Edtech will continue to grow, say founders of Scaler Academy, School OS, and CollegeDekho

The pandemic may have put a spoke in the wheel of many sectors, but it charted an astronomical course for startups in the edtech space.

A report by RedSeer and Omidyar Network India states that the online education market for Classes I-XII is projected to increase 6.3X in the next year and create a $1.7 billion market. The post-K-12 market is likely to grow 3.7x to touch $1.8 billion. Transaction advisory firm RBSA Advisors says India’s edtech industry is poised to become $30 billion in size in the next 10 years.

Speaking about the potential of edtech, Anshuman Singh, Co-founder, Scaler Academy and InterviewBit, said acceptance of online education has gone up significantly. He believes that the growth that a lot of edtech companies have seen in the last couple of years will continue to “go strong and increase with time”.

Ruchir Arora, Co-founder and CEO, CollegeDekho, says online education has been around for a long time but the pandemic helped accelerate its growth by giving it a push. “What you will see now is more and more formal education getting digitised,” he said.

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Apart from that, the government has also taken certain initiatives to contribute to the growth of edtech such as SWAYAM and Credit Bank.

Rohitashwa Choudhary, Senior Vice President, School OS said they have seen 9X growth in the number of subscribers on their platform in the last couple of years. As schools are transitioning to an offline model, they are carrying forward certain elements from the online model, such as informational videos, explainer videos, etc. In 2022, there is likely to be a hybrid model functional for the education space.

Speaking about growth plans, Anshuman explains offline education has numerous benefits such as being around people and making friends. “There is a lot of education that happens between peers,” he said.

Scaler Academy feels education is a lot more about engagement than content alone, and their focus was on replicating the same engagement online via products. The company has grown by almost 8X in 2021 and aims to grow by 6-8X in 2022 as well.

Ruchir said CollegeDekho was able to grow by 2-3X in 2021. The startup now plans to start remedial learning classes, a new initiative for college students to keep up with their studies. Apart from that, financing and education loans will be the other key areas of focus for CollegeDekho.

Rohitashwa, on the other hand, said the strategy at School OS and Toppr would be to focus on certain specific tools such as simulations and quizzes, which can be used both in offline and online classrooms. They have also been conducting comprehensive training programmes for teachers and conducting workshops to help them use tools in the classrooms efficiently.

Commenting on the funding environment, Anshuman said it is easier to raise funds in the current environment. “We, at Scaler Academy, have a belief that we raise as much as we need,” he said. The company has closed a new round of funding that will be announced soon.

Ruchir added that, “Good businesses are never out of funding.”

Rohitashwa ended by saying that the edtech space in India has drastically changed and has accelerated considerably in the last one-and-a-half years. Any idea that is great and has active user engagement will flourish. “There is going to be a lot of traction in the sector in the next one-two years,” he said.