The pandemic has strengthened the online presence of ed-tech unicorns Byju’s and Unacademy with new and unique opportunities.
The unicorns
Byju’s valuation is now increased to near $11 billion after $500 million funding in a new round from global technology investment firm Silver Lake. The company crossed a billion-dollar valuation in 2018 to become the first ed-tech (education technology) unicorn in India.
Last week, another Indian ed-tech start-up Unacademy became a unicorn after its valuation surged to $1.45 billion post $150 million funding round led by SoftBank.
*Unicorn in the business world refers to a start-up company with current valuation of over $1 billion.
Upsurging
The two mentioned unicorns have introduced live classes and online tutoring programs along with offering free content for students after the closure of schools due to the Covid-19 outbreak. Last month, Byju’s acquired online coding learning space WhiteHat Jr to launch coding to children.
Byju’s added 13.5 million customers in March and April. Byju’s app has over 64 million downloads. The app was also ranked among the list of top 10 most downloaded educational apps from Google Play Store in July.
In an interview with Business Insider, co-founder Divya Gokulnath revealed that the company’s revenue doubled to ₹2,800 crore ($370 million) in the year ending March 2020 from ₹1,430 crore. She added that the start-up now has 50 million users on its platform with 3.5 million paid subscribers.
Being the country’s second unicorn in the ed-tech space, Unacademy has around 30 million registered users and 350,000 paid subscribers, almost four times as many as in February. The company is also the official partner of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2020. In July, the company acquired PrepLadder to enter the medical entrance examinations category.
Popularity
The ed-tech market competition doesn’t stop with these two unicorns. Vedantu, Eruditus, Toppr and many others in the ed-tech space are emerging players in the industry with rising valuations.
A report by RedSeer-Omidyar Network India said that the pandemic has been the biggest game-changers for India’s ed-tech sector. Online education offerings for Classes 1 to 12 are projected to increase 6.3 times creating a $1.7 billion market and the post-K12 ed-tech market worth $1.8 billion by 2022, the report estimated.
The current situation has shifted the entire educated sector online with everyone getting accustomed to the online learning experience which doesn’t seem to fade away even after the schools resume.
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