The Indian Edtech: Everyone wants to have a share of the pie.

Coming from the days of chalk and paper the education industry had changed a lot with the inclusion of technology. Once the teaching was confined to the classrooms, now everyone can learn and earn from anywhere. One needs to have just a smartphone and a good internet connection. everything is available at the figure tip, you just need to have a desire to learn.

The Indian edtech industry has seen massive growth in recent years, with billions of dollars of funding flowing to the Indian market. The Indian education sector is supposed to reach $225B by 2025 (Source: PGA Labs and IVCA). Witnessing the surge in the user base (paid and unpaid), each one is battling to earn a bigger share of the pie, creating an ecosystem of services for their user base.

There is everything for everyone in the kitty. The major segment consists of pre-K, K-12+test prep, higher education, continued learning, and B2B edtech.

I have tried to cover each segment and the top players in each segment.

1. The first segment: K12+ Test Preparation

This segment has seen massive growth in recent years. Receiving most of the funding and creating the buzz in the market.

• BYJU'S: The biggest player, provides an online learning platform for K12 students. Working towards creating an ecosystem of offline (Aakash Educational Services Limited) and online platforms (WhiteHat Jr coding, Toppr - K12). User base: 70Mn, 4.7Mnsubscribers.
• Unacademy: Provides an online platform for the preparation of competitive exams. Major acquisitions CodeChef (coding), PrepLadder (medical exam prep), Mastree (STEAM courses). User base 40 Mn, paid subscriber: 0.35 Mn.
• Vedantu: Online tutoring platform, students can choose from the available teachers. Acquired Instasolv doubts solving platform. Paid user: 45K.

2. The second segment: Pre-School

The edtech firms in the pre-school(market size is $3B) world are defining the new norms of educating young minds. Cluttering out the boredom from the classrooms by providing a fun and interactive way to learn. Building out the ways where they can provide STEM education to the kids without burdening them. These platforms are utilizing the technique of role-playing, creativity, social-emotional learning, real-life approach to connect with the kids. The main problem in the space is to keep the kids engaged with the platform, Startups are employing musicians, artists, educators to create engaging content.

A platform to learn #English vocab (OckyPocky - engages 2 lakh children in a month, Hello English (Hello Learner): a platform to learn English from 22 vernacular #languages) to create a base in STEM education (Kutuki - Creating interactive content, Next Education India Pvt Ltd: 400hr of video lessons with 2D & 3D animations), to provide the DIY kits for the kids(ClassMonitor - provides 250 DIY kits, including flashcards, worksheets, rhymes, etc.).Only 5% of the kids are enrolled in pre-school, providing an opportunity to grow the market size by enrolling more kids.

3. The third segment: Post K-12 Segment

A post-K-12 segment consists of students from higher learning space including graduates and postgraduates. The segment is expected to grow to $3.6B by FY 2025(source: Redseer). The market is set to witness a growth of 6% CAGR in student enrollment from 40M to 53M in 2025 for higher studies. In India where the students drop out post-K-12, seems to be a positive change. In the backdrop of the New education policy, the students have multiple exit options. Allowing major chunks to complete the graduation in their course of choice. Coming to the Startup in the space, out of 346 deals in 2020, the higher education companies constituted 14%. Received a sum of $84 million in funding.

Mentions:

• upGrad, provides virtual #education by collaborating with the various renowned institutes.
• Sunstone Eduversity enrolling the students in its learn now pay later plan. One of its kind in the higher education space.
• Aggregators like Collegedunia, CollegeDekho, Leverage Edu (providing a marketplace for helping to secure a place in International universities) enabling students to get information in real-time and choose the colleges according to various parameters.
• PaGaLGuY an MBA grads fav, community-based platform for discussions related to college admissions.

4. The fourth Segment: Continuous Learning

Learning is a process that never stops. A human keep on learning in his entire life. The next segment for edtech is continuous learning, a space that has opened a door for many individuals to venture into different fields. Continuous learning has created the buzz among professionals to keep themselves updated on the latest trend and be always agile. Industry wants the professional to be equipped with the current changes and be ready to hop on the new challenges. The National education policy(2020) has provided a boost to online continuous learning. It covers both B2C and B2B models.

According to the study by RedSeer consulting the market size for continuous learning could grow to $1.2Bn by 2025. There is an addressable base(the target audience of age groups 10-44 years) of nearly 90Mn for edtech prod and services. Continuous learning startups have received funding of a whopping $142M in the year 2020 second only to the K-12 segment. Covering the financially able TG makes it a lucrative space, where the TG is able to afford the price of courses for themselves.

Mentions: Startups providing an industry-first approach to upskilling the employees with latest skills and tech.upGrad, Imarticus Learning InterviewBit, Edureka, Talentedge_In, and many more

5. The fifth Segment: B2B segment

The last segment "B2B", the segment which comes least in focus due to providing more business offerings rather than B2C. But they are the ones who fule the growth of edtech industry. Working on the SAAS model the companies are creating the best in class LMS/ERP platforms, working on bringing the revolutionary tech on the map, converting an idea into a feasible product. With the surge in adoption of tech solutions by schools, colleges, coaching institutes the future for the B2B spaces seems promising.

India is one of the largest markets of students with 360Mn learners in FY2020, the space will require continuous innovation to keep students engaged to a platform. The market of online education is estimated to grow at $225Bn by FY2025 at a CAGR of 14%. During 2017-20 the B2B firms have received total funding of $31Mn.

Startups in the space are working to enhance the onboarding experience of the students, easy mockups, gamification of the #learning process, use of AI to critically examine the progress, and provide real-time feedback to the learners.

Mentions: Mettl, Classplus , Classpro, mPowerO, Kneura AI Learning, Upswing, Mylestone Curriculum, and many more

Nobody can deny the advent of technology in any sector. But with time we will more understand the effect of technology on each sector. Will the students miss the real/live classroom feeling or the education will move more towards more online delivery.

Source: Blume.vc, Omdiyar network, VCCircle, Nasscom ken research, financial express,startuptimes, inc42, livemint