IMAN USMAN : A GREAT PIONEER IN REALM OF EDUTECH START-UP INDONESIA
“I want to leave the world in a better condition than when I came.”
The quotes by Iman Usman, Co-Founder and COO of Ruangguru, has taught me insightful things about being young enterpreneurship to make the world become the better place. He is the Co-Founder and COO of Ruangguru, the largest ed-tech company in Southeast Asia. Iman’s passion for education stems from his deep concern about the unequal access and lack of quality of education in Indonesia. Ruangguru is one of the largest edutech company in Indonesia that provide service of learning application. Inception of Ruangguru started from 2014 to develop the affordable access for all student in Indonesia inclusively as well as wide range of people of all ages. According to Social Innovation Change Initiative (SICI, 2022), Ruangguru become pioneer and key champion in mainstreaming ed-tech in South East Asia Region, serving over 25 million learners in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam. For its innovative approach amidst COVID-19, Ruangguru was listed in Fast Company’s Most Innovative Company 2021 (#2 in Education, #25 in all sectors).
Innovation of Ruangguru was valued by the utilization to overcome education gap in Indonesia, especially that could be access to all students with beneficial features. The application enables students to learn through virtual classes, online exam platforms, subscriptions learning videos, private tutoring markets and other educational content that can be accessed through the web and Ruangguru applications. The company is currently valued at close to $1B and has raised over $200 million in its financing rounds from General Atlantic, GGV Capital, Tiger Global Management, among others. Ruangguru also provide benchmarking solution in educational sector that develop their services such as english academy and skill academy to provide broaden access of knowledge to all Indonesia.
Iman Usman has been recognized for his work to provide better quality in education sector since 2008. He has awarded as Ashoka Young Changemaker Award and Indonesia young leader award. Iman was also included in the list of Forbes Asia 30 Under 30 for Consumer Technology in 2017, won the Emerging Entrepreneur Award 2019 from Ernst & Young and Social Impact Award by Credit Suisse & Tatler Magazine in 2020. In addition to his work in education, he has published a best-selling book ‘Masih Belajar’ and won Google Choice Book of the Year 2019. I learned a lot of good characters who have good values in terms of the role of youth, especially in the entrepreneurial field. During his role as co-founder and Chief Operating Officer (COO), he still pursue his master degree both in prestigious university which are M.A from Columbia University and M.Ed from Harvard University.
