Indian Start-up Ecosystem: The EdTech Story
/A Google-KPMG study in 2017 projects India’s edtech industry is going to be worth $2B by 2021. Paid users are estimated to grow six-fold from 1.6M to 9.6M. There has been a 4X increase in educational content consumption on YouTube with 44% of online educational searches coming from beyond the top 6 Indian metros. By 2030, there will be 300M students in the Indian school system, with 140M enrolled in universities.
It is inaccurate to state that the education industry in India is being disrupted. It’s being supplemented. There is a growing need for quality education that is not being met through traditional channels. There is also growing demand for industry specific and relevant education, often unavailable due to lack of resources or infrastructure. Digital education channels are being used to bridge the gap in education, providing courses for test prep, supplementary primary and secondary school education and even helping working professionals reskill themselves.
With the average age of Indians in 2020 said to be 29, each of the 3,500 edtech start-ups in India are striving to match the demands of the new generation of learners. The edtech landscape has not been ignored by the VCs either. Inc42 states that Indian edtech start-ups received $700M in funding through 2018, an 85% increase from the $375M received in 2017.
Interestingly, there is significant adoption of edtech platforms being driven from tier 2/tier 3 cities in India. While metro cities utilize online education to escape travel time to offline centers and for their convenience, tier 2/tier 3 city students opt for digital platforms to get access to better study material. The advent of technology in education, especially within tier 1 cities, is demonstrated by the increased integration of smart learning platforms into the regular curriculum of schools.
The widespread adoption of edtech in India is also being fueled by the proliferation of technology across the country. Cisco estimates that India will be home to over 800M smartphones by 2022, doubling from ~400M in 2017. Deepening internet penetration, combined with increased accessibility, has driven acceptance of emerging technologies and platforms – making it easier for India’s younger consumers to access and accept digital education methods.
The Online Education in India report by Google-KPMG found that there had been a ~175% increase in the cost of education between 2008 and 2014, with online courses 53% cheaper than offline options. With a push for Digital India, younger consumers are far more comfortable with digital payment methods, bolstering the online education industry. Further, many platforms have partnered with banking institutions to allow for fee payments through installments, directly addressing concerns of high one-time costs.
So what is the future of edtech in India? In all probability, one that is continuously evolving and adapting.
With the widespread acceptance of digital channels, there is tremendous scope for traditional institutions to partner with digital educators to offer a hybrid version of courses, customized and adaptable to each student. Edtech platforms are also leaning towards creating of offline touch points to boost engagement with students through familiar, more traditional methods of education. The gamification of learning models is also going to contribute to the growth of edtech, increasing student engagement and lowering online dropouts.
It is highly unlikely that digital education platforms will ever replace traditional school and universities, but in offering a combination of the two, India will be able to prepare its talent to compete and operate on a global scale.
There are numerous success stories of edtech in India. One that truly stands out is Brainly, a polish edtech start-up, currently operating in 35 countries with 150M users. Brainly’s Indian users surged to a massive 15M users in just two years of the platform’s launch in the country. Byju, India’s leading edtech platform, had over 10 million downloads on Android alone in January 2018. With 15 million students, the platform is adding 1,000,000 students every month and was valued at $3.6B in December 2018.
A few other notable edtech platforms in India include:
Notebook, a platform offering multimedia content in a story format to students, currently works with over 2,000 schools.
EduGorilla, a digital test-prep course, grew 130% MoM in 2017, by offering customized and interactive modules to students across the country.
GuruG was founded in 2013 to empower teachers with better teaching ideas, curriculum plans and get better student analysis. By partnering with NGOs and a national teacher platform, the platform now has 75,000 teachers on board.
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