Educational institutes, professional training programs, schools and colleges have been going online for a while now, even e-learning companies are rising to this situation. This type of learning is not limited to high school and college students who are availing their services, even professionals/employees are availing their products for vocational courses and re-skilling programs.
Edtech startups are making it easier to learn on the digital platform and make it an effective alternative to classroom education besides it is a matter of security in a situation like pandemic which caters to a large audience across geographies at a fraction of the cost. Usually, all you need is a trusting internet connection and bandwidth and you are good to proceed with the learning and also India’s internet connection has grown and exploded in recent years is not to be missed.
Education-technology or Edtech startups have mastered the art of attracting the investors with a hue number of funding. For starters, in the initial months of 2020 in India, edtech ventures have experienced an astounding amount of $686.32 million in 21 funding rounds, a crisp surge from $450 million in 87 rounds in the entire year of 2019.
India's biggest online education companies have seen a paradigmatic shift, one of the renowned names is Byju’s. Other well-known names include Board Infinity, Great Learning, Lido Learning, Pedagogy, Toppr, Unacademy, WhiteHat Jr and Vedantu, Handa ka Funda, Upgrad.
The data also shows that Bengaluru-based companies attracted $944 million of investments in the edtech space, the highest across cities in India.
India's Edtech startups funding
According to a survey, Mumbai-based Education-technology startups were raised $109.3 million during the pandemic. Startups based in Gurugram raised a total of $33.19 million, coming the next in line.
StartupTalky
In this year, Bengaluru-headquartered Byju’s have raised around $500 million, at an estimated valuation of close to $8 billion. Much later a developing organization called Unacademy raised $110 million in a funding round led by Facebook and General Atlantic. At the same time, Bengaluru-based developing online tutoring platform Vedantu raised $24 million.
Some of the developing edtech startups and their funding amounts.
| Startup | Funding Amount |
|---|---|
| Udacity | $161,00,000 |
| Auxilo | $67,00,000 |
| Pedagogy | $400,000 |
| Knorish | $323,000 |
| Univariety | $11,00,000 |
| Kangaroo kids | $20,00,000 |
| CueLearn | $19,00,000 |
| CollegeKhabri | Undisclosed |
| Callido | Undisclosed |
Since a past few years, edtech companies are all charged up and looking forward to their interactive online tutoring content, targeting school students and candidates preparing for competitive examinations and government jobs across all over the nation with no geographical barrier to learn.
Other funding programs in this year for edtech startups include Testbook, which raised about $8.3 million in a Series B round. Noida-based edtech organization Classplus raised $2.5 million in a pre-Series A funding round from Blume Ventures, Sequoia Capital and many more. A Mumbai-based online interactive platform provides learning content and test prep for competitive government examinations.
EdTech startups in India are growing at an average rate around 55%.
Some developing edtech startups
The growth in Internet users have almost reached 730 million in India giving birth to a new wave of development in online education industry. The cost of Online Education is also low as compared to offline education.
StartupTalky
InterviewBit this year raised $20 million in a Series A round from Sequoia Capital India, Tiger Global, and Global Founders Capital.
WhiteHat Jr has raised around $10 million in Series A funding led by existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network India.
Doubtnut raised $15 million in a Series A round from Sequoia Capital India, AET, Omidyar Network India, Tencent, and Curefit’s Ankit Nagori.
Lido Learning has raised a Series B round in two rounds, $3 million from Alex Samwer’s Picus Capital, Paytm’s Madhur Deora, followed by $7.5 million from BAce Capital, along with the existing investors in the company.
Toppr raised over $47 million, or near about Rs 350 crore, in a growth funding round as edtech startups continue to benefit from the pandemic-driven lockdown situation.
Embibe, Reliance-owned, have raised $12.6 million, followed by $66 million, from the parent company.
Hiring in Edtech Startups
Since the surge in the growth of online education has taken place this year, there is huge need of human resources in these edtech companies.
Edtech is be one of the very few industry that is creating jobs and hiring even during the pandemic. Giants in this sector like Byju’s is looking forward to hire 4,000 people in the next six months in business development, content, and tech roles. Following the company called WhiteHat Jr which is recruiting candidates for teaching coding online.
Conclusion
With the availability of funding across the various stages of growth of edtech startups, only situation will show if edtech companies can maintain the momentum in the future.
Several people have now more hours that they can invest and learn many more interesting things online. Many of them are investing that time in upskilling themselves through online courses.
Author: Vibhavari Madki
Source : https://startuptalky.com/funds-raised-by-edtech-startups-in-india/
Date : 2020-09-16T11:16:07.000Z