users to conduct student-paced formative assessments in an engaging manner for students of all ages. The website can be operated on any browser, PC, laptop, tablet and smartphone.
The platform combines game-design elements and helps teachers turn students’ homework and tests into self-paced games. Then there is the option of instant feedback. Teachers can use their own content or choose from millions of educator-created quizzes.
Quizizz’s aim is to motivate learners and play a part in their growth. Quizizz has over 10 million users and its solution is well-adopted in US-based schools.
10. Campk12
Founders: Anshul Bhagi, Sandeep Bhagi
Campk12 Website
Camp K12 provides entrepreneurship and app development programs to school students during their vacations and weekends. It is a K12 edtech company in India that focuses on developing kids into innovators.
CampK12 was founded by Anshul Baghi in 2010. The company started out as a coding boot camp for kids. As of today, CampK12 has catered to 50,000+ students.
Coursera is another education platform that offers a variety of courses. The USP of Coursera is the experienced professionals it hires which makes it one of the leading edtech startups in India. If you want to learn from highly experienced people from around the world, then Coursera is for you. Just like Unacademy, you can watch the videos of some courses for free but you will have to pay for the certifications and assignments.
12. Cuemath
Founder: Manan Khurma
Cuemath Website
Cuemath is a program that teaches math to children. Cuemath has more than 3000 centers in India and each session in a center has only 6 students at a time. The startup’s emphasis is not on Abacus or Vedic math; it focuses on improving the mathematical concepts of children instead of merely teaching them to calculate fast. Cuemath was founded by Manan Khurma in 2013. The fees range from Rs 2500- Rs 3000 depending on where the branch is located.
IndigoLearn is a Hyderabad-based accountancy focused edtech startup. The startup uses the latest technology and animation techniques to make finance and accountancy fun to learn. IndigoLearn was founded by Somayajula, Sathya Raghu Mokkapati, Suraj Lakhotia, and Sarat Udumari in 2017.
14. My Peegu
Founder: Chetan Jaiswal
MyPeegu Website
My Peegu provides tools that help parents and teachers monitor their kids’ well-being. A team of professional psychiatrists provides treatment to kids for mental development. My Peegu’s services are available in 6 countries including India.
15. Thinkerbell Labs
Founders: Sanskriti Dawle and Aman Srivastava, and Saif Shaikh
Starting as an independent research project named “Project Mudra”, Thinkerbell Labs is now working on a self-learning braille device. The device is named Annie and anyone can learn the braille language with it. Thinkerbell Labs was founded by Sanskriti Dawle and Aman Srivastava. The company showcased its idea on the popular business reality tv show Shark Tank India and received Rs 1crore funding.
16. MyCaptain
Founder: Ruhan Naqash, Mohammed Zeeshan
MyCaptain Website
MyCaptain provides students with a way to experience various fields of interest and test them out. Most of the time, kids choose their path according to the social norms or in the greed of tons of money. MyCaptain helps students discover their interests and indulge in a career that suits them. People can make informed decisions when they are aware of the realities associated with different career trajectories.
17. Adda247
Founders: Anil Nagar
Adda247 Website
Adda247 is one of the best edtech companies in India that assists with government job preparation and provides articles, jobs alerts, quizzes, videos, e-books, e-magazines, discussion forums, etc. The Adda 247 app offers a smooth UI and intuitive workflows that are powered by cutting-edge technologies.
The company has designed other apps like Bankersadda.com (to prepare for banking exams), SSCAdda.com (to prepare for various central government exams), and TeachersAdda.co.in to bag teaching jobs in government schools. The Adda247 YouTube channel contains videos on current affairs and upcoming government job vacancies.
Meritnation is an online education startup based in Delhi. Meritnation was founded by Pavan Chauhan in 2008. It has grown to become one of the most helpful websites for online education. Meritnation provides learning content for students for classes 1st to 12th across CBSE, ICSE, and other leading state boards.
Meritnation offers its users study material, tests, proficiency tests, and Olympiad packs via a social network like experience. The Meritnation app also tracks a student’s progress and displays personalized recommendations along with analytical data reports to point out his or her strengths and improvement areas.
19. Toppr
Founder: Zishaan Hayath, Hemanth Goteti
Toppr Website
Toppr is an online exam preparation platform for K-12 students. Toppr focuses on school curriculum syllabus and entrance examinations like JEE, UPSC, NEET, SAT, etc. It offers structured courses complemented by interactive video lectures, practise question sets, doubt clearing by professionals, and all-India test series.
Toppr is based out of Mumbai and was founded by Zishaan Hayath in 2013. The Toppr app includes goal-based learning, adaptive questions’ practice, performance reports, concept sheets, and previous year question papers. It also offers courses for medical and engineering examinations, board examinations, and Olympiads.
Conclusion
This completes the list of leading edtech companies in India. Even though the Indian education system is undergoing a seismic shift, Indians still have to deal with outdated methods of teaching and inefficient learning techniques. The system also fosters unhealthy competition among students. Edtech startups are gradually changing all of this for the better.
FAQs
Which is India’s largest edtech company?
Byju’s is India’s largest edtech company with a valuation of $21 billion. It has over 10 crore students and 65 lakh annual paid subscribers.
Which is the best edtech company in India?
Byju’s, Unacademy, UpGrad, Vedantu and Toppr are some of the best edtech companies in India.
What are some of the top edtech companies in bangalore?
Byju’s, Vedantu, Unacademy, Simplilearn, and Cuemath are some of the top edtech companies in Bangalore.
Educational technology is the integrated use of computer technology (software, hardware), educational theory, and training. It provides and manages technological processes and educational resources to improve the user’s academic activity and performance. We can improve the learning process, teaching process and performance of the educational system through technology.
This objective must be taken into account when selecting software, computer programs or tools for the classroom. There are five main areas in this field. It includes design, development, utilization, management, and evaluation. These requirements applied to all knowledge based areas conducted by professionals in this field. Each area of educational technology brings together research-based knowledge and experience.
From classrooms to smart devices, India’s educational media has shifted to a paradigm shift. There are 665 million wireless Internet subscribers(in the first quarter of 2019) in India. India has grown by 14% in base for internet services in a single year. It is good for startups. Digital products and services provide better convenience when it comes to learning in the classroom.
The emergence of coronavirus has a major impact on the Edtech sector of India. The education process in schools, colleges, and other educational institutions changed into online because of lockdown. Also people in the society are feared about spreading of coronavirus. Unlike in the past, schools, institutes and learning centers have also adopted technology-based solutions.
Data sourced from Redseer and Omidyar Network Edtech Report
The usage growth in Edtech market from 2019 to 2020 shows in a report by RedSeer & Omidyar network India. The Edtech user base has a growth from 45 million to 90 million in k-12 & post k-12 sector. It includes both free and paid users. The time spent has increased by 50 percentage. That has changed from 60 minutes to 90 minutes.
The report also says that those who are willing to pay have increased by 40 percentages and the number of paid users has increased by 83 percentages. The report says that the online education offerings will increase 6.3 times by 2022. It will create a market of $ 1.17 billion. The k-12 market will grow 3.7 times to 1.8 trillion. It will create significant opportunities for peoples for different new startups.
The Director of the Omidyar Network India, Namita dalmia said, “The lockdown has provided massive tailwinds to the growing Edtech space. Edtech offerings have helped millions of students across the country to continue their learning from home. These solutions are better, more convenient, and affordable alternatives for students and parents”.
The Requirement For Upskilling Of Working Professionals
The report says that relevance problems have affected education system. As it has affected many professional careers, Edtech players can play an important role in ensuring job security by increasing access to higher technical education (for those who have been unable to progress in their formative years). Also it helps to grow more professionals.
In 2019, the World Economic Forum (WEF) published a report named “Global Competitiveness Report”. According to that report, India has 68th rank among 141 countries. The country is among the best in terms of market size, innovation, and macroeconomic stability, but in job training, digital skills and the ease of finding trained personnel are far behind (ranked 107).
The differences will mainly exist in the general areas of training, language, prices, teacher training and offline support. There are 150 million Edtech addressable students in India. They cross urban lines, income groups, language skills. Excessive use of sub-projects will increase the probability of Edtech companies. Price, delivery, offerings, and teacher training services, and offline support will be affected. Other changes are given below.
A. The Changes Around Sales and Pricing
The report says that price innovation will be important in paid adoption. Especially as Edtech reaches in low-income cities, it can make impact. The annual price will change into $100-$150. There will be a 3 times increase in market. It is leading to paid adoption.
B. The Partnerships Will Rise
Creating partnerships will help Edtech players gain a diverse customer base. As Edtech players expand their user base, areas of collaboration will evolve. Expansion requires the promotion of low-income cities. It represents 70% of the student population.
But, there is only 10% of the current student population as active users of EdTech (free and paid). Indian language platforms are included in the partnerships. They have over 300 million active users per month. The collaboration with the institutions will help to increase the reach.
Real investments in production will help the lower grade user base in Indian language sectors. Edtech is now lagging in the lower grades. They are big on the usage of Indian language.
D. The Promotion And Adoption of Edtech Through Schools
The distance between parents and schools will disappear and will bring new opportunities. About 65 percentage of the total student population goes to government schools and the 85 percentage of the remaining 35 percentage students will go to private schools, while 15 percentages goes to institutions with limited technical facilities.
Students are learning through online classes
Covid-19 encouraged the education sector to focus on the online. But there is also a lack of technical facilities among schools. There is only less than five percent of students who are studying in institutions with technical facilities.
E. The Influence Of Startups
Startups should focus on working better, attracting students, and delivering results through products. This will ensure that the uptick is maintained after restrictions are removed. When invest in content production, EdTech players need to innovate in sales and pricing to provide a broader student base.
Covid-19 will limit the number of customers. The 40% of customers may stop using Edtech after restrictions are removed. It will result a fall in engagement on Edtech platforms. To address this, startups must focus on pricing innovation, Indian language content, expanding user base, and sales innovation.
Outside of the school system, Edtech startups have allowed more and more people to explore new skills, while experienced staff can more easily take on new challenges in the tech industry. If we were to speak to a generation that was working and succeeding in India before the 1990s, we could hear stories that would have been almost impossible. But now situations are different. Edtech startups help them overcome obstacles on their journey of students, employees, and entrepreneurs.
Ed-Tech Startups are creating a base for the future of India and we need to realize the importance of the problems they are solving. From creating a space to teach kids with the latest technologies by the best teachers in the country to providing an income base an exposure to a large group of people. It is not far when we can see these twinkling stars twinkle in the daylight of the future India.
FAQ’s
What are the top Edtech companies in India?
BYJU’S
Unacademy Logo
UpGrad Logo
What is EdTech company?
A combination of education and technology refers to software and hardware designed to enhance teacher-led learning in classrooms and improve students’ education outcomes.
What is the future of Edtech in India?
EdTech has seen an upsurge and is expected to be the new normal in the future as well. India is currently home to over 3, 500 EdTech start-ups, and online education in India could be worth $1.96 billion by 2021.
The pandemic has contributed to the growth of the technology sector and made it a necessity. The entire world has shifted from offline to online mode.
All the office work, teaching, and learning went online. This gave rise to more and more platforms that support these services.
With schools, colleges, and coaching being shut down, the ed-tech sector became the need of the hour. One name in this sector that gained huge popularity is BYJU’S.
BYJU’S is one of the most popular platforms in the ed-tech sector. With its great teachers, learning material, and latest technologies, it has earned quite a big space in student’s life.
BYJU’S is a technology-based educational platform. It has various programs for students to learn between the 1st to 12thstandards. It also offers various courses for exam preparations. These include CAT, MAT, NEET, JEE.
The company aims to develop self-learning among children. It helps the students to clear their doubts many times without any hesitation. It provides learning through the best-qualified teachers.
Foundation
BYJU’S was founded in the year 2011. Byju Raveendran and his wife, Divya Gokulnath collectively found the company. As the name suggests, the company is named after the founder’s name.
The company has its headquarters located in Bengaluru.
Where Did the Idea Come for the Startup?
The idea came in Byju’s head while helping his friend crack the CAT exam during his vacations. He also gave the exam and cleared it with 100 percent.
After that, he began to conduct workshops on mathematics. Later, to expand his reach, he began to record his workshops. This was the time when startup seed was sown in his head.
BYJU’s and the Effect on Ed-tech Sector During Pandemic
The concept of tuition has always been there. The students who didn’t understand the course at school or couldn’t score well would opt for the tuition. Sometimes the students would go to their friends or someone elder living nearby to learn. The other times, especially the older students would join coaching centres.
BYJU’S helps the students to learn out of the four walls of the school. It clears various doubts of the students like tuition but in an online format. The concept of the company was amazing. But it didn’t get much popularity as most people didn’t want increased screen time for their children.
However, The pandemic changed the entire scenario. The whole learning process shifted to the online mode. Even the regular school’s classes got reduced to mere a screen. With lockdowns everywhere, the local tuitions and coaching centres got closed.
This was the time when people had to understand the need for online learning. During the pandemic, BYJU’S made its content for 1st-12thstandard free for all for a while. This helped the platform gain huge popularity and audience towards itself. Thus, the pandemic proved to be a boon for BYJU’S.
The company was also able to raise significant funding during this time and became a deacorn (A company valued at $10 billion) with a valuation of $10.5 billion.
Is BYJU’S Creating a Monopoly in the Ed-tech Sector?
BYJU’S does have various competitors in the market. However, certain reasons are showing that it may be trying to create a monopoly. These are:
Empire Building
BYJU’s trying to establish itself not only in India but outside as well. BYJU’S didn’t see a sudden growth in the initial days. It took the company almost four years to gain a student’s audience of 40 million. During the pandemic, however, this number rose to 65 million.
The company aims to develop a learning app for global students as well. With its acquisition of WhiteHat Jr., it aims to serve the students in New Zealand, Australia, etc. By building an empire, BYJU’S seems to create a monopoly.
Byju’s Acquisitions Spree
BYJU’S has indulged in 18 acquisitions and an investment, spending more than $2.88 billion. Out of these 10 acquisitions were made in 2021. These included- Scholar, HashLearn, Gradeup, Great Learning, Aakash Educational Services, GeoGebra, Tynker, Whodat, Toppr, Epic.
Aakash Educational Services has a strong level of trust among the students and parents. It has been a tried and trusted source for Indian customers. BYJU’s acquisition of it gained a huge customer base and trust towards the company.
Startup Name
Acquisition Date
Acquisition Amount
Vidyartha
January 2017
Rs 50 Crore
TutorVista and Edurite
July 2017
$5 million – $30 million
Math Adventures
July 2018
$100 million
Osmo
January 2019
$120 million
WhiteHat Jr.
August 2020
$300 million
LabInApp
September 2020
–
Aakash Educational Services Ltd
January 2021
$1 billion
BYJU’s various acquisitions seem to be a reason that shows it is trying to create a monopoly in the ed-tech sector.
Valuable Unicorn
BYJU’S over the years has now earned a huge valuation for itself. In June 2021, BYJU’S became the most valuable unicorn in India. It even surpassed the digital payment platform, Paytm. BYJU earned this without going public.
The company hasn’t indicated any definite plans to go public. But when it goes, it is sure to create a huge impact in the entire ed-tech market with great success.
What Makes BYJU’S So Popular Than the Others in Ed-Tech Sector?
BYJU’S holds an important position in the ed-tech market but this position doesn’t come without competitors. It has various competitors like Unacademy, Vedantu, Toppr, and more.
There are certain points that make BYJU’S a highlight in the ed-tech industry. These are:
It has courses for children in kindergarten. Also, it has courses for students preparing for competitive exams.
The teaching methods used by BYJU’S are super effective. They impart knowledge through videos that have a super catchy pattern.
The lessons offered by BYJU’S are easier to understand. They are more interactive in nature than other platforms.
BYJU’S also has a pool of knowledge and study material for the people preparing for government jobs.
Unlike various platforms, BYJU’S offers lessons in many languages. For example- Hindi, Telegu, etc. This enables the company to attract a wide range of audiences to the platform.
BYJU’S also conducts live classes for various courses. For example- competitive exam prep, coding, and tutoring. This develops a better sense of interest among the students.
BYJU’S is one of the leading platforms in the ed-tech sector. The pandemic brought various competitors to the company. BYJU’S yet, with its expansion, acquisitions, and strategies, continues to stand out from the rest.
BYJU’s acquisition of Aakash Educational Services, Gradeup, and WhiteHat Jr. are the biggest contributions towards its growth. These helped BYJU’S gain trust and a huge customer base. With all these, BYJU’S does seem to create a monopoly in the ed-tech sector. However, only time will tell if it enjoys the status of monopoly in the future.
FAQ
Is BYJU’s creating a monopoly?
BYJU’S has indulged in 18 acquisitions with these many acquisitions it looks like Byjus is trying to create a monopoly in the edtech sector.
Did BYJU’s acquire Aakash?
Yes, Byju’s acquired Aakash in January 2021 for $1 billion.
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 Practically.
The lockdown induced by the Covid-19 pandemic has produced a paradigm shift in learners’ behavior leading to an exponential increase in the demand for EdTech products in India. The global education market is worth $6 Trillion out of which $10 Bn is the size of what the Indian education market will be by 2025. There are 100 Million learners in Practically’s target segment India, which is largely the private school student population.
Practically is an intelligent, interactive and immersive learning app for students of classes 6-12 with a focus on STEM learning. Being the only such product in the world, Practically combines gamification techniques, immersive learning assets, test-prep and AI-assisted study buddy in one compact cross-platform app. 3,30,000+ students have already benefited from the engaging content on Practically platform, which has the largest content library of world-class 3000+ 3D videos, 1000+ AR experiences & simulations, all created in-house.
StartupTalky interviewed Charu Noheria (Co-founder and COO of Practically) to get an insight on Practically’s Startup Story. In this post you will find all about Practically’s business model, revenue model how it started, its growth prospects, funding and more.
Practically is an intelligent, interactive, and immersive learning app for students of classes 6-12 with a focus on STEM learning. It is the only experiential learning app that brings learning alive through immersive videos, interactive augmented reality and 3D simulations.
It offers an edge over other learning apps by enhancing conceptual understanding and improving retention of concepts with features like –
Life-like video content
Hands-on learning,
experiential learning,
24×7 seek help with access to subject experts for doubt resolution,
Live classes
Coding++ and Proton – a very sophisticated virtual AI assistant that can answer most doubts learners may have.
3,30,000+ students have already benefited from the engaging content on Practically platform, which has the largest content library of world-class 3000+ 3D videos, 1000+ AR experiences & simulations, all created in-house.
Practically AI Buddy – PROTON
Practically offers a unique solution for schools. The new-age classroom experience for teachers and students, through the Practically School Solution, focuses on futuristic content, gamification, and distraction-free classes. The platform is currently free for all teachers and schools. Practically has come up with a unique tool, which gives teachers the AI-based insights and real-time data analytics of student attentiveness in the virtual classroom, and helps them to come up with alternative teaching solutions such as a pop-quiz or playing a subject related, simulation videos, thereby making learning fun, interactive and distraction-free. Apart from this, teachers have complete access to world-class video and simulations that uses real-life applications, 200K questions, various learning models that enables flipped or blended learning models, easily shareable reference material, test-prep with five-level question bank, detailed reporting and analytics, and most importantly, they can teach students anywhere and anytime on any devices.
Over 200 schools and 18,000 teachers across India are already using Practically to enable online classes during the pandemic. Practically is constantly innovating ways to improve the rate of retention for students to more than 90% by using new-age learning methodology and experiential content.
Practically is a young, insurgent brand from a team of energetic people who passionately believe in reshaping the way the world learns. It believes that there is a hidden explorer embedded within us, which is often stifled by the rigid notions of conventional education. Practically aims to nurture that explorer within every learner and unleash their true potential for limitless learning. Practically uses cutting-edge technologies to render experiential learning to the students. Its primary objective is to improve the rate of retention for students to more than 90% by using a new-age learning methodology and experiential content.
Practically’s aim is to be the ‘Most trusted and preferred’ EdTech brand globally. It will be looking at expanding pan India, one more international market followed by other markets with a collective reach of 20M users by 2025.
Although the near-term plan is to expand into other English-speaking countries globally, It is also exploring with partners in countries where there is a need for content in other languages as Practically’s immersive animated video content can be easily localized.
In the next couple of years, Practically expects to hire thousands of employees across its teams. By 2023, the company would have comfortably surpassed a unicorn status and will be well on its path to becoming a decacorn.
Practically’s product lineup will also see a number of additions to keep up with its growth plans. Starting with the K-5 segment this year, it plans to enter segments such as engineering and medical labs, patient education in healthcare, etc. which is in line with the company’s growth strategy.
Practically – Indian Edtech Market Details
The global education market is worth $6 Trillion out of which $10 Bn is the size of what the Indian education market will be by 2025 (Source: Inc42). There are 100 Million learners in Practically’s target segment India, which is largely the private school student population.
Growth of Indian Edtech Ecosystem in 5 years
The Indian EdTech ecosystem has raised nearly $2.2 billion in 2020 alone, whereas it attracted only $4 billion over the last five years. Over the last three years, this segment has received total funding of $31 million.
“Clearly there is interest from investors in the promise of EdTech companies and for good reason a joint report by Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IVCA), and PGA Labs, the market intelligence business of Praxis Global Alliance (PGA), revealed,” says Charu Noheria (Co-founder & COO, Practically)
The education sector in India is expected to be a $117 billion market with currently around 360 million learners, out of which around $49 billion is spent on school education. Traditionally, this sector has seen low investor interest however thanks to COVID, several startups have mushroomed and may have been funded as well. This is a watershed moment for EdTech as the next decade is the decade for e-learning companies.
The lockdown induced by the Covid-19 pandemic has produced a paradigm shift in learners’ behavior leading to an exponential increase in the demand for EdTech products in India. As consumers are more aware of the offerings and accessibility, the urge to learn beyond the syllabus will help in bringing in innovations in learning. With the implementation of the New Education Policy, online learning in higher education will experience accelerated adoption as people focus more on upskilling and reskilling.
The EdTech sector is witnessing unprecedented growth owing to the increasing adoption of technology during the pandemic. The team at Practically believe that technology adoption in the education sector is yet to see its peak and the growth trajectory is likely to continue beyond the pandemic years. The lockdown induced by the pandemic has brought an ever-increasing demand for EdTech products in India. Consumers are becoming more aware of the offerings and accessibility thus leading to new innovations in learning. With steep competition, players need to modify their offerings to engage consumers constantly.
The sector poses some challenges in terms of infrastructure such as access to devices like laptops, smartphones, availability of internet access for the learners in rural areas. Also, the lack of exposure to high-end technologies is creating disparity amongst the students. Usage of shared devices between children and parents is also making the engagement process challenging.
“We along with Government need to devise a strategy addressing these concerns as mentioned above, on an immediate basis ensuring seamless access to education across geographies” Charu Noheria (Co-founder and COO, Practically) added.
Subba has more than 20+ years of industry experience in technology, operations, and management. He was the CTO of Lumeris prior to starting Practically. A product guy at heart, he is a visionary with tremendous zeal and passion for problem-solving using technology.
Charu Noheria – Co-founder & COO, Practically
Charu Noheria is the Co-Founder and Chief Operating Officer of Practically. In 2018, she co-founded Practically, an experiential learning app for STEM, and has been working to revolutionize the education landscape for the last seven years. Charu has a bachelor’s degree in engineering (Computer Science) from R.V. College of Engineering, Bangalore, and an MBA from the University of Illinois-Urbana Champaign. She has over 12 years of corporate experience in operations, technology, strategy, and managing global teams. Noheria began her career as a software engineer at Samsung where she developed mobile applications. Later, she joined Lumeris Inc. – one of the largest value-based healthcare IT firms in the United States, as a Strategic Leadership Development Associate and quickly moved up the ranks to become Director-Technology Partnerships.
Ilango is a hardcore techie and was VP, Enterprise Architecture at Lumeris prior to starting Practically. He loves to roll up his sleeves and get his hands dirty with code. He has worked with some big names in the industry such as eBay, Quikr, etc. Ilango leads product development and technology at Practically.
Currently, 300+ employees are associated with Practically. While its focus so far has been on Andhra Pradesh and Telangana states in India, Practically is working aggressively on expanding pan-India in 2021 and adding over 2000 employees by December 2021.
Practically History – How it Started?
Reminiscing the inspiration to start Practically, Charu Noheria says – “Being part of the competitive rat race for IITs in India back in the day, all I remembered from that experience was stress in learning. I dropped a year, switched five engineering streams, and changed 3 colleges during the 18 months I struggled to get my footing right. Unconsciously this left a lasting mark on me and I was always attracted towards unconventional ways of learning which are away from rote learning. This inspired me to develop a model which will make education easy as well as a fun activity”
Practically’s Journey of Ideation, Designing & Prototyping
Practically is an outcome of deep-rooted insights based on several man-years of study around children’s learning & retention modes leading to the innovative use of new-age tech tools such as AR to provide an immersive learning experience for children.
With the first beta version of the Practically app that was launched in January 2020, it did a pilot study with two groups. Group I was given only reading material and group II was given access to immersive videos and simulations on the app. After two weeks, the team gave both groups a series of questions for testing the retention of concepts studied as part of this study. The results demonstrated that Group II was able to recollect 50% more concepts than Group I, and Group II students on average spent three times less time learning than Group I students. This further encouraged the team’s efforts at Practically in making learning more experiential and sticky. Since then, Practically has added many more features to the app considering the impact it can make on the journey of a learner.
The beta app was rolled out in Jan 2020 and it received an overwhelming response with more than 13k downloads of the app across two major educational institutions in AP/TS which encouraged the team and validated its initial product.
Charu Noheria (Co-founder & COO, Practically) added – “The three of us- Subba, Ilango and myself were colleagues at Lumeris Inc., in the USA and in the hallways of our workplace is where those very first conversations of Practically began. When my co-founders and I were bouncing off ideas to pursue, it became apparent that we all shared the excitement for tech-based, non-traditional methods of teaching and learning. We all wanted to make some of those very dry subjects more interesting, engaging and fun for learners around the world”
STEM learning for school students has become rote and educators have no means to increase students’ engagement and interaction with concepts to boost the rate of retention. Students have access to mostly passive and rote learning sources and methods when learning foundational concepts leading to a less than a 30% rate of retention. This disengagement leads to a lack of interest in key subjects.
It also aims to make everything that a learner needs available on a single app helping the parent pay for a single product containing content, simulations/AR, test prep, analytics/feedback, gamification, doubt resolution, live classes, coding, summer programs.
Practically is an Immersive & Experiential ONE STOP SOLUTION for students, parents, teachers, and schools. Practically is the only such product in the world that combines gamification techniques, immersive learning assets, test-prep, and AI-assisted study buddy in one compact cross-platform app. Through its patent-pending technology, thousands of exhilarating, life-like simulations, and Augmented Reality (AR) experiences are combined with learning pathways to bring learning alive and increase the rate of retention of concepts. Practically also offers live classes, Coding++, and a 24×7 Seek Help feature for doubt resolution, where students can reach out to subject experts on the platform.
Bringing back joy into learning and using tech to create life-like experiences, Practically uses AI to empower teachers. Practically helps teachers with intelligent insights into their student population, helps them auto-generate question papers, correct answers, giving them 2 hours of operational time back and impacting their experience in teaching overall, making classes engaging and effective.
Practically Platform
Practically is built on Edgar Dale’s ‘Cone of Learning’; we retain 10% of what we read, 50% of what we see and hear, and increasingly more to 90% when we learn by doing. The more dramatic the experience, the more lasting the recall, and most concepts that are dry can be taught with experiential learning.
Practically’s vision is to reshape the way the world learns. It aims to bring modern methods to the everyday teaching process and empower teachers to use the power of visualization and experiential content to transform dry subject areas into jaw-dropping experiences. Its objective is to enable classrooms with a ‘learning by doing’ approach and increase the rate of retention of students to more than 90% for key subjects like math and science and to make learning more fun and engaging.
The team wanted to name the product in line with its vision. As the founders believe in a practical approach towards learning, they liked Practically for the name of the product. Simple yet powerful as the need of the hour is to revolutionize education with immersive and experiential content and encourage practical learning.
Brand Logo
The team chose the colors yellow and red as it signifies passion, warmth, and learning all of which are deep-seated in Practically’s DNA. “We are a passionate group of people who are dedicated to the cause of reshaping the way the world learns!” says Charu Noheria.
Practically Logo
Brand Proposition
Charu Noheria adds – “Learning Alive was a core message that we had arrived basis a brand workshop which also tied into our core feature of immersive and experiential learning that brings learning to life. We made it purposeful and more action-oriented and arrived at our brand proposition – Bring Learning Alive”
Practically primarily has two channels for customer acquisition
Business to Customer (B2C): Any learner can download the app and register on it. A learner may get to know about the product via a marketing campaign, TV or print ad, customer reference, actively searching for learning apps, etc.
B2B2C through school acquisition: Practically School Solution is FREE for all schools and teachers. Teacher app is used by thousands of teachers to make their classes engaging and interactive. Every teacher in turn onboards learners to the student app for free.
These free customers, both from B2C and B2B2C, then act as a top of the funnel for downstream monetization efforts through its on-ground and virtual sales agents who directly engage parents and students for paid subscriptions on the app. Practically’s demo to paid conversion rate is more than 30% which is substantially higher than any other product out there. Paid subscriptions can be monthly, annually, or multi-year with an ARPU of > $400.
Practically’s Launch and Initial User Acquisition
Practically launched its beta app in Jan 2020 across two large clients in AP/TS for testing the waters. It received a phenomenal response with over 13k students downloading the app over a 30 day period. This cohort became its first user base and learnings from this pilot were instrumental to get to a commercial launch in April 2020.
Practically’s B2B2C strategy of going through schools by providing them FREE Practically School Solution worked great for the initial mass acquisition of users. It had schools from various nooks and corners of India using the platform and onboarding thousands of students for free onto the product.
Practically’s Key Strategies and Marketing Campaign
The product uniqueness is its biggest selling point with users. An experiential product with this quality and grade has never been seen by an Indian consumer. Practically makes sure to be a part of the learning journey of a child and have multiple touchpoints with the student and the parent. It offers doubt resolution services, mentorship programs, and summer workshops which further fuel retention. Practically recently started spending on marketing and growth hacking efforts. It will be more aggressive towards the marketing efforts in 2021.
Practically’s Most Successful Marketing Campaign
Practically’s first-ever brand campaign around the theme – ‘Bring Learning Alive’ in December 2020 helped garner 3x growth and the app has successfully crossed 330,000 downloads to date. The TVCs have garnered over 32 million+ views combined on YouTube and seen above average and consistent view rates, even after two months of launch, indicating relevance and popularity of the campaign amongst the target audience. This has been one of the highest by an EdTech company in India, without celebrity endorsement, so far.
The campaign was released across all mediums – print and television targeting Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, and, social and digital media with a pan-India focus. The digital campaign ran in the top 40 cities across the country with a greater emphasis on Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, and Chennai. Predominantly, the metros and Tier-1 cities attracted larger traction. The campaign saw healthy participation among parents in the age group of 35 to 55 years and students in the age group of 11 to 17. Interest was also evinced among people of the age group of 18 to 24 years who visited the website for programs related to Coding++, Test Preparation, etc. Practically also featured amongst the top brands in pure search volumes among the EdTech players in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana during the campaign, clearly emerging as a strong challenger brand for the incumbents and indicating resonance with the target audience.
Challenges are a big part of the start-up journey and almost always the team at Practically were able to keep their heads above water. They embrace challenges with open arms and if not for them, the journey would be far less fulfilling.
COVID: The lockdown was a blessing in disguise for EdTech giving it the right push for education to go online. Due to the current situation, the focus is on following a medium that allows for safe, continued, and effective teaching. This meant the team needed to be agile and quickly start offering what was the need of the hour: an experiential and immersive learning experience to K-12 schools like in a physical classroom environment using augmented reality (AR), 3D videos, and simulations. Practically launched in India amidst the lockdown in April 2020.
Model: The challenges began when Practically wanted to grow the product to become a one-stop solution rather than a point application so that learners won’t have to pay for multiple apps and they get everything they need on Practically.
Capital:Practically required substantial capital upfront to build unique life-like immersive and experiential content. It put in all profits from the existing product sale into this and also went in for its Series-A fundraise which helped the team achieve that. The team faced numerous challenges when it started scaling the business to all parts of the twin states of AP/TS as this needed a larger team and growth capital. Practically was lucky that it was able to raise pre-Series B round just in time to help it scale and grow in this region and further set it up for a pan-India launch this year. In addition, it has been able to build a great team passionate about its singular vision of shaping the way the world learns.
New/Late entrant: Practically has been widely accepted with 330,000 downloads in a short span of time despite the brand being a relatively new entrant in this category launched in April 2020 amid the lockdown. While competition with deep pockets has been around for a decade, It kickstarted its first-ever brand campaign around the theme – ‘Bring Learning Alive’ which includes TV, Digital, Print, and Social Media Marketing with a regional focus on Andhra Pradesh and Telangana markets in December 2020 and the TVCs received a stupendous response with close to 32 million views combined on YouTube since its launch.
Just like most technology companies, Practically uses tools to enhance productivity and products that give it operational excellence. It also recently launched its Sales CRM which is a fully customized solution for Practically’s rapidly growing sales team.
Practically was recently been awarded the title of ‘Most Innovative Stem Solution’ at World Education Summit – School Education 2021 organized by Elets Digital Learning.
The efforts of the team also received accolades at Startup Awards 2021, where Practically was bestowed with ‘Best EdTech Startup of the Year’ by Franchise India and Entrepreneur India magazine.
Global School Leaders’ Consortium -INSPIRE Education Awards 2020- The Best Learning App of the Year
Practically’s Co-founder & COO Charu Noheria has been chosen to be a part of Entrepreneur India’s 35 under 35 class of 2021. She was featured in the coveted ORF-GP report on Women in Technology, 2020
Practically – Growth and Future Plans
Currently, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana are Practically’s key markets. It just entered the South and West regions with a small team. It is working on expanding pan-India in 2021 and adding over 2000 employees by December 2021. 2021 will also see Practically entering the K-5 segment while currently, it does grades 6-12.
“We believe that technology adoption in the education sector is yet to see its peak and what started as a mad rush to adopt technology during the pandemic is likely to continue and sustain well beyond the pandemic years making products such as Practically a household name among students and teachers alike” saysCharu Noheria, Co-founder & COO, Practically
With the latest round of funding, the team expects to take Practically to the rest of the country by the end of 2021. As mentioned earlier, outside India, the Middle East is its focus market as it received very positive responses to its product. Practically will be partnering with many more schools there in 2021. It is also looking to move to another international market by the end of the year.
The Practically School Solution is absolutely free of cost to schools. The experiential solution has been a mega-hit with teachers. In addition to the above, Practically’s immersive animated video content can be easily localized into any language. Although the near-term plan is to expand into other English-speaking countries globally, the team is also exploring with partners in countries where there is a need for content in another language.
Practically – FAQs
Who are the founders of Practically?
Subbarao Siddabattula (CEO), Ilangovel Thulasimani (CTO), and Charu Noheria (COO) are the founders of Practically.
How much funding has Practically raised?
Practically has raised total funding of $14 Million to date in Series A and Pre-Series B and Series B rounds.
What is Practically’s marketing campaign?
Practically’s first-ever brand campaign was around the theme – ‘Bring Learning Alive’
How does Practically make money?
Via Paid Subscriptions. Practically’s demo to paid conversion rate is more than 30%. Paid subscriptions can be monthly, annually, or multi-year with ARPU of > $400.
What is the USP of Practically?
Practically is an Immersive & Experiential ONE STOP SOLUTION for students, parents, teachers, and schools. Practically is the only such product in the world that combines gamification techniques, immersive learning assets, test-prep, and AI-assisted study buddy in one compact cross-platform app.
Why pay for online courses when you can get them for free? upGrad is such a company that brought out its online education application where students, teachers and everyone else can do courses for free. upGrad’s free courses offer makes it a standout application from other educational websites.
Most websites and applications that you find on the internet do not come free of cost. upGrad is quite opposite to that and that is one of the reasons why it attracted a lot of customers. Competitions are tight in the Indian market and upGrad’s marketing strategy helped them take the lead in the online education platform.
upGrad is an EdTech company that came out with the motive to help students with their higher education. The company performs its business completely online based and free of cost. The application also caters to large variety of courses ranging from undergraduate programs to Master’s degree programs.
Master’s degrees and some post-graduate programs are only offered on a fee payment system. Otherwise, most courses are free of cost and are also offering a completion certificate unlike other educational applications in the market.
It was in the year 2015 when upGrad was launched by the co-founders of the company- Ronnie Screwvala, Phalgun Kompalli, Mayank Kumar, and Ravijot Chugh. Their efforts made upGrad become one of the leading EdTech companies in Asia. Currently, all co-founders of the company are leading different divisions within the organization. Their efforts made it to enter the unicorn club in August, 2021.
Interestingly, upGrad was not meant to be for college students, or school students or any other institutions. But, it was designed so that more people could be familiar with the term ‘entrepreneurship’ and all those things that are required to become successful.
about upGrad learning platform
upGrad Marketing Strategy
upGrad Logo
upGrad is a B2C company and follows a wide range of marketing strategies. The company also focuses on its marketing because it is the only way a company is recognized. Well, a company like upGrad does the same thing.
The CEO of upGrad, Arjun Mohan had even mentioned in an interview that the company spends a whopping sum of money on its advertisements. The company also uses online tools for marketing its products to customers. Some of the most common ones are Google Ads, Social Media Ads, promotional guest posts, and many more.
Back in the year 2020, when the company was just 5 years old had set a budget of INR 175 crore for its marketing. For a startup like upGrad, this amount is considered to be a massive one and surprising too.
Other than spending a large amount on advertising, upGrad also focussed on promotional activities. The company took an active part in promoting its business during the 2020 IPL season. Even in the latest IPL season, i.e. 2021 upGrad took an effective part in its promotional activities.
The company tied up with Disney+ Hotstar and associated with the Star Sports network. This again became a huge boost in the company’s marketing and promotional activities. Surprisingly, the 2021 IPL event became upGrad’s first association with any sport-related event.
upGrad acquired Pyoopil Education Technologies only a year after its formation i.e. in 2016. Pyoopil Education Technologies was a mobile-based SaaS product that was used by corporate. Two years later in the year 2018, upGrad made another acquisition of Acadview Software which was in the field of a college education.
Later, in the year 2019, the company acquired CohortPlus which was known to be India’s largest product management community startup. Looking at the progress that the company has already made it is clear that the company will become the leader in the TechEd companies in the world.
Moreover, the company has got notable connections and tie-ups with large institutes and universities. Some of the most famous collaborations are mentioned below.
Birla Institute of Technology and Science (BITS)
International Institute of Information Technology (IIIT)
Though there are not many revelations from the company’s side of view it is expected that by the end of 2025, the company plans to cross the 5 million alumni members mark. However, other than that, the company is working on other specialization programs curated by global universities.
With collaborations with global universities, upGrad would become a different and standout educational company in the Indian market. There will be a lot coming from the company’s point of view in the future and we hope to experience the brilliance of learning from upGrad.
upGrad’s products and services are likely to improve and enhance better learning to its customers in the upcoming days. It is not that the company is not doing great currently but the future of the company will determine upGrad’s sustainability in the market.
FAQs
Who has founded upGrad?
upGrad was founded by Ronnie Screwvala, Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli, and Ravijot Chugh in 2015.
Are there free courses available at upGrad?
Yes, there are free courses which can be done free of cost. The company caters to courses ranging from various subject areas.
Does upGrad provide a 100% job guarantee?
Yes, the company offers a 100% job guarantee to fresher candidates and other people as well.
Due to the convergence of technological innovations, global use of the Internet, and the increasing need for a population trained regularly for the ever-evolving digital economy, online education in its different forms has been gradually rising globally. By 2025, online schooling is expected to become commonplace.
Sebastian Thrun, David Stevens, and Mike Sokolsky created Udacity, Inc., an American for-profit educational business that offers massive open online courses. Udacity is an international, online, life-long learning network that connects education and employment opportunities. The company is on a mission to train the world’s workforce in the careers of the future.
Udacity is an international, online, life-long learning network that connects education and employment opportunities. Udacity provides online courses in artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, data science, autonomous systems, and cloud computing, among other fields.
Udacity collaborates with technology firms to study how technology is altering businesses and teaches the essential skills that employers need in their employees, allowing learners to prepare for the most in-demand tech positions.
Nanodegrees offered by Udacity have gained much popularity and many consider these nano degrees to be more effective than the regular college degrees. Front-end and senior web developer, full-stack web developer, data analyst, machine learning engineer, iOS and Android developer, programming introduction, tech entrepreneur, iOS app development beginning, Ruby beginning, and 2D mobile game developer courses are among the nano degree programs available.
Udacity – Latest News
As of September 2021, Udacity conducted a renowned virtual conference enabling women to thrive in STEM (Science, Technology Engineering, and Mathematics). Despite global discussions and initiatives to address the gender imbalance in STEM disciplines, women continue to be underrepresented, undervalued, and frequently discriminated against. Udacity’s virtual conference ‘STEM Forward with Women’ seeks to create a forum for women to interact with female industry leaders while also providing them with the chance to gain in-demand technical knowledge.
“Changing the face of technology, especially during unprecedented times, is no easy task. STEM Forward with Women is the pep-talk all women need to take the leap forward and pursue a career that they deserve in the field of technology and computer science,” stated Kimberly Bryant, CEO and Founder, Black Girls CODE.
Udacity – Industry
Over the last decade, online learning has grown significantly as the internet and education have merged to give individuals the possibility to learn new skills. Online learning has grown increasingly important in people’s lives after the COVID-19 epidemic. The epidemic has pushed schools, colleges, and businesses to operate remotely, which has resulted in an increase in the use of online learning. Even before the pandemic, Research and Markets predicted that the online education industry will be worth $350 billion by 2025, thus the figures may be revised after assessing the effects of COVID-19 on the sector’s growth.
All of these online learning businesses have a large quantity of user data, allowing them to employ machine learning algorithms to improve people’s learning habits. Pattern recognition is used by machine learning algorithms to customize material for each individual. When a student struggles with a subject during the course, for example, the platform can alter the e-learning content to give more comprehensive information to assist the learner.
Udacity – Name, Logo, and Tagline
Company Logo of Udacity
Sebastian Thrun, the company’s founder, claims that the term Udacity stems from the company’s ambition to be “audacious for you, the learner.” It used to focus on university-style courses, but today it mostly offers vocational training for professionals.
Udacity was founded by David Stevens, Mike Sokolsky, and Sebastian Thrun in 2011.
David Stevens
From June 2011 to May 2012, David served as CEO of Udacity, then from April 2013 to April 2014, he served as President. As CEO, he grew the company to 30 people, registered the first 250,000 students from 195 countries, and introduced the first 12 programs, the first MOOC employment program, and the first MOOC certified tests in collaboration with Pearson VUE. He obtained a Ph.D. in Computer Science from Stanford under the guidance of Sebastian Thrun. While at Stanford, David was one of the co-creators of Stanley an autonomous car that won the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge. The Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC currently has Stanley on exhibit.
Sebastian Thrun
Sebastian Thrun is a researcher, educator, inventor, and businessman. Sebastian is the founder and CEO of Kitty Hawk, a company whose mission is to relieve people from traffic congestion. He is also the creator, chairman, and president of Udacity, an educational platform with the purpose to democratise education.
Sebastian founded X (formerly Google X), where he oversaw the creation of the self-driving vehicle, Google Glass, and other initiatives. He was a professor at Stanford University for several years, where he led the Stanford Racing Team, which won the DARPA Grand Challenge with its vehicle “Stanley.”
Founder of Udacity – Sebastian Thrun
Mike Sokolsky
Mike believes that technology should improve rather than complicate life. He studied at Carnegie Mellon University and worked in robotics at Stanford University and the University of Alberta. His background includes autonomous cars, medical robotics, reinforcement learning, and robotic soccer. In 2011, he co-founded Udacity.
Udacity – Startup Story
Sebastian Thrun had a dream career for most academics throughout the world. The Artificial Intelligence specialist was a tenured professor at Stanford University, where he’d spent almost a decade leading student attempts to create self-driving cars and acting as the head of the university’s Artificial Intelligence Lab. Thrun also created Google[x], the tech giant’s well-known R&D branch focusing on driverless vehicles, balloon-powered internet networks, and other “moonshots” in his leisure time.
But the entrepreneur and thinker had bigger ideas. Thrun announced his departure from Stanford in 2012 to launch Udacity, an online education company aimed at delivering high-quality tech education to the people.
Salman Khan and his Khan Academy, one of the early entrants into the field, introduced Thrun to the notion of MOOCs. Thrun and co-professor Peter Norvig opened up their next computer science course at Stanford to a global audience as an experiment in 2011. Soon after, other roboticists David Stevens and Mike Sokolsky joined engaged, and the inaugural course had more than 100,000 students enrolled by the time it started. Udacity was up and operating in no time, with Stevens as the company’s first CEO and Sokolsky as the CTO.
Udacity – Mission and Vision Statement
Udacity’s mission statement says, “Udacity’s mission is to train the world’s workforce in the careers of the future.”
Modern technology influences every industry. Companies all around the world are eager to employ people with the right tech skills to help them adapt and improve their operations. Through their strong and adaptable digital education platform, Udacity collaborates with the world’s leading technology companies to teach these vital tech skills. Udacity has made it possible for even the busiest students to prepare for the most in-demand tech jobs.
Udacity’s top hiring partners include Google, Amazon Alexa, Auro, Bosch, CrowdAI, Dataspeed, HARMAN, Intel, Lucid VR, Mobvoi, Nod, Samsung, Slack, Telefónica Germany, Upload, etc.
Udacity – Spin-Off Company
In April 2017, Udacity announced the launch of Voyage Auto, a self-driving vehicle taxi firm that would compete with ride-hailing services like Uber. The business has been testing its concept on low-speed private roads in a retirement community in San Jose, California, using production consumer automobiles. Voyage established a ride-hailing collaboration with The Villages, a retirement community in Florida, in 2018. Voyage was purchased by Cruise in March 2021.
Udacity – Business Model and Revenue Model
Udacity is a freemium EdTech platform that offers massive open online courses (MOOCs) (courses open to anyone for enrolment). Udacity collaborates with businesses and institutions to provide nanodegrees (short-term online education programs focused on specialized skills in computer science). The user can choose to pay a one-time or recurring charge to access one or all of the courses. The courses are available to private individuals, businesses too can buy these courses for their employees. The cost of the consumer courses varies from $718 to $1436.
Udacity courses are delivered in a nanodegree format by the firm. Nanodegrees are made up of a series of lectures and homework assignments that culminate in a capstone project.
In the past, Udacity’s payment models have been prone to change. The most recent modifications are in line with their new approach of providing high-quality educational content, which includes professional mentors and specialized career counseling.
Furthermore, a freemium business model is an element of the company’s growth plan. Udacity provides free access to beginning courses or sections of nano degrees in this way. This assists users in determining if they are comfortable in the learning environment and have the time and abilities required to finish the courses.
Udacity – Employees
Alper Tekin – Chief Product Officer
Dana Bennett – Chief People Officer
Gabriel Dalporto – Chief Executive Officer
James Richards – CTO
Kenny Kim – Chief Marketing Officer
Alvaro Biel – Head of Business Development & Partnerships, Europe and Latin America – Udacity for Government
Blake Tablak – SVP of Global Enterprise
Grace Rhee – Vice President of People and Places
Holger Kobler – Regional Vice President DACH
Ira Stone – Regional Vice President, Enterprise Sales
Udacity – Funding, and Investors
Date
Round
Amount
Lead Investors
Aug 27, 2021
Secondary Market
$5M
–
Jun 20, 2021
Secondary Market
–
–
Jun 12, 2021
Secondary Market
–
–
Jan 28, 2021
Secondary Market
–
–
Nov 3, 2020
Debt Financing
$75M
Hercules Capital
Nov 11, 2015
Series D
$105M
Bertelsmann
Sep 24, 2014
Series C
$35M
–
Oct 25, 2012
Series B
$15M
Andreessen Horowitz
Jan 1, 2012
Series A
$5M
CRV
Udacity – Acquisitions
Acquiree Name
About Acquiree
Date
Amount
Terminal
The Terminal provides bleeding-edge software and AI to edtech companies looking to improve student success.
Mar 1, 2017
–
Udacity – Growth
The pandemic produced great burdens and drove individuals to make many tough decisions, and 2020 was a year of extraordinary challenges. At the same time, individuals continued to learn and grow despite the disturbance in their everyday lives. Over the course of 2020, Udacity increased its focus on assisting students in finding the courses they needed to prepare for a better future.
Last year, the firm celebrated 14 million users, 1.5 million completed projects, and over 170,000 Nanodegree certificates granted, and they are looking forward to celebrating over 50,000 graduates in 2020 as well as some interesting improvements.
The year 2020 was a momentous occasion for Udacity as a company. Enterprise and government bookings increased by 260 percent in yearly recurring revenue in the first half of 2020 alone, and the company just obtained $75 million in funding to assist support this remarkable development, tripling its Sales and Customer Success teams.
Over the last year (2019-2020), the company welcomed a number of new team members to help them maintain this incredible trajectory with enterprise customers, including CFO Seamus Hennessy, CMO Kenny Kim, SVP of Global Enterprise Sales Blake Tablak, and SVP of Global Customer Success and Operations Jennifer Dearman, who joined in early 2021.
Udacity’s top competitors include Khan Academy, Skillshare, Coursebirdie, MasterClass, Pluralsight, Udemy, Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, BizLibrary, Articulate 360, iSpring Suite, PiiQ by Cornerstone, Infosec Skills, Pluralsight, and General Assembly.
Udacity – Challenges Faced
Udacity had to lay off roughly 20% of its employees and restructure its operations as of April 2019, as co-founder Sebastian Thrun attempted to decrease expenses in line with revenue without stifling growth.
Udacity, which offers “nano degrees” in a variety of technical disciplines such as AI, deep learning, digital marketing, virtual reality, and computer vision, has been in financial trouble for months, owing to rising expenses and other inefficiencies. Thanks to popular initiatives like its self-driving vehicle and deep learning nano degree, the firm flourished in 2017, with revenue jumping 100 percent year over year.
Udacity has also reduced expenses and streamlined marketing activities, shrunk and consolidated office space, and standardized instructional programs throughout its different locations, including the United States, Brazil, China, and India.
The firm maintained an office in Mountain View, albeit in a smaller size, as well as one in San Francisco. Udacity has shuttered a second satellite office in San Francisco and is assessing its real estate requirements in other nations.
Udacity – Future Plans
Udacity has popularized the notion of “Nanodegrees” in fields including artificial intelligence, programming, autonomous driving, and cloud computing. Udacity will focus more on Sales and Marketing in the coming years.
“On the enterprise and government side, we’re seeing enormous demand,” said Gabe Dalporto, Udacity’s CEO, who joined the firm in 2019. “However, it’s largely been inbound to date, with businesses, Fortune 500 firms, and government agencies seeking to collaborate with us.” Now it’s time to assemble a sales force to pursue them.”
The interest in Udacity, both from investors and as a firm, is part of a larger emphasis on online education startups in the previous year. As schools, districts, governments, and public health officials implement social distancing to slow the spread of COVID-19, the focus has been on developing better technology and content to help students stay engaged and continue learning even when they are unable to be in their normal physical classrooms. Udacity is not considering any acquisitions for the next 6-12 months.
Udacity – FAQs
What does Udacity do?
Udacity (an American company) is an international, online, life-long learning network that connects education and employment opportunities. Udacity is an online training platform that provides courses in artificial intelligence, machine learning, robotics, data science, autonomous systems, and cloud computing, among other fields.
Who founded Udacity?
Udacity was founded by David Stevens, Mike Sokolsky, and Sebastian Thrun in 2011.
When was Udacity founded?
Udacity was founded by David Stevens, Mike Sokolsky, and Sebastian Thrun in 2011.
How does Udacity make money?
Udacity earns money by selling instructional content to individuals and businesses. These courses are delivered in a nanodegree format by the firm.
Which companies do Udacity compete with?
Udacity’s top competitors include Khan Academy, Skillshare, Coursebirdie, MasterClass, Pluralsight, Udemy, Coursera, LinkedIn Learning, BizLibrary, Articulate 360, iSpring Suite, PiiQ by Cornerstone, Infosec Skills, Pluralsight, and General Assembly.
Simplilearn is one of the leading certification training providers whichprovides online professional courses in disciplines such as Cyber Security, Cloud Computing, Project Management, Digital Marketing, Data Science, AI, and Machine Learning, and many more.
Simplilearn won the 2021 Stevie Silver Award for Customer Service Success for the fourth year in a row and fifth time overall.
Let’s see how it caters to the training needs of professionals and earns money. The article covers:
Highest Paying Certification Course of Simplilearn
About Simplilearn
Simplilearn was founded by Krishna Kumar in 2009 with the purpose tohelp professionals and enterprises to succeed in the fast-changing digital economy. The company provides outcome-based online training across digital technologies and applications such as Big data, Machine learning, AI, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security, Digital Marketing, and other emerging technologies.
About Simplilearn Founder – Krishna Kumar
Krishna Kumar | Simplilearn | CEO
Krishna Kumar completed his Bachelor of Engineering degree from NIT, Suratkal, India. Before Simplilearn, Krishna was the Co-founder and COO at Tech United, a software product company which he exited successfully in 2007 after selling it to a publicly held company. Initially, Simplilearn was started as a technology blog. Later, it became a professional learning startup for project management-related topics.
Simplilearn – Area of Operation
Simplilearn is based in San Francisco, Raleigh, North Carolina, and Bangalore, India Simplilearn has helped more than two million professionals and 2000 companies across 150+ countries to get trained, acquire a certificate, and reach their business and career goals.
Simplilearn – Key Products and Services
Simplilearn, an online learning platform, began with a project management certificate called Project Management Professional Certification.
After 4-5 years, it manages to get big and enter into different sectors like IT, management, business analysis, banking, and data analytics.
In 2011, Simplilearn started to offer additional courses across categories like cybersecurity, cloud computing, project management, digital marketing, and data science. Simplilearn now offers online training, blended classroom training, and exam practice tests in over 400+ courses across 11 major categories.
Its most popular courses are Artificial Intelligence (AI), data science, digital marketing, project management, cloud, and DevOps.
The companies’ high engagement curriculum includes self-paced online learning, instructor-led live virtual classrooms, hands-on projects, student collaboration, and 24/7 global teaching assistants.
Simplilearn has seen a 200% growth in demand for Programming Courses and with that, it has launched a three-pronged approach to take on the goal of training and placing 10 lakh programmers in India by 2023.
Simplilearn – Target Consumers
Simplilearn focuses on students and working professionals. It has a paying customer base of over 3 lakhs.
Krishna Kumar says “We help in providing a learning machine and help you identify if that’s the right fit for you. Maybe there’s something else that is most relevant for you and once you’ve decided, our instructors will teach you. And while you’re learning that topic, you can interact with fellow students and the instructor, and do a lot of practice. Our teaching assistants are available 24/7.”
Business Model of Simplilearn
It bridges the gap between the educational institutions and the candidates to gain the best knowledge and proficiency. The courses that are offered by Simplilearn, are certified by Purdue University and IBM. It offers both free and paid courses.
The candidates who are interested in the desired course need to register first by creating an account on Simplilearn. Then, to avail paid courses they have to pay the fee.
It’s70% of domestic business comes from cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. In 2019, Simplilearn signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to upgrade their digital skills.
33 courses available in Simplilearn are accredited by NSDC making it a key contributor to the government skill program. The company’s main focus is to get deeper into categories that are going to dominate the tech space which includes cloud, data science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Simplilearn derives 30% of its business from reskilling and upskilling different enterprises.
What’s unique about Simplilearn?
The thing that makes Simplilearn different from its competitors are:
Good structure program and excellent lesson plans.
Availability of exclusive hackathons and Ask Me Anything sessions by IBM.
Capstone from three domains and 25+ projects with industry datasets from Amazon, Uber, Comcast, etc.
Job Placement Assistance.
How does Simplilearn make money?
Simplilearn claims around 60% of its revenue come from overseas markets. Revenue is collected from the candidates after the completion of the program for their certificates. It also earns by charging instructors a fee for every course sale made on its platform.
For the enterprise business deals, Simplilearn receives money from the early-stage startups like Myntra, Swiggy, and Flipkartwho use the platform to train their employees. Simplilearn works as B2B(Business to Business), as well as It, operates on a B2C(Business to Consumes) basis.
Simplilearn Social Media (06 Nov 2021)
Facebook – 3,63,323 people like this
Instagram – 58,068 Followers
Twitter – 28,991 Followers
LinkedIn – 2,77,984 Followers
Youtube – 1,480,000 Subscribers
Conclusion
During the pandemic, the demand for online education has already increased, thereby, increasing the demand for edtech companies. Taking this as an opportunity, Simplilearn comes forward to widen the scope for students and professionals by adding more courses that match the need of its target audience. It carries a strong and effective business model that helps individuals to acquire the skills they need to thrive in the digital economy by providing certification courses.
FAQs
What is Simplilearn?
Simplilearn is an online platform that provides professional certification courses on topics like Cyber Security, Cloud Computing, Project Management, Digital Marketing, and Data Science.
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 AlmaBetter.
India has always been home to innovation and creativity, fostering human development over many centuries. Sadly these virtues have not fully manifested themselves in shaping the current higher education system despite having world class institutions such as IITs, IIMs, etc.
Students normally graduate from colleges with huge debt after graduation that they need to repay over a long duration. And conventional jobs are not lucrative enough. Those don’t give adequate funds to meet their monthly expenses or pay off the tuition balances.
Practically, there is a disconnect between affordable education and profitable jobs. It is with this problem that we are faced today. This grotesque mismatch spells huge economic concerns over time. It causes disruption in the current economic scenario and threatens to create long-term damage to our human capital.
Unfortunately, this crucial lacuna has often been overlooked or overshadowed by other issues. And this in turn has inhibited the society from addressing it boldly and effectively.
Although the revolutionary advances in technology have given new momentum to our education system, our contemporary education cannot be reconciled with the society’s requirements. Today, there is a gargantuan shortage of skills and talent, which is a direct outcome of an outdated education model. Even as we witness an exponential surge in Artificial Intelligence (AI) related job opportunities, there is an acute shortage of skilled workforce with AI, machine learning and data science skills even in the information technology sector.
Evidently, there arises a dire need for providing quality education and jobs to minimize this glaring discrepancy between educated youth and lucrative employment opportunities. This is where AlmaBetter comes with its upskilling venture that strives to make learning easily accessible for the aspiring students.
Read the full success story of AlmaBetter here with this StartupTalky article including the Founders and Team, Startup St0ry, Business and Revenue model, Competitors, Funding and Investors, Growth, Future Plans and more.
June 17, 2021 – AlmaBetter has allocates funds worth Rs 2 crores to train 25,000 aspiring data science students and make them employment-ready by March 2022.
AlmaBetter, founded by two IIT Kharagpur graduates, Shivam Dutta and Vikash Srivastava, to address the major challenges of upskilling in the rapidly evolving world of technology.
AlmaBetter – About
AImaBetter Logo
AlmaBetter is a platform for students to utilize their potential and to demonstrate their real-world skills. It brings together students and professionals. Through this platform, students can learn modern-day skills at a prescribed optimal pace. No tuition is required for the learners to enroll for the program. Upon finding a job after graduation, a small monthly payment is made by them for some period of time while they get settled down in their respective jobs.
“Education is a major component that can break down all social inequities, and AlmaBetter can provide a pathway to thousands of people to build their careers in Artificial Intelligence, thus making a profound impact in the world.”, says Vikash who heads the learning department at AlmaBetter.
Shivam, who heads the placement department, says “Traditional education puts all the risk on an individual student, while skill schools like AlmaBetter can remove the risk of education and provide equity on the skill frontier. Financial risk associated with education is a major cause of anxiety among students.”
AlmaBetter provides a Data Science program, popularly known as ‘Learn-Earn-Return’ or LER program. This 8 month long program is meant for final year students, graduates and working professionals aspiring to get best paying jobs in the domain of Data Science. Almabetter focuses on students’ success by taking every measure to meet their learning outcomes. In a day to day academic schedule, live lectures, live doubts sessions, assignments and quizzes are conducted not only to impart knowledge in the subject but also to increase their confidence level by providing a venue for interaction with experts in the field with regular guest lectures. This ensemble learning approach ensures that each student is confident and prepared enough for Data Science roles.
Almabetter offers strong placement support through an expanding network of hiring partners across various high growth startups, mid-sized companies and big firms looking forward to recruiting graduates from this program. Starting from resume workshops, job portfolio building and interview rehearsals, profiles of students are forwarded to a large number of organizations operating in various domains. Thus, they help students secure a job above 6 LPA or make 25% more than their previous salary. Once the students fulfill these terms and conditions they can opt for tuition fee payment through easy monthly installments considering an Income Share Agreement.
A perfect blend of personalized mentorship and dedicated career coaching ensures guaranteed success of their students. Each student has the option of choosing their career coach who is a highly experienced professional from top companies and provides personal attention towards each student’s placement struggles. At times students might face problems understanding a particular aspect or solving their respective assignments which prompts a friendly mentor for necessary help and guidance.
Shivam Dutta, an IIT KGP alumni, worked at Reliance Industries and then at Radware and Blackbuck where he served the role of statistical modelling engineer. He was involved in the role of hiring employees for the data science roles, which later turned into a huge beneficial role after he founded AlmaBetter to fuel his entrepreneurial dreams.
Shivam started the company in August 2020 with an aim to supply skilled data scientists to the industry. His IIT-KGP wingmate, Vikash Shrivastava was soon to follow him as the Co-founder of the company. Together they dream of training talents and preparing them for the rapidly pacing industry ahead within 6-8 months.
AlmaBetter – Business and Revenue Model
AlmaBetter is designed to extend cohort-based courses ranging from Data Science, Machine Learning, Deep Learning to other cutting-edge tech courses for the aspiring students. The company extends a 32-week instructor-led programme for the students who are willing to delve into the promising world of tech and ensures that they get well-placed with a handsome salary ranging between Rs 6-25 lakhs per annum. The students need to pay only after they get placed in data science roles at any of the fast-growing startups or Fortune 500 companies.
The business model of AlmaBetter can be described as a PAP (Pay After Placement) model. Though the model, as described by the company, is “risk-heavy” they have taken it up for empowering students and get a considerable profit out of it. However, the PAP business model of the company demands a stringent selection process of hand-picking the top talents, who would be assets to any organization when supplied with the necessary skills, which AlmaBetter provides them with!
The income sharing model that the company has undertaken helps it receive an income of Rs 3 lakh per student, where the students who are trained by the company are bound to pay them Rs 10,000 for 30 months, “only after they start earning,” goes the words of the founder. Newton School, Lambda School, Masai School and Konfinitty are some other popular companies that have already embraced the income-sharing agreements (ISA) with their students.
The revenue run rate of the company may be slow at present but once the company will successfully crack the formula of student success, then value will soon follow. “Our mantra is value and not valuation”, said the Founder-CEO of the company, Shivam.
AlmaBetter – Competitors
Some of the competitors of AlmaBetter can be listed as:
Newton School
Lambda School
Masai School
Konfinitty
upGrad
Udemy
Coursera
Simplilearn
Masterclass
While the first four companies share AlmaBetter’s revenue model of paying after placement, AlmaBetter also has a tough competition ahead with the already established Edtech platforms that offer certification programmes in data science and AI.
AlmaBetter – Funding and Investors
Founded recently in August 2020, by Shivam Dutta, AlmaBetter is still standing unfunded. The bootstrapped company is currently looking forward to receiving its maiden round, Pre-Series A, of funding in order to launch new courses and expand the business geographically. Any news of its funding will come live shortly after it starts receiving funds.
AlmaBetter – Growth
EdTech startup AlmaBetter is gaining significant interest for its unique model from thousands of students. Due to its successful past batches, AlmaBetter has already become a partner-of-choice for several reputed companies throughout the country. It aims at nurturing a new generation of tech workforce equipped with Artificial Intelligence skills and thus, revolutionizing the traditional education industry.
AlmaBetter has already been successful in roping in over 120 hiring partners, which includes some of the biggest brands of India – Flipkart, Paytm, Delhivery, Ola, Swiggy, PaisaBazaar, and other recognized MNCs, which are usually spoken of highly like Accenture, Oracle, HSBC, Microsoft, Citibank and more.
AlmaBetter launched its first cohort in October 2020 and has already reported having registered 40,000 users successfully by May 2021. Furthermore, it has also recorded a 30% month-on-month growth of its paid memberships.
AlmaBetter – Future Plans
With the rapid implementation of automation across diverse industries, upskilling is turning into a necessity, says Shivam. This is what will make AlmaBetter attain its goal of growing its learner community to 1-2 lakh by 2022.
AlmaBetter is eyeing to raise a Pre-Series A round to launch new courses in product management and software development and to fulfill their aim of expanding to other geographies. This will help AlmaBetter slowly inch towards satiating the global demand for data science learning.
Vibhavari Madki
