Start-ups set their eyes on the Ed Tech Ecosystem

In India, the Ed Tech ecosystem is poised for growth. Past few years, the usage of traditional method of education has surely affected the Ed tech start-ups to grow. But now, traditional education systems are undergoing a change as both, students and educators have understood the need of innovation and agility offered by Ed tech firms. Education industry is brimming with opportunities for new investors. With more than 900 startups coming up in the past 2 years focused on the education sector, startups in Ed tech are making their presence felt in the $100 Bn Indian Education sector.

The market size of online supplemental education opportunity in India was expected to touch $2.5 billion in 2016 and is poised to grow at 15% over the next three years, driven by innovative ways of delivering courses and study material by players in the space, according to a research report by RedSeer Consulting.

Mukesh Kumar, Associate Consultant, RedSeer Consulting, said in a statement that the major drivers for the growth of Indian online supplemental education space will be engaging course material, inventive pedagogy and (attempts by ed-tech firms to) reach out to the distant locations of the country which have minimal supplemental education infrastructure.

New innovations like Massive Open Online Courses are attracting the interests among the students. More than 70% of students are registering for these online learning courses as an opportunity to enhance their skills. The MHRD of India has launched its SWAYAM initiative which offers to launch over 350 e-courses from recognised institutions that students can opt for. At least one crore students are expected to benefit in 2-3 years through this initiative.

Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley also announced the creation of an Innovation Fund for secondary education through e-learning, which aims to encourage local innovation to ensure universal access, gender parity and quality improvement, using IT.

Narayanan Ramaswamy, Partner and Head, education and skill development at KPMG India stated that the Innovation Fund seems to be on the policy level, but it could support some firms which help in learning outcomes and administration. As per him it’s not a big driver for startups. The approach taken by the government regarding SWAYAM will determine how it can help entrepreneurs.

While the opportunity seems exciting, but there are many challenges that the investor have to face before investing in the right startup. The investment must be a planned decision, some innovation and creativity is necessary in selecting the best option available. BYJU, Vedantu, Edukart, Embibe, CultureAlley, Nayi Disha are some of the start-ups that are all set to be sought-after in the year 2017.

By building such ecosystems, Ed tech startups have found great success in areas such as online tutoring, edutainment, and online test preparation; where they have managed to reach out to a wider audience.

Ed tech ecosystem in India is just starting to develop and still has a lot of opportunities available for investors as well as students. Investments and initiatives from government and private sector can only help Ed tech ecosystem to grow at a fast pace in India. Businesses and institutions are also keen to develop digitally in order to spread information and to promote themselves at a broad scale in this Ed tech ecosystem.