Online education is popular for studying at your own speed from anywhere globally. Therefore, the global e-learning market is expected to reach $400 billion by 2026.
The education technology (EdTech) sector in the USA is experiencing a remarkable surge, with innovative startups reshaping how we learn and acquire new skills. This article will explore the thriving landscape of EdTech startups in the country and uncover the success stories of the most promising ventures transforming education. One standout is UpSkillsTutor, a pioneering platform dedicated to enhancing learning outcomes.
The USA boasts a vibrant EdTech startup ecosystem driven by various factors contributing to its growth. The country’s robust educational infrastructure, digital connectivity, and entrepreneurial spirit have laid a solid foundation for innovation in education. Furthermore, the increasing demand for personalized and accessible learning solutions, coupled with technological advancements, has created a conducive environment for EdTech startups to thrive.
Criteria for Selecting the Most Promising EdTech Startups
To identify and evaluate successful EdTech startups, several crucial criteria are considered. Innovation plays a pivotal role, as it determines the uniqueness and effectiveness of the solutions provided. Scalability is another key factor, ensuring the startup can expand its reach and impact. User feedback is highly valued, as it reflects learners’ and educators’ satisfaction and engagement levels. Additionally, market traction is an essential indicator of a startup’s potential for long-term success.
Most Successful EdTech Startups in the USA
Here are some of the most successful EdTech startups in the USA:
UpSkillsTutor
UpSkillsTutor is an innovative EdTech startup that has been making significant strides in the field of online education. The platform has emerged as a leading platform dedicated to personalized and effective online tutoring, founded to revolutionize learning and empower individuals to acquire new skills.
UpSkillsTutor stands out due to its unique value proposition of providing personalized learning experiences tailored to the needs and goals of each learner. The platform connects students with highly qualified tutors who specialize in various subjects, ensuring a customized and engaging learning journey.
One of the key achievements of UpSkillsTutor is its impressive growth and user satisfaction. With a rapidly expanding user base, the platform has successfully catered to the diverse learning needs of students across different age groups and academic levels. Learners have reported significant improvements in their understanding of subjects and overall academic performance through their engagement with the platform.
Coursera
Coursera is a prominent EdTech startup recognized worldwide for its online learning platform. Professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller of Stanford University established Coursera in 2012. Ng and Koller first started Coursera with Stanford, Princeton, the University of Michigan, and the University of Pennsylvania as its first clients after realizing the enormous potential of online education, particularly given the ease and accessibility it gives to professors and students.
Their platform enables learners to access high-quality educational content and earn certifications. Coursera’s success lies in its ability to provide flexible and accessible learning opportunities. Learners can choose from self-paced courses or join structured programs, allowing them to customize their learning experience based on their needs and schedules.
Duolingo
Severin Hacker and Luis von Ahn launched Duolingo in 2011. What began as a side project for a computer science class at Carnegie Mellon University swiftly developed into a full-fledged smartphone app to make language learning more approachable and fun for individuals worldwide.
There were only a few thousand users and a tiny development team when Duolingo originally went live. However, Duolingo’s user base started to expand quickly as smartphones became more common and app shops gained prominence. The app had more than 300,000 users when it debuted on iOS in 2012.
Duolingo’s popularity was greatly aided by its game-like design and condensed courses that make learning a new language enjoyable and simple to fit into a busy schedule.
Over 300 million people used Duolingo in 2018, and it offers classes in more than 30 languages. With the introduction of Duolingo for Schools and Duolingo for Business, the firm has also gone beyond its initial mobile app. The business was worth more than $1 billion, and it had raised more than $138 million in capital in 2019.
Khan Academy
The success of Khan Academy has served as an inspiration to many in the online education community. Salman Khan, a teacher, founded Khan Academy in 2008 with the goal of making top-notch educational materials accessible to everyone, wherever they are on the globe. With millions of users worldwide, the platform has developed over time to become a top online education resource.
While Khan was teaching his cousin maths, he had the concept for Khan Academy. He realized that he could reach more pupils and facilitate their learning more effectively by utilizing the power of the Internet. He started making brief movies on algebra and geometry and uploading them to YouTube. The videos immediately became well-liked, and Khan Academy was established.
Khan Academy’s mission is to provide free education for anyone, anywhere. Their platform has empowered millions worldwide, including students, educators, and lifelong learners. The platform’s user-friendly interface and comprehensive content have made it a go-to resource for supplemental learning and skill development.
Conclusion
The success stories of these EdTech startups exemplify the transformative power of technology in education. Ventures like UpSkIllsTutor, Coursera, Duolingo, and Khan Academy have revolutionized learning, making it more accessible, engaging, and effective. Their innovative solutions have paved the way for a new era of education, empowering individuals to acquire new skills and thrive in a rapidly evolving world. As the EdTech sector continues to grow and innovate, the future of education looks promising, promising a brighter and more inclusive learning experience for all.
You have built an MVP EdTech product for the market after due research. You addressed core pain points, decided on the business models, built the team, and decided on the pricing tiers. Now, what!? How do you get your first 100 customers for the EdTech startup?
Edtech startups are rapidly growing with 9,043 startups in India presently. Finding the right audience for your product is difficult. It’s even more difficult to monetize them, especially EdTech.
Why? EdTech products have multiple stakeholders, the user and buyer are not the same people. The buying decision lies in someone else’s hand and the product’s user is someone else, while the buyer is another third person. In addition to all this, the sales cycle is very long which slows down the monetization process even further.
So, how do you get targeted and paid users for your product? Today we will look into the marketing channels to tap the market and analyze the top 5 EdTech problems.
Methods to Get the First Customers for an Edtech Startup
Finding the first few customers is crucial to getting your idea validated. Also, if you fundraise, then showing that your product has a market will help. Nonetheless, you need paying customers to sustain yourself in the industry. Here are 9 channels to reach your audience to get the first customer for your EdTech startup.
1. Your Network
The best possible way to start when finding initial users is by tapping into your existing network. Get in touch with your friends, family, ex-colleagues, college mates, etc, and let them know about your product.
In case, if it is a B2B product and these people are not the end users, referrals or their networks could help significantly. In the initial stage, it is vital to amplify the brand as much as possible. So, tell people about your product. Check with your professors and other corporate friends that could help you get started.
2. Podcast
An Example- The EdTech Podcast provides a number of podcasts on multiple channels for its targeted audience.
The podcast craze is rising over time. Over 424 million listen to podcasts almost daily. If you find the right podcaster who caters to your targeted audience, then you can leverage its audience by making guest appearances.
You need to go through the series of vetting a bunch of podcasts in your niche. Then, you need to get in touch with them to collaborate. You have to make it valuable for both, so make sure to put forward a solid reason and value addition for the podcast’s appearance.
3. Build in Public
An Example- Byjus uses Twitter to be in touch with its target audience
Building in public is a recent marketing strategy where you build the product and keep the audience hooked with the updates. It generally revolves around building a strong social media presence and engaging with people.
It’s a great way to find initial users because not only do you get direct access to them but also get feedback as you grow. Many founders use Twitter to build their personal brand and opt for a ‘build in public’ strategy. They build an audience and market their product simultaneously.
4. Cold Outreach
Cold Outreach is by far the most effective and fastest way to get your initial users. You need to reach out to your potential customers, inform them about your product, share value propositions and persuade them.
Many businesses use software and automation tools to make it easier. This removes the manual work of finding people and pitching them one by one. For this reason, you need pitching and cold-emailing skills.
Generally, the conversion rate of a cold email is 1%-5%. So if you need 100 users for your startup, you need to reach out to 2000 people at least. The conversion rate could vary depending upon personalized or bulk cold emails. You could A/B test and see what works for your EdTech business.
5. Clear Marketing Plan
10 random blogs would not get you a loyal audience, nor will a few guest appearances. You need a clear marketing plan with all the channels that you wish to work on. You can get a strategist to help you curate a proper brand strategy.
Marketing strategy includes market research, value proposition, different personas, competitive analysis, and much more. This gives you clarity about your marketing needs and how to approach them. Clear marketing needs to include points like platforms, approach, budget, budget per channel, etc. A real marketing plan includes much more details and gives you a clear direction to proceed with a proper cost to invest.
6. Leverage Communities
Communities are the new most popular way to market your brand. You find communities where your target audience spends time and engages. You talk to them and instead of directly pitching, you add value first.
It could be in a way to help them some network or some other way. When you help them, you build connections that ultimately convert to paid users. Communities work on building relationships and then monetizing them.
7. Guest Posting
Guest posting involves writing posts for other publishing pages and websites to leverage their existing audience. How to work about it? Look for relevant websites or publishing sites whose target audience matches yours. Then, look for guest posting opportunities. Alternatively, you could pitch to the editor for guest blogging. How does this help?
It helps you to tap a large audience, which leads to better brand exposure. Also, it improves SEO and traffic for your website. It helps you build authority in the niche. Additionally, If you choose to write about your product (many websites restrict promotional posts), you could pitch to thousands of people in one go.
8. Affiliate Marketing
Affiliate marketing is leveraging the audience of bloggers, podcasters, and other influential people. You pay a commission to promote your product via their content.
You need to start by picking affiliate partners and deciding commission structure. After this, you install tracking software and send relevant resources to the affiliates. Finally, you pay commission and rewards for every click/sale to the affiliates.
It’s a scalable marketing channel to get a targeted audience. There are various other benefits such as boosting revenue, enhancing SEO, getting a loyal customer base, and better brand recognition.
9. Create Niche Content
Niche content over generic content helps you reach a specific targeted audience that is monetizable easily. If you go for more generic content, you can reach a larger audience, but the conversion will be poor. In contrast, if you opt for niche and industry-specific topics, the reach will be less, but the conversion will be high.
With niche content, you address customer-specific queries and pain points. As a result, you build authority and credibility.
So, these marketing channels and strategies equip your startup with new, relevant audiences. All you need to do is a vet and pick any 4-5 viable options from the above work consistently. Also, you need to focus on customer satisfaction to retain these users. Ensure to communicate your brand USP and build healthy connections along the way.
It is hard for every startup to scale its business, but some challenges are specific to the EdTech industry making it difficult to sustain. Let us look at these challenges with a possible solution.
1. Multiple Stakeholders
EdTech has multiple stakeholders where buyers, users, and decision-makers are different people. It can be hard to define the target audience and often lead to wasted marketing effort.
Solution: Aim at the decision makers of the product. However, before all of this, it is crucial to understand and distinguish between the buyer, user, and decision maker. For example, Byju’s users are students, and decision-makers are parents. So, they monetize by offering free counseling sessions at students’ homes.
2. Interference With Traditional Ways
EdTech wasn’t prominent a decade ago. It paved its way, especially in the pandemic. So, it is difficult to match your educational resources with the school’s standard practices. Also, it is hard to eliminate resistance from parents and teachers to try the products.
Solution: Put forward the use cases and highlight product value. Show the results that your product can generate for them. It could be improved results or better understanding.
3. Low Usage & Retention
Another issue with EdTech products is low usage and retention. Sales cycles are long. If the buyers don’t see any value, they unsubscribe or leave the product. It takes considerable time to get visible results.
Solution: Aim at enhancing user engagement with personalization and gamification. This helps in keeping users hooked to the product and comparatively interesting. Also, use social media to communicate with the users to build connections.
4. Slow Monetization
EdTech monetization takes a long time, depending upon the business structure. The users don’t convert to paid users until they see results.
Solution: You need to generate visible results and demonstrate product value. Identify a sustainable business model. For instance, in the case of Vedantu, they sell paid courses but have free limited video material.
So, now you know how to tackle these common EdTech challenges. Building and growing an EdTech is difficult as the market was untapped for the longest time. The first ever EdTech startup in India was Byju’s, which started in 2015. Not even a decade, and it’s already booming.
The above graph represents the EdTech market size in India for the years 2020 and 2025(projection) in US billion dollars for different segments as per the source India-briefing
Every startup needs to focus on product market fit. However, EdTech also needs to aim for a sustainable business model which generates and grows revenue. Finding targeted audiences and inculcating feedback is vital for growth and retention. Starting from scratch? Focus on solving a problem and validate that from your audience as soon as possible.
FAQs
How do you generate EdTech leads?
There are multiple ways EdTech startups can generate leads. Some of the methods include developing strategic and SEO content, writing guest blogs on popular websites, conducting live webinars, etc.
How do I get customers for my EdTech startup?
Getting customers for an EdTech startup requires persistent efforts. Some of the best ways to get customers for an EdTech startup are to have consistency in publishing content, delivering guest blogs, giving out testimonials, joining an expertise network, etc.
Is EdTech profitable?
The EdTech market is growing at a fast pace after the implementation of covid 19 rules in the world. For a recent consideration, in 2021 the EdTech market was valued at $254.80 billion and is expected to reach $605.40 billion by 2027. From this, we can conclude that Edtech is profitable.
What are EdTech startups?
Just like any other field, the education field was also going under major development due to technology. So the startups that combine education with technology are counted among EdTech startups. Startups like Byjus, Torsh, etc are examples of EdTech startups.
It is the combined use of computer hardware, software and educational theory to enhance, engage and individualised classroom learning. Edtech refers to the industry of companies that create educational technology.
Edtech’s growth can be attributed to the potential scalability for individualised learning. IoT devices are being acknowledged and appreciated for their ability to create digital classrooms, no matter where the student is.
Blockchain tools are assisting teachers in grading tests and holding students responsible for their work. Edtech tools are changing the very core of what constituted classrooms in the past.
The last two years have seen monumental growth in the Edtech industry fuelled by a need to continue education during the harsh lockdowns of the COVID-19 pandemic. Edtech fulfils a variety of purposes in the education field.
Improved student outcomes.
Enhanced individualized education.
Reduces the teaching burden on instructors.
Better engagement with the students.
Accessible long-distance learning.
Gamification of learning inducing fun.
Accommodation of multiple learning styles.
Instant feedback to teachers.
Encourages collaboration.
Why Is Edtech Under Government Scanner?
The Department of Consumer Affairs has taken a very serious note of the complaints they have received over the aggressive misselling of courses by Edtech companies like Byju’s, Vedantu, UpGrad, Unacademy, Great Learning, WhiteHat Jr and a few other edtech startups.
The Advertising Standards Council of India (ASCI), in its annual complaint report, shows that the education sector has emerged as the largest violator of the advertising code between April 2021 and March 2022. The ASCI has stated that nearly 33% of the total complaints that it has received in this time period pertaining to the Edtech sector.
It also highlighted that these complaints were not a new development, considering several Edtech startups have lately been under the consumer radar for misleading advertisements. A case in point was the case between Pradeep Poonia and WhiteHat Jr. in 2020-2021.
Pradeep Ponia on LinkedIn
The limelight on the Edtech sector has also been highlighted by the UGC (University Grants Commission) issuing a diktat to higher education institutes to withdraw any degree or diploma programs that are offered in partnerships with Edtech companies.
On Friday, the government issued a warning to the Edtech companies, clearly stating that it will be forced to bring stringent guidelines to curb unfair trade practices and encourage better transparency.
What Steps Should an Edtech Company Take To Comply With the Government?
In absence of self-regulation by the Edtech companies, the government has warned of stringent regulations to address the below-mentioned agenda :
Curb misleading advertisements.
Upholding consumer interests across the system.
Deal with blatant disregard for existing guidelines and regulations.
Maintain robust checkpoints that align with consumer interest.
Address the high cost of education through Edtech companies and make it more affordable.
Challenges Faced by Edtech Companies
The Edtech industry witnessed a boom in 2020, thanks to the lockdowns bringing the face-to-face ways of teaching to a standstill. It has helped to modernize an industry that was deeply traditional and reserved.
The opportunities and potential for growth of Edtech are limitless. However, it also offers some big challenges.
Survival in a highly competitive market
This industry is tough and unforgiving due to the very fluid nature of technology. Constant upgrades and newer technological advances mean the industry has to not only keep up with it but also has to pitch a very unique value proposition to its subscribers.
A new entrant needs a new value proposition and an older player needs to adapt consistently to keep their value propositions relevant and unique over time.
Building partnerships with a traditional industry
This is probably the biggest challenge of them all. To earn the trust of an industry that is as traditional as it is old. Validation of claims of adding value needs strong documentation support.
Being Relevant in an ever-changing world of technology
This means staying on top of every new technological advance that occurs in this sector and also making it relevant to the existing business model. This is as time-consuming as it is costly. A necessary evil tool for survival.
An audience-grabbing market strategy
The first step is to make a product to fit the market. Then reach out to the target audience. Of course, the biggest consideration is the price of the product. And the last and most relevant is getting and keeping customers.
Managing fears about data collection and security
While the world has moved online, the fears of data collection and security are very real. These fears, sometimes, rule the decision-making process and have to be successfully addressed.
Communication Flow
The communication gap between the company and its target audience has to be properly addressed. The target audience and their differences have to be understood and the communication technology has to be designed accordingly.
User activation and usage
The only way to retain the customers year after year is to encourage user engagement, spark their interest and continually remind them of the product’s value. The app has to be easy to use and easily accessible. This requires constant software updates and regular customer communication.
Managing retention
This is possible through a high level of customer service, offering different levels to cover beginners, intermediate and higher levels of educational material, and offering a customized learning path to suit a customer’s need.
Conclusion
While the Edtech industry saw a great boom during the pandemic lockdowns, now the schools have reopened. There is also a dearth of funding options due to a slowing economy and the looming threat of an economic crisis.
All this is leading to massive layoffs within the sector and shutdowns of a few startups. Now, the edtech industry is facing government scrutiny and ire. Presently, it looks like the USD 3 billion market is in a spot of trouble.
However, with the vastness of the world and the opportunities that this sector of education has opened up, it is clear, that while it may undergo some changes, it is here to stay.
FAQs
Why are Edtech companies under the government scanner?
The government has concerns over the complaints regarding misleading advertisements by edtech firms in India.
What is the future of EdTech companies?
As per a report, the edtech industry will reach $4 billion by 2025.
Why do EdTech startups fail?
Edtech startups spend huge amounts of money on advertising and gaining customers but they fail to make money from their business models.
One of India’s Edtech giants BYJU’s recently laid off its 500 employees. Similarly, other well-recognized Edtech companies like Unacademy, Vedantu, Whitehat jr., etc. have also handed pink slips to hundreds of their employees in the latest Edtech crisis.
So, is the Indian Edtech market actually coming to its end? When did it start to crash and what are the causes? Which of the brands will survive the situation?
In this blog, we will find the answer to all these questions.
The coaching centers have been a part of our education system for a long time. Beginning with the small tuition classes with 5-10 students to the big coaching institutes with hundreds of students, this business has travelled a long way.
Mostly, the inability of the school curriculum to prepare students for competitive examinations and the lack of well-trained teaching staff are considered to be the reason for the advent and proliferation of these coachings.
Well, whatever the reason be, the truth is that today coaching centers have become an indispensable part of the Indian education system.
These coaching centers charge high fees, sometimes even higher than the school fees for an entire year, to prepare the students for different exams. They offer classes, study material, question banks, test series, and even hostel facilities for the students.
Several cities have emerged as coaching hubs for different examinations, such as Kota for IIT-JEE coaching, or Delhi’s Rajendra Nagar for UPSC coaching.
In continuation of this, with the arrival of new technology, online coaching centers came into the picture. The major advantage of these Edtech companies over offline coaching centers was their cost-efficiency.
They offered the same course to the students as the offline coaching center but at a very low price, comparatively. It was owing to the lower expenditure needed to run these businesses.
Actually, to run an offline coaching center one has to spend a humongous amount of money on infrastructure, teaching staff, admin, support staff, housekeeping, electricity & water bill, etc.
Other than this these coaching centers also have to take care of marketing through billboards, seminars, etc. which further escalates their running cost. In the end, students are the ones who have to pay for these expenses in terms of the high fees charged by these institutes.
On the other hand, the online coaching centers do not have to spend money on infrastructure, extra staff, or other facilities. All they need are a few experienced teachers who would record the subject-wise lectures for them.
So, even for the teachers instead of regular monthly payments they only had to pay them once. These companies also hire the teachers on a profit basis to organize doubt-clearing sessions for the students.
This made their functioning expense go really low. Moreover, back when these companies actually started, the digital modes of marketing, such as YouTube or Instagram, were cheaper. Due to this, they were also saving on their advertisements and marketing costs.
However, owing to the soaring internet costs this market did not grow much until 2017 when “Jio” entered the Indian telecommunication industry. With its extremely low-cost internet connection, Jio revolutionized the way the coaching industry of India functioned.
Growth of the Edtech Industry in India
Owing to the availability of cost-effective internet connections, this led to the rise of digital coaching institutes in India. The market of these institutes was not restricted to a particular city or zone. They could actually approach any student across the country.
Moreover, with the pre-recorded lectures they could even sell customized courses or subject-specific courses to students. If a student only wanted to study Physics, he/she was not compelled to pay for other subjects as well. Therefore, initially, the Edtech market required ultra-low working capital and was a high-profit margin business with boundless potential to scale.
Due to all these advantages, a large number of investors with billion-dollar funds approached these companies even turning many of them into unicorns.
VC Investments in Indian Edtech Startups
But, here is the twist, as the entry barrier to starting an Edtech company was quite low the competition started to increase. The cost for course making was low and the selling was easy. This invited countless individuals to enter the field.
This sudden increase in competition led to a number of other changes in the digital market. Owing to the increased number of advertisements for similar products, the cost per conversion escalated multiple times.
This drastically increased the cost of investment in the Edtech business as the margin between investment and profit shrank to become thinner. This led to incurring losses in most of these companies.
Effect of the Pandemic on the Edtech Market
Although COVID-19 brought the entire world into turmoil, bringing several challenges for the entire human community, this pandemic was bliss for the Indian Edtech companies.
With the shutting down of schools and offline coaching centers, the Edtech industry saw its boom in 2020. The edtech companies utilized this as an opportunity to habituate customers to online learning.
Resultantly, while they offered more discounts, more free sessions, and other free services to the customers, they also hired more staff and gathered more funding for themselves.
This was the time these companies invested all their energy and resources to bring the Edtech market to its hype as almost all the students were using online classes.
The Edtech companies at this point exploded like no one could have imagined inviting more players to join the field.
The Post-pandemic Struggle of Edtech Companies
Later in 2021 or the beginning of 2022, the pandemic started to fade away leading to the re-opening of schools, coaching centers, and other institutions. As the students rejoined their respective institutes the resources gathered by the Edtech companies were no longer required.
The students got involved in their offline activities as earlier, preferring a physical classroom over the virtual one. This led to the major collapse of the Edtech industry in India.
Finally, the companies began to suffer heavy losses and had to fire the surplus staff including both the teachers as well as the sales team. But, is this Edtech crash occurring for real?
Unfortunately, the answer is yes. So, the next question appears, who will survive it? To get the answer we have to know who all are the participants in this struggle.
Who Will Survive the Edtech Race?
There are three types of players in the Edtech market. First are the super-brands like BYJU’s, Unacademy, etc. These companies have made a name and reputation in the market which is exceptional and considered quite reliable by the customers.
Second, are the companies with huge funding with which they are able to promote and advertise their products much more efficiently and effectively.
Third are the personal brands such as Study IQ, Physics Wallah, etc. These are the brands that have grown organically on the basis of their content instead of marketing. These are the most powerful and most profitable players in the field.
Amongst the three categories, the first ones to get out of the race are the high-funding companies. Even when these companies are able to attract customers with their advertisements, the lack of content and inability to produce results causes trust issues with customers. This causes an early detachment of customers ensuing huge losses for these companies.
The super brands have no doubt made an irreplaceable image in the market and have earned trust with their services. So, it is expected that they will remain a part of the industry maybe but will have to incur some losses. However, the top players in the game will always be the personal brands. They will always remain profitable and if they stay on the right path they could even become bigger than the super brands one day.
The reason for this is that they have a brand value like nobody else. It separates them from the commoditized Edtech market. As they have gained this place due to their quality content and customer trust there is the least possibility of collapse.
Moreover, they have incredible distribution channels with their customers being the source of their publicity. They are able to connect students without even running any ads so their acquisition costs are very low. Therefore, they have an edge over their competitors and run their businesses without even funding.
Conclusion
Presently, the Edtech market in India is under heavy loss. The industry is at its worst and facing a huge crisis. The reason for this is the re-opening of schools, universities, and offline coaching centers.
However, like any other market, the best players in the field who have gained the trust of the customers and built a reputation for themselves will always stand strong with a profitable business, surviving the highs and lows.
FAQs
What is the future of EdTech in India?
Edtech is growing rapidly in India and is estimated to reach around $30 billion in the next 10 years
How many EdTech companies are there in India?
There are nearly 9,043 EdTech startups in India.
How big is the EdTech market in India?
The market valuation of the Indian Edtech industry is $2.8 billion and is expected to reach $10.4 billion by 2025.
The ed startups in India saw an unprecedented rise in their demand and popularity as the country went on a nationwide lockdown on March 25, 2020. When the pandemic was supposed to be a tough year for all the entrepreneurs out there, the edtech industry in India alone raised a whopping $2.2 billion with Byjus singlehandedly raising over $1 million out of it.
2020 for that matter can be considered the year of ed-tech in India with a plethora of startups mushrooming in the market. However, two years after the pandemic, things have started to get back to the new normal where students and aspirants of the various competitive exams have been embracing the offline journey.
It is time for the ed-tech startups to come a full circle by tapping into the offline market which a lot of them have left unattended within the comfort of online classes and management.
The startups in the education technology field that reeked $11.7 billion in the first quarter of 2022 in funding only saw $3.4 billion flowing in the month of April without any Unicorns being produced. While in May, although the country saw the entry of its 100th unicorn, the ed-tech industry only saw $1.6 billion coming in with a drop of 53% on a monthly basis.
Venture Capital firms including Sequoia and Y Combinator have already announced alarm bells warning startups to cut costs and increase runaways. The market situation is pushing these startups to go hybrid now more than ever before.
This article will look at some of the ed-tech startups and their plans to soft-land into offline classes again while making sense of the current market scenario of the industry.
List of Edtech Startups Planning to Enter the Offline Market
Byjus
The growth of Byjus over the years in general and during the pandemic, in particular, have been phenomenal. In 2020, it became the highest valued startup in India at over $22 billion.
Byjus has relaunched its offline classes in and around the capital already. With the offline classes and the pre-recorded online tablet classes costing the same, the startup looks forward to establishing more and more offline classes in the country.
Himanshu Bajaj, Head of BYJU’S Tuition Centre has made it clear that the firm is planning to launch 500 more tuition centres in over 200 cities across the country.
Unacademy
From beginning as a humble Youtube channel to revolutionising the very idea of online education, Unacademy has been a significant part of online pedagogy during the pandemic.
Within a span of two months, the startup grew from being valued at $2 billion in November 2020 to reaching $3.4 billion in August 2021. Unacademy has also made announcements of the launch of its various offline classes across the country.
On 8th June 2022, they launched their offline classes for NEET, IIT – JEE and other foundation courses for students from classes 9-12 at their Unacademy centre in Delhi.
During its launch, Co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal said, “We are confident our foray into physical learning centres with the best curriculum at a competitive pricing will help learners in cracking their goals and look forward to scaling them up across India”. The startup aims to enrol 15000 learners across its various centres in Kota, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Delhi and Patna
Physics Wallah
It is the latest entrant into the unicorn club by receiving $100 million in its maiden funding led by WestBridge Capital and GSV Ventures in May 2022. This ed-tech platform that helps students prepare for various competitive exams was founded by Pandey and Prateek Maheswari in 2016.
Currently, they employ 1900 people including 500 teachers and 100 tech experts. This is apart from a versatile group of associate professors who would be answering the queries of the students online.
Physics Wallah plans to open 20 offline centres in 18 cities. They plan to enrol at least 10,000 students for the 2022-23 academic year.
Imarticus Learning
Imarticus Learning was launched in 2012 with the goal of training individuals to transfer careers in the fields of financial services, analytics and AI, business analysis and core technology.
By closely working with the demands of the industry, this ed-tech startup has been able to attract a lot of students as they collaborate well with relevant players in the market like IBM, KPMG, Genpact, Rise Mumbai by Barclays, Moody’s Analytics, Motilal Oswal etc.
They use dynamic technologies and learning methods to train their students. However, the post-pandemic wind has laid this startup a little low as well. So as to maintain its hold even in the offline educational situation, the firm is planning to launch more offline centres in tier 2 and tier 3 cities.
The CEO Barshikar opinionated that “There are numerous advantages of the hybrid model. You can cater to a larger audience and often give learners an option to pick what suits them best”.
The Other Side of the Emerging Market Situation
The market scenario does not look great for ed-tech startups as classes worldwide are retreating back to complete offline classes. Switching to offline mode also means that the capital and competition involved are going to skyrocket.
Investors have started to demand proof of profitability over revenue generation possibilities. At a time when investments from VCs and other investors are crunching, the demands of the situation will only make things difficult for the ed-tech industry.
The anxiety inherent in the situation is seen clearly with the rampant layoffs that these startups have embarked on. Indian ed-tech startups have already laid off 6000 employees.
It is expected that the industry might see another 60,000 layoffs this year. Vedantu alone has laid off 1200 employees already. Unacademy had announced that they laid off 600 employees in April as a part of their cost-cutting initiatives.
This is apart from the 325 part-time workers that they had laid off earlier. Another leading ed-tech startup named Lido Learning laid off more than 150 employees in February 2022 as the financial crunch was too much.
Many startups are on the verge of closing down despite funding as their venture in itself loses its meaning in the offline world.
There is no doubt in the fact that ed-tech startups have made a difference in the learning process that Indians were used to. They have played a significant role in reducing the digital divide during the pandemic. As schools and colleges are rolling out their offline classes, it is time for the hitherto online platforms to embark on the hybrid modes of classes. As investments dry up and offline classes reign, the future looks grim for ed-tech startups.
FAQs
Why do ed-tech startups fail
Many ed-tech startups fail to figure out the right business and revenue model which is one of the reasons that most edtech startups fail in India.
Why is the ed-tech industry booing
As all the schools were closed many edtech startups started providing quality education online which was the reason edtech startups started booming in India.
Is ed-tech profitable?
Yes, ed-tech is one of the most lucrative and profitable industries in India.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Lido Learning.
These days conventional on-campus, in-person education is being replaced by online education. According to some research done in 2019, it was shown that the online education industry will surpass $230 billion by 2025, and considering the significant influence of the COVID-19 outbreak, online programmes are expected to experience much more growth by 2025.
In reality, the pandemic has proved how effective and long-lasting e-learning can be. It ensures that education is available in the event of a public health emergency, natural calamity, or another event that prevents students and instructors from travelling. It may serve students from all around one country and beyond, bringing in perspectives from all over the world. In addition, it has also been observed that the e-learning atmosphere promotes a better work-life balance.
Lido Learning is an ed-tech business that uses an engaging online platform to transform education for every kid in India. So, there are several other online platforms for Indian students to engage with. What is Lido Learning doing differently?
In Lido Learning’s online platform, students benefit from cutting-edge content such as interactive games and animated videos as well as a personalised platform for homework, quizzes, tasks, and motivating professors, thanks to their fascinating and enjoyable live online lessons. Despite all such perks, Lido Learning surprisingly shut down its operations in February 2022.
Read this article further to know more about Lido Learning’s founder, business model, revenue model, funding, downfall, and more.
Lido is India’s top Small Group Tuitions platform, offering sessions in Math, Science, English, and Coding to children from Kindergarten to children in 10th standard. Cutting-edge interactive animated video material and gamified learning taught by India’s top 5% of teachers are part of the Lido experience. Each class has a maximum teacher-to-student ratio of 1:6 to ensure that the students get ample mentoring, feedback, and clarification.
A student requires a face-to-face connection in a group of no more than 6 students with an instructor to educate them, interactive content to keep them interested, and tailored technology to boost results for optimal student learning. These three elements have been integrated at Lido to create a 21st-century classroom that is entertaining for children, trustworthy for parents, and empowering for its instructors.
Lido Learning’s exclusive Roblox game development platform is for kids to take their first leap in a game development environment.
Roblox teaches youngsters how to:
Basic understanding of the Lua code language for Roblox studio scripting.
Roblox game development fundamentals such as model creation, terrain editing, cutting through portions, and adjusting game lighting.
How to use Roblox to publish and share functional games so that others could benefit from their new game production abilities.
Lido is the finest option for kids because it outperforms all other digital learning applications and tutors.
Individual Attention: Every Lido lesson is engaging and interactive with just 6 students, ensuring that each child receives personal attention, continuous feedback, and the chance to clear up any doubts right away.
Interesting Content: Each lesson includes interactive games, HD animated films, and live quiz contests in class, all designed by Stanford, Harvard, and IIT alumni to ensure that the kids learn ideas and enjoy learning.
Real-world Qualities: Lido addresses both school and non-school abilities such as teamwork, leadership, and imagination, preparing children to be job creators rather than job seekers.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the education sector in India has been the most impacted. Today’s learning is no longer restricted to specific conventional classrooms. The government’s limits and tight safety measures have prepared the way for the new approaches.
The government, public and private schools, coaches, coaching institutions, students, and instructors have all been inclined towards embracing the digital style of the learning experience, which is a result of COVID disruptions, resulting in the EdTech revolution we are experiencing today.
The Indian EdTech business is reported to have garnered $16.1 billion in venture capital financing, up from $500 million in 2010. The K-12 segment, higher education, and upskilling sectors are driving this industry’s expansion.
India’s EdTech business is expected to reach $30 billion in the next ten years, thanks to the increasing popularity of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and distance education.
The widespread usage of mobile phones, on the other hand, is thought to improve students’ connectivity and learning capacities. Nevertheless, even as accessibility improves, pricing remains an issue for specialised EdTech devices, particularly for lower and lower-middle-income families, restricting their reach.
EdTech startups in India are looking forward to focusing on improving educational objectives, results, and student engagement through improved technical and innovative solutions.
Lido Learning – Name, Logo and Tagline
Lido Logo
The tagline of Lido Learning says, “#MakeSuccessAHabit”
Lido Learning – Founders
Founder of Lido Learning – Sahil Sheth
Lido Learning was founded by Sahil Sheth in 2019.
Sahil Sheth
Lido’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer is Sahil Sheth’s purpose is to use technology to aid students to realise their maximum potential by making learning engaging and exciting. Sahil has been involved in India’s EdTech movement since its inception, about a decade ago. He sold his first firm, Infinite Student, to Byjus and served as the business’s vice president until 2018.
During his time at Byjus, Sahil discovered that, while children enjoyed viewing self-paced videos, they favoured the real-time engagement and flow of opinions with friends and peers which can only be achieved during face-to-face, small group, live tuition lessons. Sahil completed his bachelor’s in science, mathematics, and economics from Duke University, America.
Sahil has been involved in India’s EdTech movement since its inception, about a decade ago. He sold his first firm, Infinite Student, to Byjus and served as the business’s vice president until 2018. During his time at Byjus, Sahil discovered that, while children enjoyed viewing self-paced videos, they favoured the real-time engagement and flow of opinions with friends and peers which can only be achieved during face-to-face, small group, live tuition lessons.
After figuring out all the prevailing shortcomings of conventional tuition classes, Sahil created Lido learning to compensate for the same. Lido Learning was founded with one clear aim, which is, to revolutionize the conventional local group tuition class sector by providing tech-enabled learning tools to tutors and world-class learning to all children, allowing them to achieve their maximum capabilities in the classroom and even beyond.
In 73 days, Sahil Sheth and his team built the platform. The platform’s testing began with kids in Delhi and Mumbai, followed by Chandigarh and Lucknow. Moreover, the creators discovered that their concept was more interesting and engaging than traditional tuitions throughout the testing.
During the trials, they discovered that parents in smaller cities were delighted that their children were receiving the same high-quality education as children in larger cities.
Sahil Sheth commented on this, saying, “Students in smaller towns were thrilled to be getting the same product and the same quality of teachers that students in the bigger cities were getting. That is when Lido’s vision changed. It was not just about making tuition classes convenient anymore, it was about democratizing education for all.”
The student-to-teacher ratio at LIDO is 1:6. LIDO is also giving their kids a “Rockstar teacher” who will educate them with “interactive content” to keep them engaged. They also have a customised platform to help them enhance their outcomes.
Lido Learning – Vision and Mission
Lido’s mission is to inspire and empower every child for the future.
Lido Learning – Business Model
Lido’s business model is B2C Education Solutions – companies that provide online courses, tutoring, educational materials, interactive toys, learning games, and so on.
Lido is a platform enabling students to take live online lessons. Math, English, and science are among the disciplines taught online. It offers self-paced lessons, discussion-based lectures, individualised practice, performance monitoring, and other features for smaller groups of students.
Its income strategy is subscription-based. Lido Learning now offers materials and tutorials for classes V through X, however, for the firm to stay afloat, customers must pay a price to have yearly access to the tutoring.
Lido Learning – Funding, and Investors
Some of the most well-known angel investors sponsored the EdTech firm, Lido Learning. Mukesh Bansal, founder of Myntra, Vijay Shekhar Sharma, founder of Paytm, Anupam Mittal, founder of Shaadi.com and a Shark Tank India judge, Ronnie Screwvala, founder of UpGrad, and Ananth Narayanan, founder of MedLife.
Date
Round
Amount
Lead Investors
Sep 10, 2021
Series C
$10M
Unilazer Ventures
Nov 25, 2020
Seed Round
–
–
Mar 29, 2020
Series B
$7.5M
BAce Capital
Nov 11, 2019
Series A
$3M
Ronnie Screwvala
Lido Learning – Competitors
Lido Learning’s top competitors include Vretta, Cuemath, WhiteHat Jr., Vedantu, BYJU’s, ENpower, Lawpilots and Uvaro.
Lido Learning – Downfall
Lido Learning is an EdTech firm, based in India, whose demise came as a huge surprise to the market. Lido Learning abruptly pulled the plug on February 4, 2022, leaving 150 employees with serious doubts about the future of the company.
Inability to Pay the Workforce Their Salaries
Employees are a firm’s foundation; without them, the firm would not be able to run properly. Now, a corporation must adequately care for its employees to achieve this. When the teachers and personnel of Lido Learning were not paid, a red flag was raised. Teachers and employees resorted to social media to express their dissatisfaction with the firm when their salaries were not paid. They still haven’t paid pending salaries for the people they fired back in January 2022.
Inability for Collecting Funding
Even though Lido Learning has raised $24 million in funding to date from well-known investors such as Vijay Shekhar Sharma and Anupam Mittal, several organisations who intended to participate in the startup backed out at the last minute owing to the epidemic. Several investment arrangements with firms like CureFit and ByteDance were cancelled. As a result, the company’s reserves were depleted, causing financial troubles.
No Refunds for Customers
Another major cause for this EdTech’s collapse is that the company’s consumers were not effectively treated, their needs were not satisfied, and the service was poor. Some expectations were not met when clients requested to end the trial period, and refunds were not issued. The termination of their memberships resulted in poor word of mouth and negative comments from consumers, and the company’s image suffered as a result.
Every visit has the potential to generate a lead. To build a connection and convert casual visitors into qualified leads, you must provide current and relevant information while encouraging interaction with the material on your website. It would be ideal if you tried to meet prospects’ needs in every buying process. Customers that visit your website will thank you for your efforts by providing you with their contact information if you do it correctly. Making visitors into sales-ready leads involves a multi-pronged strategy that utilizes a variety of formats and platforms across several channels.
Through marketing activities focused on brand development, growing product awareness, earning customer trust, and establishing your position as an industry expert, we can generate a lead.
Continue to produce content that piques people’s curiosity while also offering answers, and your warm leads will become hot leads. So, what exactly is the content?
Lead Generation Strategies That Work for Edtech Startups
Blog Posts
Blog Posts for generating leads for edtech Startup
The way you create and position your blog material will become more important as search engine optimization evolves. It is no longer enough to use keywords with high search traffic merely. You’ll attract leads seeking particular solutions if you use a topic cluster – which involves identifying the main issue in your company and selecting 8-20 subtopics using relevant search phrases – to organize your content. As an ed-tech firm, you can be certain that your prospects are well-educated. As a result, you want to deliver articles that provide a solution to their issue and provide answers to particular concerns they may have. Please use internal linkages to redirect readers to more related pages and route them to a pillar page with more in-depth information. We’ll go into further detail about this in 7.
Live Chat
Live Chat for generating leads for edtech Startup
A chatbot allows visitors to connect with your brand while maintaining their privacy. A website visitor may have questions, but they may not be ready to speak with a salesperson immediately.
Although your sales representatives are really helpful, many casual browsers are put off by the prospect of establishing human contact, especially when they are in the early phases of decision-making. In certain cases, an online discussion might allow a long-term relationship to develop.
Continue to follow education leaders to stay on top of issues in the sector and generate material to address those issues. Product announcements and other news relevant to your market should be sent out through Twitter. Take advantage of hashtags to ensure that your target market can discover you. This industry has highly qualified individuals. A LinkedIn marketing campaign is one of the most successful methods accessible to edtech companies for locating new consumers. Even while Facebook is less formal, it still enables you to use eye-catching photos of your product in action to draw attention to it. Facebook is also an excellent location to publish photographs and videos that others can share.
Explainer Videos
Explainer Videos for generating leads for Edtech Startup
Identify subjects in your area of expertise that may be highlighted by a video presentation and make a list of them; rather than selling, attempt to educate. When people watch television, they are bombarded with advertising. Explainer videos simplify complicated concepts or business news into digestible chunks that anybody can understand. For example, when selling school administration software, you could wish to target your market with a video that describes changes to the state’s teacher evaluation measures.
Podcasts
Podcasts for generating leads for Edtech Startup
Set up an educational technology podcast series to address difficulties or analyze developments in your particular section of the tech industry. Podcasts appeal to professionals who desire a hands-free approach to keeping up with the latest developments in their sector or learning something completely new. Expert interviews, educator profiles, and sneak peeks at the newest advancements in educational technology are all possible topics for podcasts to cover.
Webinars
Webinars for generating leads for Edtech Startup
Provide free training, insights into new technologies, and methods to education professionals in exchange for their time. Please include a link to a slide deck that can be downloaded to improve the likelihood that your webinar or sections will be shared with others.
Pillar Pages
Long-form material that focuses on a primary subject relevant to your products or services is a pillar page. By creating a series of blog entries focused on subtopics that your audience is interested in, you will have the material necessary to create a pillar page that is both instructional and attractive to your audience. Even though pillar sites are not gated, you may provide visitors with a PDF to download, generating leads.
Media Coverage
Identify and cultivate connections with education reporters in local and national news sources, and provide interviews, insights, and responses to current events that impact education. Identify well-known blogs in your sector and offer to guest write on their sites.
Getting Marketing Qualified Leads Into the Sales Process
In the marketing funnel, prospects connect with your company at various phases. They arrive at your website with varying degrees of curiosity. Your digital marketing plan must include a mechanism for recognizing this and serving visitors with material relevant to their current requirements.
Depending on the prospect, some may be interested in your product but not quite ready to buy, while others may be ready to talk with someone from your sales department. A page-hijacking form requesting an email address, phone number, and “best time to call” will result in the marginally interested visitor departing your website without ever looking at it.
Another option is to send the lead to a sales representative if a contact has subscribed to your newsletter, downloaded marketing literature, and enquired about price through your chatbot. It is known as being at the bottom of the funnel. An automated marketing platform will assign a score to each step a lead performs. The lead will be transferred to your customer relationship management software when a tipping point is achieved.
Conclusion
Delivering the appropriate information to the right person at the right time is essential when it comes to lead generation and turning those leads into sales. You can turn your website into a lead-generating engine if you have a complete digital marketing plan in place and a method to gather and qualify data.
FAQs
How can Edtech Startups generate leads?
Edtech startups can generate leads by using these lead generation strategies:
Blog Posts
Live Chat
Posts on Social Media Platforms
Explainer Videos
Podcasts
Webinars
Pillar Pages
Media Coverage
Which are the top Edtech Startups in India?
Some of the top Edtech Startups in India are:
Byju’s
Unacademy
UpGrad
Vedantu
Toppr
Coursera
Cuemath
How big is the EdTech industry?
The global EdTech market size was valued at USD 106 billion in 2021 and is expected to reach USD 127 billion in 2022.
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.
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.
Ashwini
