Work from home and e-learning is the most discussed phenomenon in the covid-19 pandemic. Most companies are facing a financial crisis because of the current pandemic. But EdTech companies have converted the curse into a boon through the acceptance of innovative technologies. Since the last decade, EdTech is growing from the time universities accepted Massive Open Online Courses(MOOCs) to offer different courses through open access methods. EdTech sector is observing a great investment by all its stack holders because of the pandemic year 2020.
Growth of EdTech
In India, the EdTech sector is expected to grow at a CAGR of 52% to become a $2 Billion industry by 2021. And if we look at the global level, the EdTech industry will achieve $10 Trillion growth by 2030. Compare to the classroom programs, online learning is available for larger audiences at a low investment which makes it most popular among the masses.
Indian Government initiative like SWAYAM is also promoting online education to achieve access, equity, and quality. SWAYAM also became very popular in national lockdown time. 82 undergraduate and 42 postgraduate courses were launched through SWAYAM in July 2020 to bridge the digital divide.
The Ed-Tech industry is quite huge in India. If we talk about numbers then currently India is having approximately 4530 EdTech startups. These startups are operating in different sections of education like k-12, vocational training, professional training, upskilling, and school/college operations. But the sections relate to competitive exams and K-12 is dominated by Indian EdTechs.
Indian EdTech startups tried different advanced technologies and new ideas to attract the users but in a pre-covid era, they had limited success. But covid-19 pandemic changed the scenario completely. Educational institutions also implemented different technologies to set up online classes. Edtech companies like Vedantu and Unacademy invited these educational institutions to use their platforms for setting up online learning.
Post covid era, funding is also pouring over Ed-Tech startups. Big players like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft are showing interest in ed-tech industry investment.
$110 million Facebook investment and over $150 million Softbank and ventures investment in Unacademy has suddenly made the ed-tech startup a unicorn.
Pandemic has helped Byju’s to cross $10 billion valuations. 15 million new users have joined Byju’s platform and now the company is targeting $1 billion in revenue.
On the other hand, Vedantu, another ed-tech startup, grew 220 percent during the covid time with a valuation of over $600 Million. Over 1 million students come to live every month over the Vedantu platform for study.
Other known startups like Guvi, Pedagogy, Winuall, Class plus, Camp K12, Lido Learning, and Qin1 have also got investments and shown positive growth. overall, a $2.2 Billion investment is raised by Ed-Tech startups of India in 2020 which tells the success story of the industry in pandemic time.
Challenges and Way Ahead
Indian ed-tech is growing exponentially. India is having the second largest number of ed-tech companies in the world. but there are few areas where improvement is required.
These companies have created a digital divide between rural and urban India. Still, rural India is not having better internet connectivity so they can’t access these resources. Lack of Government policies and minimal financial support from the government for ed-tech industries make the situation difficult. Some educational institutions and state boards are also not accepting these ed-tech advancements and they have become the major hurdles in implementing government policies and technology advancements.
After September 2020, the world started opening after decrementing in covid cases. But this happiness was for limited days. New issues like the second wave of coronavirus and the recent new strains of corona have brought the world on the back foot again. And a humankind tragedy will bring a major boost to the ed-tech industry again. Pioneer institutions like IIT Madras also have started few online undergraduate programs related to Data Science and the financial sector. More government and private institutions will follow the same practice.
Improved results, innovative way of learning, affordability, 24/7 access to the material, and penalty of free resources have made the ed-tech platforms very popular. Byju’s acquisition of white hat jr. With a whopping amount of $300 million tells the growth story of the ed-tech industry.
India is home to 330 million k-12 students. Among them, only 75 million accepted ed-tech so there is a big room for the ed-tech industry to grow.
Pandemic has stopped 200 million students from attending their classes and they are accepting the eLearning environment slowly. Next year, this industry will be $2 Billion worth with an average CAGR growth of 64% with 10 million users.