India is transforming and the main reason behind this transformation is because the way our country is leveraging technology to recreate and revolutionize different sectors. According to a Mckinsey report, newer digital tools like Cloud Computing, Advanced Genomics, and many others could have a combined global economic impact of $ 550 billion to $ 1 trillion a year by 2025.
Several tech startups in India are quietly changing the dynamics of our country’s educational landscape. With the resilient momentum of our governments increasing digital reach to drive economic growth and progress, our education sector is now mature and ready. According to the Edustars survey, 61% of Indian companies have created mobile and tablet apps in the field of education. 54% of them leverage the cloud for their startups, while 32% use video technology. A satisfactory 32% of educational technology startups present in India are earning between Rs. 5 lakhs and Rs. 1 Crore per year and 25% of startups are earning more than Rs. 1 Crore per year.
Zishaan Hayath, founder of Toppr, an online exam preparation platform, says that India’s education sector is the next front to be conquered using technology. He adds that through technology, his platform is capable of adapting the questionnaires on a personal level. In this way, they can uncover a student’s weaknesses based on their past performance and offer the appropriate content and questions.
Videos have always been the most engaging form of content in the internet space. Most of these educational technology startups use technology to compress data so that streaming video or pre-recorded video content can be sent even at the speed of a 2G connection. The segment that has the most players involved in the educational technology space is online test preparation. Entrance exams like IIT, IIM, UPSC, or Bank Exams are the focus of many educational technology startups.
Karan Mohla from IDG Ventures, an investor in a startup called SuperProfs and also one of the business mentors, says that because of startups like SuperProfs, a student is not limited to the main IIT and IIM Coaching centers. SuperProfs has partnered with 200 professors across the country to upload their video lectures. Lecture-posting students can also clarify their concerns by reserving a space for a live online session with teachers. They make sure to bring in the best of teaching talents from cities like Kota, Chennai, Delhi, Bengaluru, etc.
Vedantu is another growing educational technology startup from India, which is disrupting the online tutoring market. Vedantu works as an online marketplace where students and teachers can meet and select each other. They charge 150 to 250 rupees per hour to train sixth through twelfth grade students. Students can rate teachers, which is visible to new students to make an informed decision. Although we believe that online education is still in its infancy, we see a much higher number of investors, which is a total of 60 attracted to the educational technology space in India than in the same period in 2014, which was 35. Even globally, as data from VC investment tracking firm CB Insights suggests there is a phenomenal 71% increase in investments in the educational technology space from 2013 to 2014. Funding grew from $ 944 million in 2013 to $ 1.6 billion in 2014.
There is a definite traction for educational technology products on the market, but educational technology startups are also facing several problems. According to the Edustars Survey, when startups were asked about the challenges they face, 50% of startups said the long sales cycle was their biggest problem. With 39% stating that their biggest problem was user adoption. Lack of awareness was the problem with 32% of startups. While the rest pointed to various problems, such as the inability to attract talented employees, fundraising, and the difficulty of running a for-profit model in the educational space.
Most of the startups in India from the educational technology space are in the early stages, but luckily most of them report considerable traction, but the overall picture is positive and investors and entrepreneurs alike seem to be excited about it. potential of the sector.