Terms like furlough and paycuts and severe losses are not new in the recent months. Businesses are not worried for nothing during this lockdown and the immediate future that follows. Many startups as well as established businesses are falling through the cracks, struggling real hard to survive and float.
However, this isn’t it for everyone around. Lucky are few startups in India that made some extra moolah by raising fund since March 2020. No prize for guessing that among them, majority are online education based startups.
Online education has witnessed a sudden boom since lockdown. You name it and we have every other online platform opening up its content for free, and easily accessible for its students and candidates.
In other words, edtech proudly remains a sizzling hot sector on investments by the Venture Capitalists even during this challenging environment. As per the data intelligence platform Tracxn, these edtech startups raised funding, and quite impressive amounts, since March 2020.
Startup | Funding Date | Amount |
Classplus | 4th May 2020 | $9 million |
Pedagogy | 30th April 2020 | $400,000 |
Expertrons | 29th April 2020 | Undisclosed |
Qin1 | 29th April 2020 | Undisclosed |
Vedantu | 24th April 2020 | $7 million |
GUVI | 23rd April 2020 | 788,156 |
Pariksha | 20th April 2020 | Undisclosed |
Vedantu | 8th April 2020 | $12.6 million |
Lido | 7th April 2020 | $7.5 million |
Camp K-12 | 2nd April 2020 | $4 million |
Lido | 30th March 2020 | $3 million |
Auxilo | 26th March 2020 | $6.7 million |
Univariety | 20th March 2020 | $1.1 million |
CollegeKhabri | 13th March 2020 | Undisclosed |
Callido | 7th March 2020 | Undisclosed |
Oda Class | 2nd March 2020 | Undisclosed |
Reasons why edtech startups scored well
Undoubtedly, the sectors that were affected much during the lockdown included tourism, hospitality, and education. While nothing practically could be done with the tourism department, take away options for restaurants did show rays of hope, and classes-from-home became the next in-thing in academics.
Schools and colleges in India were shut a month prior of the national lockdown, few due to session breaks and rest as a precautionary measure to stop the virus from spreading. The date of reopening kept on getting pushed, and the academic institutes across the country soon came to the terms that they needed to switch their models of teaching immediately. This was done by tweaking the education system depending on the internet that eventually helped to make the industry thrive through the emergency. It continued the education via online, and the rest, as they say, was history!
The trend is here to stay
Well, of course. The online education system that has been pushed under the emergency scenario is here to stay. The online classes offer easy and convenience of location, doesn’t need travel, and offers the comfort of one’s home. Undoubtedly, it is on demand, personalized and a trendsetting change to look up to.
New opportunities in education system
Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic (no satire intended), that we could witness new opportunities opening up in the market of edtech in India. While post pandemic, formal education system will be back with full endeavour, keep your eyes on this new trendsetting and extracurricular segment that has just managed to fetch over a few millions in fund raising.
Kudos to the silver lining just found!