This online learning startup is empowering job aspirants by offering courses in vernacular languages

Sajitha, a mother of three, lost her husband Subash in an accident in 2017. Battling through depression, Sajitha, 37, was struggling to get her life back together and support her family. This is when she met Pradeep Mukathala, an educator at Entri.app, through a common friend. After taking up a course at Entri.app, Sajitha got motivated to step into the world of PSC (Public Service Commission). 

Sajitha, with her hard work, managed to secure a government job. Having achieved a good rank in the exam, Sajitha is now confident in her ability to support and provide for her family.

Similarly, Renjith, an auto rickshaw driver from Kollam district in Kerala, was inspired to prepare for PSU exams after he came across a video of Entri.app’s educator Sujesh Purakkad. While juggling between his job and exam preparations was a challenge, he managed to secure 89th rank in LGS (Last Grade Servant) from Kottayam District. 

Kochi-based Entri.app’s journey has been consistently shaped by the numerous stories of passionate students who overcame their difficulties and excelled in their academic pursuit. 

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Launched in 2017 by Mohammed Hisamuddin and Rahul Ramesh, Entri.app provides different types of content like videos, mock exams, study cards, and podcasts in regional languages to help users either crack exams for government jobs or up-skill them for private jobs.

“There are over 400 million people (between 18-35 years) in India who are not proficient in English, but with the right kind of learning experience in their mother tongue, they can improve their employability chances. They don't have access to quality+structured content in local languages that can help them up-skill either to get a government or private job. These insights lead to Entri.app’s launch,” Mohammed Hisamuddin, tells YourStory.

The app

Entri.app currently offers services in five vernacular languages--Hindi, Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, and Kannada.

Some of its most popular programs include Spoken English, Government Job Exams, Coding and Financial courses, among others. 

Apart from recorded content, Entri.app also provides cohort-based programs, where a subject expert who speaks the user’s local language hand-holds a batch of students to achieve their goal--be it securing a Government Job or speaking better English.  

Currently, the platform offers 500+ courses for test prep and upskilling such as state PSC exam, Bank, SSC, GATE, CAT, MAT, Railway, Coding, Tech training, Digital marketing, Spoken English, Stock Market, and more.

The company also offers cohort-based courses like Entri.app Gold, which connects a batch of students with an expert mentor who speaks their local language. The mentor ensures the aspirants achieve their goal through live interactive classes, analytics, community group activities, and personalised guidance.

Entri.app has also partnered with coaching institutes, educators, and influencers to generate quality content.

“Entri.app is an Android first platform with 1 crore downloads, as 99 percent of India's job aspirants are on Android,” says Hisamuddin. He adds that Entri.app is focused on the non-English speaking segment, and has built unique solutions for it. In the process, it has got a head-start with exposure to 10 million registered users (2 percent of the market) and 400,000 paying users. 

“No major player is exclusively solving for the 18-35 years aspirational non-English speaking segment,” says Hisamuddin. 

The team

Hisamuddin and Rahul met through a mutual friend. While Hisamuddin previously built an SMS answering engine and a SaaS dashboard for coaching institutes, Rahul, a hard-core techie, has been building scalable tech projects since his college days. 

Rahul was also part of the SaaS for Coaching institutes project with Hisamuddin and key insights from that about the vernacular language market led them to launch Entri.app. 

Entri.app has a team of over 500 people now.

"Scaling across different regions has been a challenge when you build a vernacular first platform. India is like a continent, similar to Europe. Every state/region is different and has its own mix of language, cuisine, culture etc. If you are building a vernacular startup and have one playbook for across India, it won't scale," Hisamuddin says.

Funding and monetisation

In February 2022, Entri.app secured $7 million in a Series A round of investment, taking the total amount raised so far to $10 million. Some of its investors include Omidyar Network India, Good Capital, Gokul Rajaram (Doordash), and Sriram Krishnan (Partner at A16Z). 

Entri.app claims to have had 10x FY revenue growth over the last two years and is on track to repeat the same in FY23 as well.

It has more than one crore registered users, out of which 400,000 are paying users. The platform provides 5 percent of its content for free, and users will have to subscribe if they need access to other programs like Entri Crash Courses for Rs 1,500 and Entri Gold for Rs 5,000 on a yearly basis. 

The way ahead

As per a report by IBEF, the Indian edtech industry was valued at $750 million in 2020 and is expected to reach $4 billion by 2025 at a CAGR of 39.77 percent. This growth is driven by rising demand for non-academic courses from tier II and III cities and the need for personalisation in the edtech space. 

“We’re targeting to touch 40 million users (10 percent of the market) and two million paying users by 2025,” says Hisamuddin.

Started with Rs 25 lakh investment from friends and family, Entri.app is now on track to raise its Series B funding round in early 2023.

The company competes with the likes of Unacademy, BYJU'S, FlexiQuiz, Lido Learning, Scaler, Testbook, Udemy, and Coursera, among others.