Ed-tech startup iAugmentor Labs secures seed funding of Rs 1cr, intends to personalise learning
Founded earlier this year, iAugmentor Labs has raised seed funding to the tune of Rs 1 crore from both national and international investors. RAIN (Rajasthan Angel Investor Network) has participated in this funding round along with other few undisclosed investors.
The brainchild of Arindam Sen, Ankit Ruia, Pratik Marwah, Sameer Sikka and Sarvagya Mishra, iAugmentor curates personalised skill-based learning activities. The raised capital will be infused into enhancing and implementing new learning mediums such as games, animations, cartoons and expert videos. This will be done in order to engage the learners and achieve personalised learning depending on inclinations.
The 6-month-old startup also plans to expand its footprint across India, Africa and the Arabian Peninsula over the course of the next year.
Sameer Sikka, Co-Founder and CLO (Chief Learning Officer) of iAugmentor Labs, said,
The personalised learning trajectory of learners on our platform is going to be powered by millions of content items, across various learning media, such as animations, cartoons, games and expert videos, to keep the learner engrossed. This investment will fund the continuous enhancement of iAugmentor's content repertoire.
iAugmentor claims that it has so far onboarded multiple national as well as international universities, and aims to bridge the gap between student and corporate lives through skill education.
Skill Education Segment
According to iAugmentor, the youth represent 25 percent of the total working age population, and 40 percent of them are unemployed, which creates the necessity for skill education. Some of the major reasons for this are the lack of infrastructure, capacity constraints and the shortage of trained teachers in the overall education sector.
SimpliLearn is one of the key players in this segment. In a recent report, it said that the online professional education market globally is expected to exceed $9 billion by 2020, after growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14 percent from 2016.
Also, the simulation-based learning market in India is estimated to be worth $13 million, and is predicted to grow at a CAGR of over 100 percent in the next four to five years.
The other significant players in this segment include Coursera, Udacity and Lynda.
While Vedantu, BYJU’s, Toppr, and Edukart is leading the education segment, the skills education segment is also growing rapidly, and is drawing tremendous traction in the indie scene.