This Delhi-based startup is simplifying school admissions for parents

India is one of the largest markets for the K-12 school system in the world. An EY-FICCI report says the country has more than 1.4 million schools with a whopping 250 million students. But enrolling a child into school isn’t easy. The processes are long-winded, cumbersome, and taxing – reason enough to make school admissions the bogeyman for anxiety-ridden parents.

It was something Mayank Jain saw first-hand during his nephew’s nursery admission process. “His parents were always at their wit’s end,” he recalls. 

Mayank soon realised that he had to start something in the K-12 segment. He launched Delhi-NCR-based Ezyschooling as a project for a competition organised by Google for entrepreneurs with Mayank Raheja and Sidharth Kavadia, his friends from Delhi University while they were studying commerce. 

Founded in 2018, Ezyschooling is a tech-enabled, multi-utility platform for parents and schools that offers relevant information about admissions, news, events, and parenting. The startup aims to be a one-stop solution for parents, connecting them to schools and offering must-have information.

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The beginning 

“Continuing with my studies, I worked for 16 hours a day. Nights were for developing the idea, and the days would pass by collaborating with schools,” Mayank says. 

While working on the project, Mayank discovered that parents faced common parenting problems. They were often unaware of relevant news and events, especially things happening near their homes, and relied on word of mouth. 

The co-founders soon decided to expand their services, adding parenting, news, and events to the admissions offering. 

Their eureka moment was validated when the first school collaborated with Ezyschooling. The next step was when parents started to use the diversified platforms on the site, and revisited various pages from time to time. 

“It felt like they accepted the idea of Ezyschooling. Since then, we have also started Ezyrecruitment, an online teacher hiring service for schools. We have more than 3,000 teachers and 60+ schools on board within six months of launching this service,” Mayank says. 

How does Ezyschooling work?

Parents can enrol on Ezyschooling for their child’s school admission at any time. A parent needs to fill up only one common admission form for schools in Delhi-NCR. The platform provides information and a list of different schools in the area that they can apply to. 

As of now, 100+ schools and 15,000+ parents have joined the Ezyschooling platform. 

Apart from admission advice, the platform offers content from experts in various fields such as psychology, nutrition, education, and careers. The startup’s YouTube channel includes expert videos that cover different aspects of parenting.

Ezyschooling curates and shares news items relevant to parents every day. It also lists various activities for children, parents, and schools, happening in and around their localities and across cities.

“We provide a one-stop solution. No other platform offers such an eclectic combination of features such as ours - admissions, parenting, events, and news, all at one place,” Mayank says. 

The startup claims its content is “more interactive and relevant” as compared to the competition. “We understand new-age parents and the kind of content they go through for admissions/parenting/news/events. Majority of parents on our site are SOLOMO - Socially Locally Mobile - and our offering is gaining traction,” he adds. 

Ezyschooling also aims to launch ecommerce on the site by mid-2020.

Revenue and the market 

Ezyschooling gets its revenue through brand advertisements, paid advertisements for schools, and convenience fee from parents. The team refused to divulge charges, but has on-boarded schools like Mayur Public School, Immunoprash Arwachin Bharti Bhavan, Samarth Siksha Samiti School, and its 35 branches. 

“The amount charged by Ezyschooling varies from client to client, and the kind of service that’s been finalised,” Mayank says. 

According to a 2016 KPMG report, the Indian edtech market is pegged to touch $1.96 billion by 2021. Startups working in the K-12 segment include BYJU'S, Codevidhya, Unacademy, and several others. There also is Edvantagepoint, that focusses on giving information on different schools and their admission processes. 

However, Ezyschooling has chosen not to focus on educational content; it aims to be a provider of information, a fact that helps it stand apart. Also, it is a platform where parents can apply online.  

The startup has raised a small seed round from family and friends. 

“Ezyschooling is looking forward to expanding in Mumbai and Pune by the start of 2020. We also aim to launch our Android and iOS app for events in the next two months, and onboard 1,000 parents on a daily basis by February 2020,” Mayank says. 

(Edited by Teja Lele Desai)

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