This edtech startup wants to teach beyond classroom education

Since the pandemic, children have been confined to their homes. With schools closing down and classes moving completely online, students are finding it difficult to have an all-round development as well.  

During this time, a few edtech startups decided to move away from school education to focus on extracurricular activities.  

This turned out to be an opportunity for Ashish Gupta, who previously helped launch Cure.Fit’s kids offering Cult.Junior. He founded Bambinos in April 2020 along with Ankit Hetamsaria, who also previously worked at Cure.Fit.  

“While I was working at Cult, I understood a few things that worked for kids. This gave me the confidence to launch a startup catering to children,” Ashish tells YourStory.  

The Bengaluru-based startup provides live sessions for kids between ages four and 15 years in extracurricular activities like dance and fitness, speaking, communication skills, English, art and craft, and Chess, among others.

As of now, Bambinos Live claims to be conducting on an average 300 sessions every day, with four to five students in each class. Every session lasts for about 45 mins.

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The workings

Before launching the web-based platform, Ashish would conduct surveys on various WhatsApp groups and among friends and family members to understand the subjects Bambinos Live should offer. 

The startup has 25 full-time employees, handling the tech-side of the platform, while 75-80 teachers conduct extra-curricular sessions on the platform. 

As of now, the platform is getting 50 percent of its traction from metro cities in India, while the rest comes from Canada, South Korea, West Asia, Singapore, and Nepal. The international demand is from the Indian diaspora and English speaking population.

“We have a database of 50,000 parents and we also do soft launches of courses through live workshops to understand the topic and subjects parents want their kids to learn,” says Ashish, who started the firm with an investment of Rs 20 lakh.

The market

The edtech space has been growing at an exponential speed in India. While BYJU’S, the biggest edtech startup with $16.5 billion valuation, is on an acquisition spree, many startups beyond the K-12 segment have started popping up. 

Online education is projected to increase 6.3 times to create a $1.7 billion market,  between Class I and XII, according to venture capital firm Omidyar Network India and research firm Red Seer’s joint report. The post-K-12 market is expected to grow 3.7 times to create a $1.8 billion market. 

Since Bambino Live is still in its growing stages, it refused to reveal the revenue figures, but said that it has been growing 30 percent every month. The startup charges anywhere between Rs 200 and Rs 400 for each class. 

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“The biggest challenge in the edtech space is keeping the customer acquisition cost down. We are working on a very cost-light model, which probably costs the lowest in the market,” says Ashish. 

Bambinos Live is in direct competition with Lesson Leap, a Mumbai-based edtech startup focusing on extracurricular activities, among others.  

The startup recently raised $500,000 in a seed funding round from angel investors including Cure.Fit’s Ankit Nagori, among others.  

Future plans

The startup wants to increase penetration in India in the coming months, while also focusing on deepening presence in Canada and West Asia. 

Bambinos Live is also in the process of launching a mobile-based app in the next few months.