Info Edge (India) Limited has acquired a 25% stake in Gurugram-based EdTech startup Juno Learning for about INR 11.25 crore.
As per the company regulatory filing, Noida-based Info Edge has agreed to acquire 4,331 compulsorily convertible preference shares having a face value of INR 10 each as the primary acquisition of shares. The aggregate shareholding of the company, post this investment, in the said entity would be 25% on a fully converted and diluted basis.
Founded by Tarun Matta in 2021, Juno Learning is building an interactive online school that teaches sales techniques, processes, and tools to entry-level professionals and students in an experiential manner, to enhance employability.
Matta founded IIMJobs.com in 2010 and Hirist.com in 2014 (online recruitment platforms in the management and engineering space) to cater to the job needs of those who have graduated from premier management institutes. Both IIMJobs and Hirist.com were later acquired by Info Edge.
“As part of the strategy, the investment would help the company create and consolidate its presence into a niche vertical of sales upskilling. It perfectly fits into the company’s playbook to invest in adjacencies to recruitment and education verticals and create synergies with its existing businesses,” Info Edge said in a filing.
Info Edge runs online job portal Naukri.com, matrimony website Jeevansathi.com, real estate classifieds platform 99Acres.com, and educational website Shiksha.com among others.
About the Author
Author: Stephen Soulunii
No more a student, but love to learn. Not a teacher, but care about how students are taught. Not an educator, but want everyone to be educated. Not a social worker, but desire to see change. Not a reformer, but always want to see a better world. The author believes that only sound education can bring a better future, better world and technology can help achieve a lot in this field.
TCS iON, a strategic unit ofTata Consultancy Services and Nettur Technical Training Foundation (NTTF), a premier technical and vocational education and training institute, have come together to launch high-demand skill development programs across sectors, in the areas of robotics, automation, manufacturing, and electronics, in a unique phygital model, developed by the former.
TCS and NTTF will offer 3 diploma and 12 certification courses with a target to skill and upskill more than 60,000 youth in the country, making them job-ready for current and future industry needs. Designed in line with the recent academic reforms and industry-defined standards, these learning programs, launched by TCS iON, aim to bridge the skills gap. Enrolled candidates will have the flexibility to learn anytime, anywhere, under the mentorship of best-in-class trainers from the industry and NTTF, and receive hands-on experience at the TCS iON learning and practice centers set up across the country.
TCS iON’s phygitalmodel transforms the learning ecosystem by combining hands-on project work and multimodal digital learning resources. The live online lectures will be delivered by NTTF. These programs will be offered to existing students as well as alumni of various ITI, polytechnics, and skill development institutes across the country who have partnered with TCS.
Venguswamy Ramaswamy, Global Head, TCS iON, said,
“The Indian electronics manufacturing service industry is expected to grow over six times from $23.5 billion to reach $152 billion by 2025. To realize this growth, the country requires its youth to acquire vocational skills in addition to core education. The TCS iON-NTTF partnership is aligned with the National Education Policy 2020, aimed to make the future workforce skilled and equipped to pursue exciting career opportunities in emerging industries.”
Dr. N Reguraj, Managing Director, NTTF, said,
“The race for the skilled youth is now global. The Phygital model programs being launched as a collaborative initiative by NTTF and TCS iON would bridge the huge skill gap among the youth in the country. Our target is to skill and upskill over 60,000 youth to make them job-ready. This unique program offered as a blended model of hands-on training plus the online content delivery as per NTTF standards would make the youth “Multi-level Certified” and skillful, to suit the high-demand job roles across sectors like robotics, automation, Industry 4.0, and electronics. The successful students will have an opportunity to choose among innumerable job postings listed on the TCS-iON platform.”
Skill development institutes, ITIs, and polytechnic colleges across India can offer these programs to interested learners. Apart from the newly launched courses, TCS iON is also set to launch several other courses which are designed to transform India into a skilled workforce for achieving the goal of becoming Atmanirbhar Bharat. The programs can be accessed at https://learning.tcsionhub.in/hub/ve/.
About the Author
Author: Stephen Soulunii
No more a student, but love to learn. Not a teacher, but care about how students are taught. Not an educator, but want everyone to be educated. Not a social worker, but desire to see change. Not a reformer, but always want to see a better world. The author believes that only sound education can bring a better future, better world and technology can help achieve a lot in this field.
EdTechReview, in association with AWS EdStart, hosted a webinar on the theme ‘Creating Pedagogically Strong and Learning Outcome Focused EdTech Products’.
Renowned EdTech experts shared their views, success stories, experiences, approaches, strategies, tips, and details on the topic. The session was moderated by Mr. Utkarsh Lokesh (CEO and Editor, EdTechReview).
The speaker panel had the following dignitaries:
Sneha Sundaram Founder, Kutuki
Chandrahas Panigrahi Co-Founder & CEO, Edukemy
Prachi Windlass Director—India Programs, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation India
Mr. Utkarsh, Moderator (CEO & Editor, EdTechReview) (connect on LinkedIn), began the webinar by asking the panelists: What’s your view of the current Indian education technology landscape?
Ms. Prachi, Director – India Programs, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation India, responded, “Indian EdTech landscape is the biggest enabler for ensuring that all children get a high-quality education and not just those with the means to access high-quality schools.” She added that education is ‘probably the biggest untapped use case for technology’ yet. She finds it exhilarating to witness the ecosystem continuously evolving as EdTech solutions become available to all age groups.
With the COVID break, entire families—not just children—shifted to digital learning. This move enhanced digital devices and internet access, making it easier to reach underprivileged social groups, especially low-income families. “Moreover,” Ms. Prachi added, “we can see a digital divide. The number of digital devices with internet exclusively for the child is very low, but the gap should reduce with cheaper internet and devices.” Prachi also said that although cheaper internet and devices are becoming available, it’s essential to consider the cost of these tech solutions and if they are leading to desired learning outcomes or not.
“Fortunately,” Prachi added, “entrepreneurs tend to, and actually do, cover the digital gap.” Unfortunately, though, she points that research does not show any significant impact that EdTech prodcts have had on learning outcomes globally. Regardless, the data on learning outcomes is still very thin. At the Dell Foundation, Prachi’s team tries to measure impact in different ways. One of their findings is that there are too many smartboard-esque solutions. “Our portfolio has several studies claiming that smartboards have… no impact on learning outcomes,” she said.
Ms. Prachi also talked about another Dell Foundation study comparing synchronous solutions with WhatsApp-based solutions and personalized self-driven learning solutions to the set the pace for future discussions.
Mr. Utkarsh asked Ms. Aarthi to dive deep into some of the interesting findings and stats about learners and learning products and explain how students think and learn differently.
Agreeing with Ms. Prachi, Ms. Aarthi said, “EdTech product makers need to focus more on learning outcomes of their products than on the products themselves.” She said that one needs to ask high-quality questions to students. “Effective questions,” according to Ms. Arti, “are those that effectively generate insights about what a student understands and what learning gaps or misconceptions a student has.”
She also talked about reciprocal thinking and fraction learning in mathematics to exemplify her points about asking effective questions that give insights into student understanding “These interesting insights are across topics and subjects. We (just) need to expose the child to questions in unfamiliar ways to help them better understand concepts.”
Answering how she came up with the idea of Kutuki, and what pivotal moments were instrumental in its evolution, Ms. Sneha Sundaram said, “I belong to the early learning segment, which is the most underserved, especially in India. However, there are multiple reasons we chose to start up in this space.”
India being home to most number of pre-schoolers globally (150 million under the age of seven) was her foremost reason. Secondly, she was fascinated and motivated by research pointing to how much of one’s sense of self, cognitive development, the “spark”, and the immersion into the rhythm of languages is established at that age. “However,” she added, “we (in India) are still far behind in infrastructure, pedagogy, and access to good quality preschools. These realities we see in tier-one cities. So you can imagine how much worse Tier 2, Tier 3 cities might be.”
Ms. Sneha’s journey started with a nuanced understanding. She and her co-founder spent a whole year researching, spending time in preschools, learning different teaching-learning philosophies, and experiencing learning as kids would. “It was astonishing for us to see that there is no innovation when it comes to preschool educational content,” she concluded. Not having contextualized content and having fragmented and unstructured early learning is a major problem. She pointed to the variety of existing preschools to illustrate her point of fragmented early learning. “There are daycare centres where children come and have unstructured learning, watch youtube videos together, and go home. And then there are high-quality preschools where you need to sell your kidney to get your kids enrolled,” said Ms. Sneha.
Her journey to set up Kutuki also taught her that ‘you cannot get a kid to learn with instruction’. In her words, “If you ask a child what 2 + 2 is, they will just run away. This age group of kids does not have a filter”. To rectify that, Kutuki decided to create a song and story-based curriculum to get children creatively engaged. They created pedagogically strong content from the ground up. Each piece of their content is based on crucial early learning milestones. To help make learning interesting to the frantic young minds, they make their content incredibly interesting and immersive with songs, stories, DIY, and other interactive activities.
Ms. Sneha also says that the current adults have a very flawed mindset when it comes to early education. “We think,” she said, “that we do not need to delve into this segment, that research is unnecessary, and you can just give the children some toys to keep them engaged. It’s not that simple. It is a lot deeper than that, which is why I thought I should spend a little more time (on research to set up Kutuki).”
Coming to the test prep sector, Mr.Utkrash asked Mr. Chandrahas Panigrahi about Edukemy’s evolution and journey so far, to which he answered, “We already had the test prep segment. But before we began, we did a bit of research on what works and what doesn’t. In the K12+ segment, for instance, what leads to very effective pedagogy?”
“Test prep—or out of school learning as it is often called—,” he said, “is all about practical learning because we only teach theory in schools, while exams are on the practice of that theory”. Edukemy’s research clarified that there is nothing like a one size fits all; it is ‘one size fits one’. “Each student has their own pace and type of learning. Some are structured learners, some work well in groups, while some work alone, and others are hackers who quickly figure out ways to get higher marks.” These are the reasons why Edukemy developed, and is developing solutions catering to each learner.
Mr. Chandrahas also discussed the importance of evaluation methodology and personalized learning pedagogy, shedding light on the 360-degree learning approach and the two teacher methodologies.
The speakers also answered the following questions:
Are pedagogy and learning outcome focus key criteria for evaluating companies for investment? What are some of the other factors you look for in an EdTech start-up?
Have you seen a shift in how today’s EdTech entrepreneurs approach the solution to problems with a better focus on pedagogy and learning outcomes? What new opportunities and gaps do you find interesting for the Indian EdTech ecosystem to solve?
Which are some of the interesting EdTech start-ups and business models you have come across in India in the last 6-12 months that we all can learn from?
What is core to Kutuki’s content engine? How does Kutuki bring the learning outcome focus with a young learner base?
Adopting the right pedagogy is the biggest challenge for educators and education products. Can you share some of the curriculum design and pedagogical strategies you have incorporated that worked with early learners and some that didn’t?
What does it take to make online learning products productive and effective for students? How does EI define a strong pedagogical foundation and sharp focus on learning outcomes?
What are the key challenges facing an EdTech company irrespective of its size today?
What is unique about Edukemy’s offering and pedagogy compared to others targeting a similar segment? What are the associated challenges in achieving a student-centered approach?
What are the EdTech trends you see across pre-k to grey in India?
The webinar also had a Q&A session where the speakers responded to the following audience questions:
In physical classrooms, learning outcomes happen due to peer-to-peer learning. In formal surroundings like classrooms & school, the physical presence of an instructor and a discipline schedule facilitate learning outcomes. So how is Ed Tech going to improve upon these areas?
From a monetization standpoint, what sort of price points is LTVRUR and other investors looking at concerning B2B B2C change charging models considering the high tax?
How do you bridge the gap between high and average IQ students?
As you mentioned about songs to song and story approach in this session, what strategies you probably feel would work but did not work?
The session concluded with Ms. Prachi and Ms. Sneha’s closing remarks, followed by a brief introduction of AWS EdStart—an AWS educational technology (EdTech) start-up accelerator, designed to help entrepreneurs build the next generation of online learning, analytics, and campus management solutions in the AWS Cloud.
Watch the webinar recording and access the Q&A session and polls to learn more about the EdTech ecosystem and its approach to creating pedagogically strong, learning outcome-focused EdTech products.
If you would like to host a webinar with EdTechReview, please get in touch with us on sales[at]EdTechreview[dot]in
About the Author
Author: Saniya Khan
I am Saniya Khan, Copy-Editor at EdTechReview – India’s leading edtech media. As a part of the group, my aim is to spread awareness on the growing edtech market by guiding all educational stakeholders on latest and quality news, information and resources. A voraciously curious writer with a dedication to excellence creates interesting yet informational pieces, playing with words since 2016.
Edurino, a Munich-based EdTech startup, has raised €3.35 million for its hybrid learning platform featuring an app and a toy fox named Mika.
The funding round was led by btov Partners, with backing from Emerge Education and Fabian and Ferry Heilemann through Pirate Impact.
All existing investors from the business angel round, including Jens Begemann (Wooga). New business angels include Verena Pausder (Fox & Sheep), Ben Drury (Yoto) and Christian Felgenhauer and Maurice Khudhir (StudySmarter), have also participated in the fundraise.
With the new financing, the company plans to bring more figurines to market and develop more content, such as numeracy. The goal of the company is to become a holistic learning system for preschool children, then older school children and integrate learning games for creativity, English as a second language, and the basics of coding into its learning platform.
Launched in 2021 by Irene Klemm and Franziska, Edurino is a playful and responsible digital learning and school preparation for children 4-8+ years. The platform introduces children from 4-8 + years to digital learning and prepares them for school. The company offers a combination of physical toys and a digital learning app and invites children on a history-based journey into the playful world of learning
While children learn through play, parents can track their children’s learning progress in a separate area and regulate screen time individually. The app independently announces the end of playtime and switches off when the screen time has elapsed. The learning journey thereby adapts individually to the developmental stage of the child.
Speaking about the platform, Co-founder of Edurino, Irene Klemm, said,
“We want to lay the foundation for responsible digital literacy at an early age. We were amazed at how few good digital products there were on the market. Together with our strong investor team from the areas of gaming, education & tech, we want to revolutionize the digital education industry,”
Adding further about the platform, Co-founder, Franziska Meyer, said,
“We want to create products children will love. You have to look at the world from a different perspective and understand kids’ sense of play. We have worked with over 20 kindergartens and seen how well Edurino can be integrated into a child’s daily routine. Our crowdfunding campaign went 60% beyond our target, so we see confirmation from parents that our hybrid approach is on the right track.”
Education expert and investor, Verena Pausder, added:
“In order for our children to find their way in the digital world of tomorrow, we need to teach them digital skills. And that’s exactly what Edurino is training them to do.”
In order to scale product development, Edurino also plans to triple their staff from ten to thirty people over the next 12 months. In the near future, it aims to launch their products in the retail sector as well.
About the Author
Author: Shalini Pathak
Shalini Pathak is a Staff Writer at EdTechReview (ETR) – India’s leading edtech media & community. She has over four years of experience in media, covering different beats. Like all writers she’s an enthusiastic reader first with a passion to create out of the box content, and an ability to write about any topic. As a part of the ETR team, she will cover the latest in the edtech industry with a focus on edtech startup stories and their funding.
Entri.app, a vernacular language learning platform, focused on helping people acquire relevant job skills, has raised $7 million in Series A funding round led by Omidyar Network India with participation from Boston-based Innospark Ventures and Integrated Capital, a Hong Kong-based private equity.
The round also saw participation from leading angel investors Gokul Rajaram, a board member of Pinterest and Coinbase, and Sriram Krishnan, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z), a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, among others.
With the latest round of investment, the Kochi-based startup plans to develop its content across existing and new languages, senior-level hirings, and strategic acquisition to accelerate Entri’s growth.
Launched in 2017 by Mohammed Hisamuddin and Rahul Ramesh, Entri.app is a unique online learning app that empowers aspirants through its local language courses on up-skilling for growth in the private sector and cracking exams for government jobs. Some of its most popular course categories are Coding, Personal Finance, Spoken English, State PSC Exams, Nursing Certifications, Teacher Exams, and Engineering Technical Exams, among others. The platform provides more than 500 courses in eight languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, and Odiya.
Talking about the platform, Co-founder and CEO of Entri.app, Mohammed Hisamuddin, said,
“Entri.app is focused on the non-English speaking segment in India which has over 40 crore people in the age group of 18-35. We feel that with the right kind of training and learning in their mother tongue, they can improve their employability chances and increase earning capabilities. We are focused on this segment and firmly believe we can impact more than 4 crore user’s lives in the next 3 years with the kind of headstart we have got.”
The startup also offers cohort-based courses called Entri Gold which connects a batch of students with an expert mentor who speaks their local language. The mentor ensures that the batch of aspirants achieve their goal through live interactive classes, analytics, community group activities, and personalised guidance. It claims that more than 25,000 students have cracked a government job exam with the help of its Entri Gold program. Entri.app has over 8 million registered users with over 250K paid subscribers.
Speaking about the fundraise, Principal of Omidyar Network India, Sarvesh Kanodia, said,
“Millions of young learners across the country are looking to get skilled so they can get a job either in the private or public sector or become self-employed. These learners need solutions that are contextualized for them, i.e., offering, in the local language, an affordable range of courses they can choose from. Entri.app has made great progress in terms of the variety of courses offered, number of local languages catered to, and the number of students taking up the offering. We are excited to back the team at Entri.app as they march on their mission to become the #1 learning destination for ‘Next Half Billion’ users to improve their employability and earning capabilities.”
Entri.app has partnered with diverse content creators (both online and offline) like coaching institutes, educators, and influencers to generate quality content. The company has so far signed up 30 influencers in different languages with a combined following of 20 million subscribers for their skilling courses and are targeting to sign up 100 more in 2022.
As part of its creator model, Entri.app has also recently acquired the TS Madaan YouTube channel, one of India’s largest skilling YouTube channels with more than 11 million subscribers.
Board member of Pinterest and Coinbase, Gokul Rajaram, added:
“I’m excited to support Hisam and the incredible Entri.app team. Unlike other education/learning apps that focus on academics and classes, Entri.app is focused on courses that help build practical, tangible skills and help people find jobs. Their mission is incredibly foundational for India and Indians, and I couldn’t be prouder to be involved in their journey.”
Entri.app had previously raised $3.1 million in pre-Series A funding round after raising an additional $1.7 million led by Good Capital in July 2020. HyperTrack founder Kashyap Deorah and BigBasket HR head Hari TN also participated in that round along with several angel investors from Silicon Valley and India. The start-up’s latest funding brings its total raised to $10.1 million.
About the Author
Author: Shalini Pathak
Shalini Pathak is a Staff Writer at EdTechReview (ETR) – India’s leading edtech media & community. She has over four years of experience in media, covering different beats. Like all writers she’s an enthusiastic reader first with a passion to create out of the box content, and an ability to write about any topic. As a part of the ETR team, she will cover the latest in the edtech industry with a focus on edtech startup stories and their funding.
AmazingTalker, a Taiwan-based education technology company, has raised $15.5 million in its Series A funding round.
The round was co-led by CDIB Capital and the Alibaba Taiwan Entrepreneurs Fund. Other investors, including JAFCO Asia and 500 Global have also participated in the fundraise.
The company plans to use the fresh funds to increase its team size, it now has 110 employees spread across Taipei and Hong Kong, and hire for product managers and developers specifically. It will also expand its business in Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea, Europe, and North America.
Founded in 2016 by Abner Chao, AmazingTalker is committed to building a comprehensive online learning platform that allows anyone to learn any language and knowledge online. The company’s aim is to make online English-language learning more accessible and to empower teachers to make more income from online lessons.
With AmazingTalker, tutors can easily start their own online education business with the comprehensive support, and learners can find the right tutor easily. The firm, which promises a better profit-sharing system for its instructors, also offers K-12 education services for children. The platform believes that one-on-one learning with native speakers gives students a more personalized learning experience and helps them get the most out of their lessons.
Speaking about the company, Founder and CEO of AmazingTalker, Abner Chao, said in a statement,
“At the time, online programs for English cost up to 200,000 Taiwanese dollars (US$7,000), making them an unaffordable option for many people. The online English learning market was then dominated by online education firm TutorABC, which set the fees that tutors could charge. Over the years, AmazingTalker received a positive response.”
Chao further, added:
“The company will tailor its services to newer markets as well. For instance, in countries where English is the native language, AmazingTalker will focus on K-12 education. In non-English-speaking markets, it will continue to push its language-learning services.”
The startup claims to have nearly 8,000 registered tutors and 1.1 million registered users and has clocked in 5.5 million online course reservations.
In the near future, AmazingTalker is looking forward to helping more tutors maximize their earning potential and continuing to improve the online learning experience for all our users.
About the Author
Author: Shalini Pathak
Shalini Pathak is a Staff Writer at EdTechReview (ETR) – India’s leading edtech media & community. She has over four years of experience in media, covering different beats. Like all writers she’s an enthusiastic reader first with a passion to create out of the box content, and an ability to write about any topic. As a part of the ETR team, she will cover the latest in the edtech industry with a focus on edtech startup stories and their funding.
With the advent of digital technologies, the corporate world is fast-changing, resulting in high demand and skills shortages. As industries and vocations change, students and institutions must acquire new skills through online courses, study groups, job fairs, and other means.
As the labour market contracts amidst the pandemic, more and more firms are using cutting-edge learning and development (L&D) strategies to maintain their workforces’ competitiveness, skill, and productivity while also ensuring recovery from the pandemic.
The need for college up-skilling, career preparation, internships, and other opportunities is unavoidable. To address the same, EdTechReview, in collaboration with AWS EdStart, recently hosted a webinar titled “The Trends in College Student Market: Up-skilling, Job and Placement Prep, Internships, and More.”
The panel of leading founders and investors in this webinar focused on:
Education-Employability Skills Gap and Opportunity
Demand for quality internships, career guidance, job and placement preparation
Demand of skilling, reskilling & upskilling
EdTech’s role in supporting students, educational institutions & recruiters
Investors’ view on this segment and what they find interesting
Future of skilling, upskilling, internships, job & placement, prep market & more.
About the Speakers:
Ravish Agrawal, Co-Founder & CEO of Able Jobs, is an IIT Kanpur graduate. He has worked primarily in the ed-tech industry. During his college, he co-founded a start-up focused on solving school admissions. Ravish is currently building Able Jobs, which helps students prepare for interviews and get dream jobs and companies to hire deployable entry-level non-tech talent faster. Able Jobs is backed by marquee investors like Y Combinator and Elevation Capital.
Through his start-up, Ankit Aggarwal, Founder & CEO, Dare2Compete, aims to build the best global community engagement platform for learning, interaction, and hiring through gamification. Ankit Aggarwal is also a TEDx Speaker and enlisted in Top 100 Great People Managers in Forbes-GMI.
Manish Advani, Associate V.P., Elevation Capital, focuses on early-stage edtech and recruitment investments at Elevation. Before this, Manish pursued his MBA from IIM Ahmedabad, where he was awarded the Gold Medal for academic excellence.
Mohammed Zeeshan, Co-Founder & CEO, MyCaptain, is shaping the future of work by creating a career discovery and skilling platform for 100M+ Indians who’d be launching their careers in the digital economy over the next decade. Backed by Ankur Capital, Zeeshan also features in Forbes 30 u 30 India list as a special mention in Education.
About AWS EdStart:
AWS EdStart, the AWS educational technology (EdTech) start-up accelerator, is designed to help entrepreneurs build the next generation of online learning, analytics, and campus management solutions in the AWS Cloud. The program is designed with specially tailored benefits to enable EdTech start-ups to move faster. Read more about the program here.
Here are some highlights and extracts from the webinar:
Utkarsh Lokesh, the moderator (CEO & Editor, EdTechReview), began the webinar by asking Manish Advani, Elevation Capital, his views on the Indian college student market and landscape, what opportunities he saw from his lens? And how does he compare it to some of the global markets?
Sharing his views, Manish said, “If I take a broad view of the collegiate space, I believe there are many untapped potentials that have yet to be addressed. Most EdTech businesses that have produced significant results in India are either K-12 or an upskilling platform. The latter’s outcomes are based on professional upskilling.
Recalling his college days, Mr. Manish claimed that today’s education system isn’t as up to date as it should be in terms of market developments, and that’s where many edtech companies can assist. He also looked into the many possibilities or chances accessible to pupils based on their preferences. “From enabling college students to understand what career options are out there in terms of hobbies and more,” Mr. Manish said, “to educational platforms that help with upskilling and interview prep, to co-branded programmes in colleges, [edtech companies] help with up-gradation, and more.
Mr. Manish went on to say, “Although most institutions have now implemented some form of LMS or ERP system in the aftermath of the pandemic, that area in India is fairly fractured and up for grabs. As a result, these are some of the areas where there are significant prospects.”
Moving on, Mr. Ravish, Able Jobs, shared his journey, answering how he came up with the idea of Able Jobs and what pivotal moments in the journey helped evolve the product?
Mr Ravish stated that the whole idea was to help IGNOU students in the first place. Later, it was discovered that many individuals were doing degrees to complete the minimum requirements to land a good job. He also explained that the skills gap prevents them from getting a good job even with a degree. “That’s when we embarked on our journey to create Able Jobs,” Ravish added. He also spoke of 2-3 critical moments:
They got their first student placed within two weeks of his training during the initial stage. The student was a B.A. Graduate, searching for a job. That felt like a magical and pivotal moment to him.
Having students enquire about the interview schedules, hiring companies, and other requirements to get placed, etc. He also added that pushing students to finish the course as early as possible to participate in the upcoming employment opportunities. That’s when they realised that students were motivated to study to sit in interviews. Fundamentally, it helped shape what they at Able Jobs are building.
In this discussion, Mr. Ravish also spoke of the idea of Able Jobs, i.e., to build the largest vocational university that the world has ever seen and help non-tech graduates out there to get a job.
Later, Mr Zeeshan, MyCaptain, stressed the Education-Employability Skills Gap in India, its reasons and the associated enormous opportunities.
According to him, “There is an urgent need for firms to assist those who want to pursue occupations other than engineering, law, medicine, or the traditional professions, i.e., give them chances to up-skill in these alternative developing careers of the future. We witnessed ourselves, as well as students around us, struggling with these issues, which fueled our desire to create MyCaptain.” In addition, there are a variety of legacy occupations in different nations, such as medical and engineering in India, applied sciences in Bangladesh, and so on. This eventually leads to a significant employability gap where the supply exceeds the need.
Mr. Zeeshan also discussed a variety of job mismatches caused by the legacy careers perspective, the industry-academia gap or mismatch, and the focus on extending the employability space centre established careers for non-techs, among other topics.
Using the community involvement platform, Mr. Ankit from Dare2Compete talked about Dare2Compete’s strategy to address this issue throughout the ecosystem. “At Dare2Compete, we largely focus on interactions and recruiting.” He explains the three segments: learning, interaction, and hiring. Watch the webinar to learn more.
Mr. Ankit went on to say that for those who want to study at their speed, Dare2Compete has introduced various courses that are as good as the top courses in the market but concentrate more on resume development, interviews, and industry reporting. He focused on the interaction and hiring process that distinguishes Dare2Compete from the competition and how it assists students and recruiters in finding the ideal applicant for a particular position.
The panelists also answered the following questions:
What are some of the traits you look for in an edtech start-up? What are some of the key criteria of evaluating edtech companies while making investments at Elevation Capital?
Which are some of the exciting edtech start-ups and business models within your portfolio or otherwise you have come across in India in the last 12 months that we all can learn from?
Help us better understand your business model. How do you acquire students? What are the different types of courses?
Where do you think the college student market is headed? (across the tech and non-tech career approach) What are your plans to mainly differentiate and capture that at Able?
Tell us more about how you are gamifying the engagements with all your stakeholders?
What, according to you, are the key challenges facing an edtech company irrespective of its size today?
What was your way to gauge college students’ demand or mainly paying capacity for career discovery, internships, job, and placement preparation?
What role does ‘tech of EdTech’ play in achieving what we spoke about?
Watch the detailed panel discussion as the speakers responded to the moderator’s and the audience’s questions. Get access to the insights, webinar polls & stats, questions, and key takeaways.
If you would like to host a webinar with EdTechReview, please get in touch with us on sales[at]EdTechreview[dot]in
About the Author
Author: Saniya Khan
I am Saniya Khan, Copy-Editor at EdTechReview – India’s leading edtech media. As a part of the group, my aim is to spread awareness on the growing edtech market by guiding all educational stakeholders on latest and quality news, information and resources. A voraciously curious writer with a dedication to excellence creates interesting yet informational pieces, playing with words since 2016.
Paper, a leading software provider of unlimited, 24/7 academic support, has raised $270 million in its Series D funding round, featuring both a primary and secondary offering.
The round was co-led by Sapphire Ventures and Softbank Investment Advisers, with support from returning investors, including IVP, Salesforce Ventures, Framework Venture Partners, Bullpen Capital, Reach Capital, BDC Capital, and Red House Education.
Paper addresses the greatest challenges school districts face in implementing effective tutoring: cost, equity, and scale. It partners with school districts to deliver 1:1 tutoring that is equitable, scalable, and cost-effective. School districts contract with Paper for a fixed price, unlimited usage model that uplifts their entire school community. Students and families get equitable, on-demand support from multi-lingual tutors, teachers get the help of 24/7 online assistants to track student progress and personalize instruction, and administrators get actionable data to inform strategic decisions.
Commenting on the latest development, Philip Cutler, Co-founder & CEO of Paper, said in a statement:
“I am humbled to have the support of our educational partners, our team, and our new and returning investors to propel Paper’s mission of democratizing academic support. Every part of this investment will fuel the transformation of education at a systemic level. We look forward to partnering with more and more innovative school systems to level the playing field for all learners.”
Since 2014, Paper has strived to empower all students to achieve success with equitable access to academic support. In many school districts, the students with the means to afford private tutoring get ahead, while the vast majority struggles to afford it. By partnering with school districts instead of families, Paper puts personalized academic support within every student’s reach.
Rajeev Dham, Partner at Sapphire, said:
“Every student deserves a quality education, but unfortunately the majority of schools lack the resources to meet the needs of all of their students. Since the onset of the pandemic, the issue has been magnified by prolonged remote education, resulting in unfinished learning and a decline in academic performance. Sapphire is proud to partner with Paper, a mission-driven company that’s helping all students have access to high-quality academic support whenever they need it, making education more equitable for everyone.”
Ram Trichur, Partner at SoftBank Investment Advisers, added:
“Remote learning during lockdowns accelerated digital adoption of education tools but also exposed a glaring divide in the experience for many students. Paper is helping to support stretched public school systems to improve student outcomes by widening access to critical tutoring resources. We’re delighted to be partnering with Philip Cutler and the team to build an enduring solution providing every student with an equal opportunity to excel academically.”
The latest fundraise follows a year of unprecedented growth for Paper, which currently serves around 2 million students – a significant bump from the one million mark when it closed its Series C round in June 2021. Since then, the company has expanded its reach to nearly 30 states nationwide, grown its team by over 300%, and partnered with some of the nation’s largest and most prominent school districts.
About the Author
Author: Stephen Soulunii
No more a student, but love to learn. Not a teacher, but care about how students are taught. Not an educator, but want everyone to be educated. Not a social worker, but desire to see change. Not a reformer, but always want to see a better world. The author believes that only sound education can bring a better future, better world and technology can help achieve a lot in this field.
Pikmykid, the premier school safety and dismissal platform, has announced its partnership with Central Access, a leading provider of K-12 education technology tools for the state of Mississippi, to provide educators and parents the best dismissal technology to ensure student safety.
Through this partnership, Pikmykid and Central Access will bring the best Student Information System (SIS) and dismissal technology to the educators and parents of Mississippi, starting with a fully integrated solution with Application Programming Interface (API) integrations, according to a press statement. As the two companies continue to grow together, customers can expect to see deeper, more extensive integrations and capabilities, added the statement.
“Central Access and Pikmykid have shared several customers over the years, and we’re excited to bring an even better experience to those users,” said Saravana Pat Bhava, CEO and Co-Founder of Pikmykid. “This partnership was one of the easiest decisions we’ve made going into 2022, and we’re truly honored to be the exclusive provider of safety and dismissal technology for Central Access clients.”
With Central Access and Pikmykid, schools can expect faster and less-chaotic dismissals, all while keeping student information secure and updated in real-time. The process for adding and deleting students is seamless, managing absentees takes only a click of a button, and insights sync between classroom and delegation changes keep staff up to date on each students’ location and where they need to go on their way home from school.
“Central Access went through an extensive evaluation process when looking for a partner in the dismissal automation space,” said Jay Milam, CEO of Central Access. “When we saw Pikmykid’s ease of use and focus on student safety, we knew we’d found the right match. The end of the day is such a hassle for schools, and we’re excited to be working with a partner that helps alleviate that pain while maintaining the same real-time accuracy schools have come to love from our SIS platform.”
As the partnership grows, both companies look forward to continuing to provide the best-in-class technology to simplify the school day so that administrators, staff, and parents can focus on what really matters – student education.
About the Author
Author: Stephen Soulunii
No more a student, but love to learn. Not a teacher, but care about how students are taught. Not an educator, but want everyone to be educated. Not a social worker, but desire to see change. Not a reformer, but always want to see a better world. The author believes that only sound education can bring a better future, better world and technology can help achieve a lot in this field.
Skillshare, the world’s largest online learning community for creativity, is set to venture into India’s booming EdTech market.
India is the second-largest market for online learning and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 44%. This growth is backed by the phenomenal rise in the paid user base for online learning, making it the preferred choice for companies seeking to delve into the Indian market. Skillshare aims to tap into the demand for creative courses in India, especially at a time when half a billion new internet users are expected to come online by the end of 2022.
With more than 13 million registered members across the world, Skillshare brings together the power of creative exploration, personal growth, and skill development. As the largest global community for creativity, Skillshare offers over 30,000 video-based classes in a wide range of creative disciplines from graphic design to photography to painting and illustration to interior design taught by experts in their fields. Skillshare’s mission is to make creative life possible for everyone around the world.
Skillshare has a team of over 180 employees and continues to expand its operations globally. The brand has also been hiring talent locally with relevant experience in the space. As part of this plan, Aayur Kaul has been onboarded as the Market Head for India. Aayur Kaul is the co-founder of India’s first digital creative learning ecosystem, Chase, which was acquired by Bitclass in 2021.
Commenting on why it plans to launch its operations in India, Matt Cooper, CEO, Skillshare, said:
“India has a flourishing EdTech sector valued at over $15 billion. Combined with a growing population of millennials looking to pursue and monetize their creative passions, and the rising demand for creative classes, the Indian market presents huge opportunities for Skillshare to widen our online learning community. We’re excited to launch our operations in India and we see this as a crucial part of our global growth strategy.”
Founded in 2010 by Micheal Karnjanaprakorn, Skillshare now sits firmly within the booming $100 billion creator economy. Skillshare fosters a powerful global community of creators and learners. Its two-sided marketplace connects teachers, who create online video-based classes and related content, with members, who subscribe to Skillshare to further their career and passions. The company publishes original content and is an open platform; anyone who meets the editorial standards can upload a class and earn a passive income.
Skillshare already has over 1000 creators based in India producing authentic content that resonates with individuals locally. The company plans to add more teachers in the coming year by investing in a number of different initiatives to recruit local talents to be part of its platform. Skillshare provides comprehensive resources and programs to support teachers wanting to create content and share their expertise. Not only that, the platform helps them to earn passive income while doing what they love, grow their following, and give back to society by teaching other people skills so that they can also follow their passion. In 2021, Skillshare witnessed a growth of 35% in onboarding new local teachers.
Aayur Kaul, Market Head, India, Skillshare, said:
“India is a unique market for Skillshare. The sheer number of new internet users coupled with the demand for microlearning, promises more growth opportunities. Our focus in India is to bring our platform to the growing number of creators looking to level up in their careers or deepen their creative interests – as a hobby or as a step to monetize their passions. We also plan to invest in initiatives to recruit local talent to get started as teachers — creatively inclined people, who are experts in their areas of interest.”
Skillshare has already tapped into the market of creators and influencers in India in the Illustration, Film & Video, Fine Art, and Lifestyle spaces. The platform has several creators, who are also social media influencers, teaching specialized segments related to their area of expertise.
Skillshare has raised more than $108 million in venture funding from investors, including Union Square Ventures, OMERS Growth Equity, Amasia, Spero Ventures, Adobe, and Burda Principal Investors.
About the Author
Author: Stephen Soulunii
No more a student, but love to learn. Not a teacher, but care about how students are taught. Not an educator, but want everyone to be educated. Not a social worker, but desire to see change. Not a reformer, but always want to see a better world. The author believes that only sound education can bring a better future, better world and technology can help achieve a lot in this field.
No more a student, but love to learn. Not a teacher, but care about how students are taught. Not an educator, but want everyone to be educated. Not a social worker, but desire to see change. Not a reformer, but always want to see a better world. The author believes that only sound education can bring a better future, better world and technology can help achieve a lot in this field.
I am Saniya Khan, Copy-Editor at EdTechReview – India’s leading edtech media. As a part of the group, my aim is to spread awareness on the growing edtech market by guiding all educational stakeholders on latest and quality news, information and resources. A voraciously curious writer with a dedication to excellence creates interesting yet informational pieces, playing with words since 2016.
Shalini Pathak is a Staff Writer at EdTechReview (ETR) – India’s leading edtech media & community. She has over four years of experience in media, covering different beats. Like all writers she’s an enthusiastic reader first with a passion to create out of the box content, and an ability to write about any topic. As a part of the ETR team, she will cover the latest in the edtech industry with a focus on edtech startup stories and their funding.
