Yourstory – Online Web

COVID-19 pandemic has elevated some organisations to unique positions for their abilities to bridge enormous gaps caused by widespread shutdowns. Khan Academy is one of them. The eponymous non-profit, created by Salman ‘Sal’ Khan in 2008, has long been known for its free educational offerings in math, science, and the humanities. Teachers and parents use Khan Academy’s free tools to track students’ progress.

The Economic Times – Online Web

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has tightened its supervision norms over payment companies storing customer data, amid a slew of cyber-security breaches at Indian tech startups over the last few months. From April 1, all licensed payment system operators (PSOs) will have to submit detailed “compliance certificates” to the central bank twice a year, signed by their CEOs or managing directors, confirming adherence to all RBI regulations around security and storage of payment data.

India Today – Online Web

In the ed-tech space, there is certainly no playbook for success. For any start-up, it is important to take a call quickly. The time taken between decision and implementation must be minimal, else the idea becomes redundant. During the pandemic, we saw 35 million students download the app in just six months. Today we have 80 million learners. We had multiple product launches in record times and with the teams working offline. We have valued people over processes. Our top leadership has remained intact. We go together from one level to the next. For a start-up, numbers don’t lie—see the numbers and add a spoonful of intuition and that’s the recipe for success.

The Hans India – Online Web

According to Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association (IVCA) and PGA Labs data, Indian edtech startups raised over $2.2 billion in 2020 as compared to $553 million in 2019. While K-12 and test preparation companies accounted for the largest share of $1.98 billion, followed by continued learning ($142 million); higher education attracted an investment of $84 million, pre-K at $12 million and B2B edtech companies at $7 million. Out of the $2.2 billion raised last year, $1.35 billion was raised by Byju alone. Similarly, another major edtech player Unacademy joined the unicorn club last year after two rounds of fund raising which put the valuation of the company over $2 billion. Another edtech ...

The New Indian Express – Bangalore

While a large number of people are using the internet for good, there are some who use it for purposes that are not right, whether it is hate of speech of a certain kind or spreading content that shouldn’t be easily accessible, said Ajit Mohan, VP and MD, Facebook India. Citing the example of WhiteHat Jr, which recently got acquired by BYJU’s, Mohan highlighted the role Facebook plays in online education.

The Financial Express – Online Web

Edtech platform Great Learning has tied up with Jain (deemed-to-be university) Bengaluru to offer contemporary online degree programmes in high-demand domains that are seeking a skilled workforce.

Forbes – Online Web

While it is generally known that AI can be used to understand student learning patterns and improve learning outcomes, this is not the only AI innovation that has occurred in EdTech. I cover three unexpected areas where innovative AI has been applied with great effect to help kids and families.

ET Markets – Online Web

Public markets have been buzzing with optimism for the future. The stellar public listing of Happiest Minds, Mrs Bector, D-Mart and others coupled with surge in markets is prompting many a startup to unlock value by listing on the bourses. India is also set to ease rules to encourage startups to go public on the Innovators Growth Platform (IGP), providing an exit route for startup investors and help public access the high growth digital era companies.

Your Story – Online Web

The potential soonicorns poised to turn unicorn in 2021 include agritech startup CropIn, social commerce SaaS Meesho, e-pharmacy startup Pharmeasy, logistics company BlackBuck, auto-tech startup CarDekho, hyperlocal consumer services firm Urban Company, and edtech startup Vedantu, among others.

Yahoo Finance – Online Web

Major players in the online tutoring market are Vedantu Innovations Pvt. Ltd., China Distance Education Holdings Ltd., Chegg, BYJU’S, Embibe, Khan Academy, TutStu Education, Club Z! Inc., iTutorGroup, and New Oriental Education & Technology Group.

Zee Biz – Online Web

You’ll be one click away from learning resources from educational providers like BBC Bitesize, Byju’s, Careers360, Chegg, CK12, Education Quizzes, GradeUp, Great Minds, Kahoot!, OpenStax, Toppr, Vedantu and more.

Tech Story – Online Web

The list is even more exhaustive but the major companies that have proven their callibre in the market belong to their portfolio list like Zomato, Truecaller, BYJUs, wild raft, Just Dial, Whatsapp, Freecharge, Prizm, Vini Cosmetics, Apple Google, Airbnb, Tokopedia, Cisco, Practo, Dropbox, LinkedIn and Mu Sigma. They have a team of investment advisors, specialists, investment analysts through their strategic development process

Fortune – Online Web

It would be an understatement to say that the pandemic has changed life. It has brought in disruptions—of the kind we had never thought of. Initially life came to a halt and then, before we knew, new models of conducting life emerged: be it how we led our daily lives, how we educated ourselves, consumed entertainment, socialised, et al. Year 2020 was also the year of the unicorns. As many as 11 new unicorns, like Nykaa, Unacademy, Zerodha, Razorpay, Postman, etc. emerged during the year. And India is now well on its way to achieve 100 unicorns by 2025.

Gadgets Now – Online Web

Top Bolo Meets categories, according to the company, include Astrology, Lifestyle, Fitness, Language Learning, Singing, Dancing, Standup Comedy and Instrument Learning In an interview, Varun Saxena , CEO and founder, Bolo Indya talks about the Indian app ecosystem and more.

The Economic Times – Delhi

Already, thanks to the internet and mobile phones, children from lower-middle-income families have access to quality teachers conducting live classes on a platform like Vedantu. Technology has enabled companies like Kaleidofin to reach those earning less than Rs. 25,000 a month and offer them an opportunity to save and invest prudently.

The Times Of India – Online Web

To that end, entities such as EdTech companies can bring in value by helping in the mass facilitation of enhanced employability-centric curriculum. A few new-age EduTech enterprises are already achieving milestones in designing industry-centric curriculum for universities and have integrated courses on modern technologies that include the likes of AI, Blockchain, Data Science, Cybersecurity, IoT, thereby designing a model of thinking in an interdisciplinary manner. Considering the partnerships between higher education institutions and Ed-Tech companies with their industry-led.

Forbes India – Online Web

The first thing that strikes you about Ravi Handa is his brutal honesty. A teacher, after all, needs to be upfront. The IITian starts the conversation by making two candid confessions. First, he reveals his weak spot: Computer science. “I was bad at it, and I mean really bad,” smiles the 37-year-old edtech founder of online CAT (common admission test) and MBA coaching venture Handa ka Funda. An IIT-Kharagpur alumnus, Handa has dual degree (BTech and MTech) in computer science and engineering. Earlier this week, Handa ka Funda was acquired by edtech major Unacademy for an undisclosed amount.

The Financial Express – Online Web

Through the Surge programme, startups are able to raise $12 million and access mentoring from Byju Raveendran, Creds Kunal Shah, Freshworks Girish Mathrubootham, GOJEKs Nadiem Makarim, Googles Rajan Ananadan, OYOs Ritesh Agarwal, Zomatos Deepinder Goyal, etc. Each cohort has a size of 10-20 startups.

The Times of India – Delhi

Entrepreneurs must use data and facts to take decisions in every transaction said Infosys founder NR Narayana Murthy during a panel discussion at EY Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2020. Murthy also emphasised that the interest of the company must always come ahead of the interest of the individual and that, when in doubt, disclose it. These are some principles the IT services major has been following right from inception.

The Financial Express – Online Web

It has been almost a year with children attending online classes and being at home. Being homebound children have spent more than watching television. As a result, kids channels witnessed a 27% rise in viewership — which secured a seven percent share in the TV viewing genre, according to Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) India data. Discovery India’s kids television channel Discovery Kids also claims to have benefited from the same. “We saw a high viewership last year primarily due to covid but also because of the robust pipeline of content we had. Viewership has been constantly increasing with the channel recording a 18-20% rise in the first quarter of 2021 ...

DT Next – Chennai

Closing its second round of funding in less than a year, edutech start-up Masai School on Thursday raised $5 million or Rs 36.2 cr in series-A round from a clutch investors led by Omidyar Network India and others.

Yourstory – Online Web

It’s a no-brainer that every startup needs an edge — or formally known as a moat — which gives the company a margin to stay strong in any market conditions and competitive landscape. Yet, most successes in the Indian startup ecosystem seems to have been a result of entrepreneurs discovering a moat and reinforcing it consistently over time. Indian startup founders seem to make little conscious effort at creating and defending what might be their company’s distinct competitive advantage.

Financial Express – Online Web

The framework is a part of the CBSE Competency-Based Education Project that aims to replace the existing rote learning model as directed in the new National Education Policy over the next 2-3 years. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Wednesday launched a competency-based assessment framework for classes 6-10 for three subjects — English (reading), Science, and Maths.

Business Today – Online Web

Congress Member of Parliament and former UN Under Secretary General Shashi Tharoor’s mastery over the English language is known to all. An endorsement by English language speaking app Blackboard Radio (BBR) Learn English by Speaking, that tapped in on the same, has not gone well with the parliamentarian.

News Barons – Online Web

Zotalabs plans to use the seed fund for team development, product growth and technological enhancements. It also aims to expand its presence across South-east Asia and develop deeper insights for learners in the K-12 segment. Building on a surge in demand for online education, Zotalabs has raised $100,000 in its seed funding round. The company aims to create a subscription-based platform to provide students access to K-12 education globally from multiple educational institutions.

Gadgets Now – Online Web

Digital learning has come a long way in the last 12 months. Apps, multiple tools to make teachers and students lives easier have come up. To further enhance its presence in the sphere of education and learning, Apple has announced a slew of tools for teachers and students.

The Tech Panda – Online Web

The spike in the e-learning market has speeded up digital adoption and democratized learning, bringing about the adoption of powerful Artificial Intelligence (AI)driven modern learning solutions. According to Facts and Factors, the EdTech sector is expected to reach USD 374.3 Billion by 2026.

Gadgets Now – Online Web

For instance, searching for topics like chemical bond practice problems will open learning resources from educational providers like BBC Bitesize, Byju’s, Careers360, Chegg, CK12, Education Quizzes, GradeUp, Great Minds, Kahoot!, OpenStax, Toppr, Vedantu, and more, said Google

Money Control – Online Web

Sequoia India’s Managing Director GV Ravishankar spoke to Money control’s Chandra R Srikanth on how Indian startups have fared in the last one year if there is froth amidst the funding exuberance, and the big themes he is bullish on. Ravishankar’s portfolio includes investments such as Byju’s, Five Star Finance, Rebel Foods, Prataap Snacks, and Wildcraft.

Yourstory – Online Web

In the last 12 months of the pandemic, online education (edtech) has not only topped user growth and VC funding, but also Twitter trends and Google searches. Between April and December 2020, ‘edtech’ searches gained 60 percent on the Indian internet, according to Google Trends. Searches for individual companies such as BYJU’S, Vedantu, Toppr, and others that cater to India’s 265 million school-going students — the highest in the world — gained even further.

ORF Online – Online Web

India and the countries of Africa share common challenges in their education systems, among them, weak teacher capacities and lack of basic infrastructure. In India, technological interventions have been able to address some of the challenges at scale. Africa has met with less success in this regard, as governments prioritise the provision of hardware without addressing the systemic issues that hamper the adoption of such technologies. Current research on diffusion of technology for development focuses on creating an enabling environment for the private sector, and in particular, startups. This brief argues that in education, technology transfer should not just comprise the private sector but also the broader ecosystem (comprising of civil society ...

India Education Diary – Online Web

upGrad, India’s largest online higher edtech, is all set to add yet another milestone to its credit by impacting additional one million plus professionals in the workforce through its B2B offering, upGrad for Business.

Tech Story – Online Web

Coursera is a Mountain View-based online education technology start-up that is known for partnering with colleges, universities and organisations in order to provide classes and courses on its platform. Recently, according to the regulatory filings, it has been revealed that the EdTech platform is looking to target for over USD 4 billion valuation in its United States Initial Public Offering.

The Pioneer – Delhi

It will reinvent the online learning space in the years to come. Through AI, student learning abilities will be estimated, which in turn will help us to bring modifications in the learning process.

Bloomberg Quint – Online Web

Loosely translated as homework assistant, Zuoyebang is a spinoff of Chinas search engine titan Baidu Inc Founded by former Baidu executive Hou Jianbin in 2015, the startup has raised at least $34 billion from investors including SoftBank Vision Fund, Goldman Sachs Group Inc 4 billion from investors including SoftBank Vision Fund, Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Entrepreneur – Online Web

Explaining the two-pronged objective, the founder and CEO says: “In India, nearly 85 percent population earns below INR 8 lakh annual income, yet expenses of a private school, which fare better in terms of quality education, of a single child have risen from INR 55,000 in 2005 to INR 1.25 lakh in 2015. Limited access to quality education in India has led to a surge in tuition culture, which accounts for 15 percent of the total expenditure on private education and about 12 percent of the average family income going towards tuitions.” Eduauraa is trying to close this gap by providing the best quality education at affordable price points so that every child gets a ...

India Today – Online Web

Teja’s, an innovative teacher training project delivered by the British Council in association with Tata Trusts and the Maharashtra State Government, has reached its successful completion. The project that set out to benefit primary school teachers and students across government schools in Maharashtra through improved English language proficiency, has been successful in achieving its goals.

Telangana Today – Online Web

Startups working in the online space like edtech, fintech and others had newer options opening up. The lockdown opened up new avenues for online content delivery platforms and in the new normal people got acclimatised to online classes and that has helped startups who are in the edtech space launch content online.

Biospectrum Asia – Online Web

The Atal Innovation Mission (AIM), the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), and Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently announced new initiatives to empower students with cloud computing skills and enable entrepreneurs to build innovative education technology (EdTech) solutions on the cloud.

India Education Diary – Online Web

Scaler, a leading edtech startup for upskilling students and working professionals, has announced plans to vaccinate all its employees and their immediate family members as part of a workplace wellness initiative.

CIOL – Online Web

A new age concept aligned to Gig Economy, COHIRE is custom-built to work for young companies looking to scale-up fast on low cash burns. It is to people what co-work is to spaces. Here startups/SMEs/ Companies can hire C-Level managers on a shared basis. Thus, they can enjoy the full benefits of a proven CXO at a divided cost. The concept is founded on the belief that top talent is hard to get. By enabling it to be shared (or Co-Hired) this concept simply maximizes the availability and accessibility of such talent.

Afaqs – Online Web

Star Sports, India’s leading sports broadcaster, has begun the countdown to VIVO IPL on a strong note with 14 sponsors already on board for this season. The broadcaster announced Dream11, Byjus, Phone Pe, Just Dial, Bingo, Kamla Pasand, AMFI, Frooti, Asian Paints, Thums Up, Vodafone-Idea, Mondelez, Amazon Prime, and Groww as sponsors a fortnight before the tournament.

Live Mint – Online Web

Elevation Capital, earlier known as SAIF Partners, has tied up with San-Francisco-headquartered Think Investments LLC to float blank check company called Think Elevation Capital Growth Opportunity, focused on Indian technology companies looking to list in the US. Elevation Capital has invested more than $1.5 billion in capital in over 125 companies as of December, such as Paytm, Makemytrip, Swiggy, Justdial, FirstCry, Meesho, ShareChat, NoBroker, Unacademy and Urban Company.

Analytics Insight – Online Web

There are several AI applications in education. Both teachers and students profit from the innovation. The education industry will benefit from AI in a number of ways. Byju’s, Vedantu like e-learning sites, in particular, are offering educational institutions a competitive advantage. It has introduced artificial intelligence (AI) e-learning software to connect with students and has more customized tutorials.

Bloomberg Quint – Online Web

Consumer technology, software as a service and fintech were the red hot sectors in India’s startup ecosystem cornering almost three-fourths of venture capital funding. Of the $10 billion invested by venture capital and private equity in 2020, $7.6 billion was directed towards deals in these three sectors, according to Bain & Company’s India Venture Capital Report 2021. Consumer technology startups—that include food-tech, edtech and gaming, among others—attracted the most investor interest, the report said. Total deal value in the sector has more than doubled since 2018, with edtech and food-tech accounting for the bulk of it.

UNI India – Online Web

Indian EdTech platform, Lido Learning, is looking to hire close to 1,000 new employees in March 2021. The company, offering live online tuition classes in English, Maths, Science, and Coding to students from KG to standard 9, will soon roll out its Grade 10 CBSE program as well.

Fortune – Online Web

According to the report, last year, India’s edtech startups raised over $2.2 billion in funding with Bengaluru-based Byju’s alone accounting for $1.4 billion in funds raised. The pandemic has accelerated the growth of the edtech sector in India as the market size is estimated to grow 3.7x in the next five years, from $2.8 billion in 2020 to $10.4 billion by 2025.

Telangana Today – Online Web

The experience is quite good, and this is a worthwhile venture for Nazara. I expect the app to keep growing as it is subscription-based and while Byju’s offers a better experience with its partnership with Disney, Nazara’s offering can keep narrowing the gap if they continue to be committed towards building a more intuitive experience.

Inc 42 – Online Web

“As part of our continuous efforts to reach out to more and more students across the country, we are in the process of building a new edtech platform. Our vision is to offer uniquely designed programs across domains and functions that are mapped to real roles and industry-demand,” reads a job posting on iimjobs for ‘Head – Human Resource’ at the new startup. “The focus will be on disrupting and reimagining university education and skilling for working professionals by offering high-impact online certification and degree programs. It’s time to put the fun back into learning!” reads the posting.

CNBC TV18 – Online Web

Naik is bullish on the India story and has taken big bets on the world’s most valuable ed-tech company BYJU’s and its rival Unacademy. In 2020, Naik was also part of the investor consortium that backed Reliance Jio, taking India’s consumer tech story to middle India or the proverbial Bharat. General Atlantic has pumped in more than $4 billion into India since 1999.

Business Standard – Online Web

In India, Sequoia counts Byju’s, Zomato, and Freshworks among its top portfolio The company said last July that Sequoias Limited Partners has collectively committed $1.35 billion to two new India funds. This includes a $525 million venture fund and $825 million growth fund.

CNBC TV18 – Online Web

Global management consultancy firm EY has announced 14 finalists for the 22nd Entrepreneur of the Year-India (EOY) 2020 Awards. The list includes BYJU’s founder and CEO, Byju Raveendran, Vikram Chopra, co-founder and CEO, Cars24 Services, Nestle India chairman and managing director Suresh Narayanan, and Deepak Mehta, chairman and managing director, Deepak Nitrite.

International Business Times – Online Web

Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic struck the world, the economic impact has been severe. While businesses suffered immensely due to the lockdown, which lasted for the better part of 2020, startups were the worst impacted. Many even had to shut down. 2020 had been a challenging year for companies, and those that powered through are slowly getting back on track. India, as a startup hub, was seen through a skeptical lens, but the reality is in contrast. Byju’s is an online learning startup that was valued at $11.1 billion as on September 2020. Like Byju’s, Unacademy is an online education platform that has since grown multifold. It is now valued at $2 billion and ...

The Economic Times – Online Web

After a tough year of toggling between remote and in-person schooling, many students, teachers, and their families feel burned out from pandemic learning. But companies that market digital learning tools to schools are enjoying a coronavirus windfall. Venture and equity financing for education technology startups have more than doubled, surging to $12.58 billion worldwide last year from $4.81 billion in 2019, according to a report from CB Insights, a firm that tracks startups and venture capital.

The Financial Express – Online Web

The Atal Innovation Mission, the initiative of the Government of India to promote innovation and entrepreneurship, today announced its collaboration with Amazon Web Services (AWS) for its AWS Educate programme to provide resources for students and educators to accelerate cloud-related learning in the country. The program will introduce the fundamentals of cloud computing such as cloud storage, virtual compute power, web hosting, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and virtual reality (VR), to students at around 7,000 Atal Tinkering Labs that are operational across schools in India.

CNBC TV18 – Online Web

The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in an acceleration of earlier EdTech attempts to provide students with an engaging and comprehensive learning experience through digital platforms. However, it is impossible to succeed in this endeavor without considering the presence of a significant learning gap in the country. A wide array of digital and hardware solutions is being brought into the EdTech industry. Still, these products are not reaching many potential customers – that is, the students in rural areas of India who, arguably, need it more than their urban peers. Why? Because of inadequate digital as well as internet penetration in rural and remote regions of India. Some EdTech players, for instance, are ...

The Financial Express – Online Web

The 14 Finalists for the EY Entrepreneur of the Year 2020 India Awards are: Ameera Shah, Managing Director, Metropolis Healthcare; Byju Raveendran, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Think & Learn (BYJUS); Darshan Patel, Chairman and Managing Director, Vini Cosmetics; Deepak Mehta, Chairman and Managing Director, Deepak Nitrite (DNL); Dinesh Agarwal, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director, Indiamart; Harsh C. Mariwala, Chairman, Marico; Peyush Bansal, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Lenskart Solutions; Samrath Bedi and Mira Kulkarni, Executive Director / Founder and Managing Director, Mountain Valley Springs India (Forest Essentials); Srinivas Sadu, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Gland Pharma; Sunil Vachani, Executive Chairman, Dixon Technologies (India); Suresh Narayanan, Chairman and Managing ...

The Economic Times – Online Web

The pandemic, at first, dried up funding for Indian startups and then opened the floodgates — so much so that some in-demand founders are now faced with a problem of plenty. The past few months reminded us of the go-go days of 2014-15 in many ways, as Apoorva Mittal and Sneha Shah report.

The New Indian Express – Online Web

With Covid19 forcing the education sector to adopt virtual classrooms, 276 tribal schools under the Tribal Welfare Department will be transformed into e-learning classrooms. A proposal put forward by the department states that these classrooms will provide access to existing broadcasting studios via satellite network.

India Today – Online Web

While the classes shifted online, e-learning caught on very rapidly. Dozens of firms joined the e-learning fray. According to Crunchbase, there are 598 companies in the space in India, and they have combinedly raised USD 3.1 billion across various rounds. This is a bandwagon that many have taken to with gusto. While many of them will fall by the wayside as the models can prove quite capital intensive and requires a lot of investment, e-learning is here to stay. It will no more be the monopoly of the corporates who used it for their training. According to data from the paper Online Education Market in India 2020-24, the online education market in ...

The Hindu Business Line – Online Web

With the internet penetration rate estimated to reach above 55 per cent by the end of 2025 in India, digitisation of education remains one of the topmost priorities of our government. Taking the cue, many e-learning portals have appeared and are performing well as an increasing number of learners enrol themselves for online courses — the new normal post the pandemic.

India Today – Online Web

It has been 9 months since the abrupt closure of schools globally due to the coronavirus outbreak. While teachers were faced with the task of ensuring continuity of learning, it has been especially challenging for Special Education teachers who grappled with this overnight transition.

Afaqs – Online Web

It is this personalized attention and mentorship that has differentiated Great Learning and helped establish it as the most trusted edtech company in our space and enabled us to positively impact the careers and lives of our learners.

CNBC TV18 – Online Web

Who are your women role models I have always struggled with this question honestly. Growing up, I saw how successful men paved their path, created innovative products, lived daring lives, and were celebrated for it. But as times are changing, we see such a fresh wave of women entrepreneurs who truly question the status quo and rise to be incredible role models. Some names like Whitney Wolfe Herd became the youngest woman to take her company public. What a time to be alive!

Money Control – Online Web

2020s largest exits included edtech firm Byju’s acquiring coding upstart WhiteHat Jr for $300 million, and secondary share sales in food delivery firm Swiggy for $220 million, and insurance marketplace Policybazaar for $130 million, where early investors sold their stakes.

Analytics India Mag – Online Web

Kubernetes popularity is on the rise with use cases in mission critical sectors such as finance, edtech, and traditional enterprise IT. However, Kubernetes face a few challenges. The extremely complex nature of developing and running distributed frameworks at scale is one of its main challenges. Despite this, experts believe Kubernetes will become a universal control plane to manage containers, virtual machines, and other modern applications.

Telangana Today – Online Web

Great Learning, an edtech company for professional and higher education, is hosting a webinar on SEO Strategies for Digital Marketing on Thursday from 12 noon. The hour-long live session is free of cost and can be attended by anyone willing to understand the basic concepts of SEO strategies and how one can kick start a thriving digital marketing campaign, according to a press release.

India Education Diary – Online Web

Eduvanz, India’s top fintech Non-banking Finance Company (NBFC) that enables students to Study Now, Pay Later at 0% interest rates has pioneered Digital Lending for parents at Zero Cost to pay their wards school fees.

PR Newswire – Online Web

Mokusei Intelligence, a mass impact and education-centric tech startup which develops AI/ML-based algorithms and solutions to tackle social challenges, is set to launch its flagship mobile-only digital remote assessment app platform – vallued.ai – in May 2021. This app will be used to test Mokusei’s ‘cheating-detection’ edtech software for deployment later.

VC Circle – Online Web

San Francisco-based Owl Ventures is no stranger to bets in India’s edtech space. Last year, it scored bumper returns following its exit from WhiteHat Jr after the company was acquired by sector giant Byju’s. The round in the United States and India-based Leap has been led by Singapore-based Jungle Ventures, with participation from Sequoia Capital India and Owl Ventures, the company said in a statement.

Mashable India – Online Web

In the past year, we’ve spent a lot of time online. On March 13, 2020, the White House declared the COVID-19 pandemic a national emergency. Since then it’s been all video conference calls, FaceTime happy hours, virtual family gatherings, VR concerts, and endless screen time. It’s impossible to fully quantify how the pandemic has affected Americans’ relationship with tech, but we know we’ve downloaded tons of news apps, streamed obscene hours of Netflix, and attempted to de-stress with YouTube yoga. 81.1 million: Average number of monthly visits to online learning sites like Coursera and Khan Academy from March 2020 through the end of 2020 —a 43 percent increase from 2019, according to SimilarWeb data.

Inc 42 – Online Web

The new frontiers for growth are the next billions, diverse in ethnicity,language and behaviours. The prevalent UX methods need to be recontextualised for them, says Abhinav Chhikara, the founder of 10k designers. You can’t just take a tier 1 property to tier 3 without redesigning from the other side of the spectrum, notes Sourav Sarkar, head of design, Airtel while emphasising on why T-shirt sizing users doesn’t always work. Recounting his experiences during Covid lockdowns, Rohan Varma, design director at Urban Company observes that If you follow the basics of research,and do right moderation and stay neutral, you can manage to do UX research all by yourself if you are hungry enough

The Arunachal Times – Online Web

Kolkata-based British Council in collaboration with the state’s higher education department launched a communicative English course at Dera Natung Government College (DNGC) here on Monday. Fifty students have been selected to participate in the 12-day course, which aims at improving English language proficiency, thereby increasing their employability and communication skills.

Telangana Today – Online Web

The e-tailing, online grocery, food tech, edtech, and e-health sectors are expected to witness a definite increase in consumer spending this year. With Covid19 expediting digital trends, the adoption of these online services has grown significantly.

VC Circle – Online Web

Fund II will continue with Ankur Capitals’ core strategy. Sectors that it will invest in include health-technology, fintech, edtech, local language technologies, and deeptech. The fund will seek to make investments in 1618 companies and has already bet on four.

The Times of India – Online Web

The success demonstrated by Indian startups in turning into unicorns (valued at $1 billion or more) and the massive global private equity investment drive in 2020 by Reliance Industries brought record global investor interest to the country’s startup ecosystem in the pandemic year. Other instances of global firms tapping India included Luxor Capital Groups investment in Zomato, Alkeon Capitals backing of Byju’s, and South Koreas NXC Corporation investing in DMI Finance International investment came in from over 15 countries.

The Tech Portal – Online Web

The Indian startup culture has given birth to some of the biggest companies in the world, with digital payments company Paytm (India’s biggest startup) and online learning platform Byju’s (world’s most valuable edtech startup) serving as prime examples of the promise in the country’s growing market.

Yourstory – Online Web

In the first two years, ConveGenius focused on building a tab-based learning solution, or “personalised learning in an offline device”. The product, CG-Slate, was “well-received” in government schools, low-fee private schools, and after-school learning centres across 16 states in India.  The Noida-based startup partnered with tablet manufacturers – Samsung and Lava – to pre-install its software, and curated content from a bunch of learning companies like Mexus Education, Pratham Books, Chippersage, and so on.

Sunday guardian live – Online Web

After chairing a Cabinet meeting, Kejriwal said, Delhi Education Board will function in close alignment with national and international boards. It would be tasked to develop world-class education practices that will enable the shift in teaching and learning practices across Delhi.

India Today – Online Web

Union Education Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal announced that in order to ensure hassle-free access to verified Online Teacher Pupil Registration Management System (OTPRMS) Certificates, the Ministry of Education has decided to link the certificates with DigiLocker.

The New Indian Express – Chennai

Since the pandemic, teaching has been inconsistent, with some students being able to fully engage in online learning and others facing obstacles that have slowed their progress. Another impact of school closures on well-being is that schools operate as the de facto mental health system for many children and teenagers, offering mental health services

Inc 42 – Online Web

Cyber attacks and breaches across major Indian startups have been in teh news lately. A company’s security strategy is as important as it’s business startegy nowadays. With the startup industry expected to boom soon, it is potent for CEOs and executives to focus their strategies to ensure a safe online business model.

The Hans India – Hyderabad

The education industry is one of the most thriving sectors in India. While the pandemic brought with it various challenges, it also helped in digital adoption across all businesses. This trend was especially witnessed in the education sector.

MID-DAY – Mumbai

In 2017, when it hit him that he couldn’t wait for someone to give him a job, but could use the existing platform of the Internet to reach out to students, he started Khan’s Academy, a YouTube channel in which he speaks in Urdu to break down mathematic concepts across Class VIII, IX and X. COVID’s best surprise maybe teachers bringing in the moolah from online lectures popular with the state’s students.

Business Standard – Online Web

India’s fastest growing accelerator platform, Marwari Catalysts Ventures has always set its eyes on the booming sector of our country EdTech. It has passionately supported dozens of EdTech startups since its initiation and today one of its portfolio startups, Noesis Learning is making big headlines as India’s leading and successful higher education startup.

The New Indian Express – Online Web

The startup ecosystem saw a lot of buzz this week with over $150 million fundraise by firms and a few M&As in the short content and edtech verticals. Pune-based Software as a service startup Icertis almost trebled its valuation at 2.8 billion with an 80 million Series F funding from the existent investor, B Capital Group.

Inc 42 – Online Web

Though India’s startup ecosystem has grown by leaps and bounds in the last decade, the country is still behind product nations such as the US and Israel. However, with teeming tech talent and a demographic dividend that the country is primed to capitalise on, there’s every reason to believe that India can become a product hub that not only caters to its 1.3 Bn population, but also creates tech-products that dominate the foreign markets.  In an effort to bring together the country’s best minds who are determined to get India a place at the global high table of product nations, Inc42 Plus is hosting The Makers Summit — India’s largest virtual conference at the intersection of product, ...

Yourstory – Online Web

The quintessential Indian social conditioning of “failure is not an option” is visible even in the startup ecosystem. Indian startup founders are among the most versatile, resilient, intelligent, and hardworking people, and this attitude ensured the ecosystem was among the very few that swift-footedly weathered the downturn caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Indian startups kept swimming even when the tides were against them and, overall, the startup economy weathered the pandemic and even managed some landmark wins.

The Times of India – Online Web

Many Indian ed-tech companies are witnessing a sharp increase in international enrolments as demand for AI, ML, data sciences and cloud computing bring in more learners. Switzerland-based kiteboarder and translator Ursina Sanderink (25), has enrolled with Simplilearn as it was cheaper and within her budget. Simplilearn’s founder and CEO Krishna Kumar said, “About 60% of our revenues are from overseas markets.” The education tech platform saw global learners enrollment growth at 70% in 2020-21, as compared to the previous 45% growth in the previous year.

The Week – Online Web

Mokusei Intelligence has announced that it is actively seeking partners and collaborators, especially from the education and travel sector. The Company said that its ideal partner would be an entity or individual with an active network of young people and one that is open to experimentation or exploration. The newly launched startup expressed a clear preference for partnering young startups and educators. A couple of such partnerships, the company said, are already in the pipeline.

The Week – Online Web

Little Laureates is a leading preschool chain in Eastern India that has designed a unique technology-driven blended educational model where offline and online learning goes hand in hand to ensure the holistic and measured development of the child. Today’s preschoolers are already technologically savvy. Most kids today are able to swipe or tap on smartphones and tablets before they are able to speak properly. This E-Learning platform enables preschoolers across the country to enroll themselves and are enjoying the learning process due to the well-curated module and highly trained teachers.

The Tribune – Online Web

The only way forward possible is by generalizing learning. Indians have a tendency to be caring and relatively non-aggressive as compared to the cultures of Europe and North America. Perhaps this trait can be used to create a supportive social environment where the success of one need not be at the cost of another. What India really needs to do is to create force multipliers so that the size of the pie can increase dramatically. Fighting over who should get what piece of it is irrelevant and a waste of energy. We argue that a generalization of learning is such a force multiplier.

Zee Biz – Online Web

Gaurav Munjal, the co-founder of Unacademy started it as a side hobby. He started his journey through a YouTube Channel, in the year 2010 by giving Java lessons while he was in college. He eventually became one of the most-followed people on the Quora in Computer Science. Today, Unacademy is among the leading ed-tech start-ups in the country and is a unicorn start-up. This list goes on and on with start-ups like Airbnb, Khan Academy, Wittyfeed, etc. Undoubtedly, the trend of community-driven start-ups is growing. It is a very sound strategy for a start-up to begin as a community and then turn it into a business model. Kunal Shah’s CRED has become ...

Inc 42 – Online Web

Edtech and gamified training platform Quizizz has announced a $12.5 Mn Series A funding round led by Eight Roads Ventures with participation from GSV Ventures, Rocketship VC and existing investors Nexus Venture Partners as well as Prime Venture Partners. Claiming to support over 60 Mn users per month and with a presence in 65% of US schools, Quizizz will use the fresh funding to expand its team as it looks to improve support for school and corporate customers and accelerate international user growth. With close to 50% of its user base in the US, the Bengaluru-based startup is being used by schools in California, Michigan, Alaska and plenty of other states. The company has ...

MINT – Delhi

Coaching institutes like Vibrant Academy and Nucleus have swiftly entered into tie-ups with Unacademy, a Facebook-backed education startup valued at over $2 billion. Prominent education startup Byju’s is working with expert subject teachers from many institutes and providing a platform for them to deliver live classes, say teachers from Kota.

ITP.net – Online Web

As the COVID-19 pandemic rages on, many educational institutions have been forced to shift their on-campus classes to online classes. Various EdTech platforms have also launched free classes that have prompted students to try their hands on digital education. With more students turning to online learning than ever, these platforms have emerged as a lucrative target for cybercriminals. With the impact of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, raising awareness on cybercrimes and emphasising cybersecurity measures has become more important than ever.

Investors Chronicle – Online Web

As students across the country return to school this morning, thousands of them will also be lugging heavy Pearson (PSON) textbooks in their backpacks. The publisher has a long history in education, with a rich catalogue of content to match. But it has also largely failed to keep up with the industry-wide shift towards online learning. This has been made all the more clear by the impact of the pandemic. A late start to its digital transformation meant adjusted pre-tax profits almost halved in 2020 to £313m, as the spread of Covid-19 closed bricks-and-mortar schools and exam centres. Meanwhile the US courseware business, which has been hit by the growing market for second-hand textbooks, saw revenues dip 13 per cent to ...

The Statesman – Delhi

Notably, online learning will always appeal as a new generation of tech-savvy children embraces technology as a way of life. The ed-tech platforms are leaving no stones unturned in leveraging the components that blended learning offers. Learning on the go is the buzz word in education now as it offers greater flexibility and customization of individual learning schedules.

The Times of India – Online Web

The outcome budget 2020-21, a report card of the AAP government, was presented by deputy CM Manish Sisodia on the first day of the Delhi assembly budget session on Monday. The document mentioned that education and health projects topped the list with 80% of them being “on track”. “Delhi government has been presenting the outcome budget for the last four years. We are the only government that keeps checks and balances of the previous budgets,” said chief minister Arvind Kejriwal. Introduced in 2017-18, the outcome budget was started to link the budget with outcomes.

ANI News – Online Web

Aravali Global Foundation, an education group with 2 decades of experience, has joined hands with HEI Schools, an international preschool licensing model from Finland, to curate LEADZ (Learning at Your Doorstep for Millennials), India’s First scientifically guided Finnish Home-schooling program.

Financial Express – Online Web

The phenomenon of unicorns is quite controversial. Although some professionals believe that such companies are just a result of technological progress and innovation, others believe the increasing number of unicorns is a sign of a bubble in the industry; a bubble is an economic cycle that is characterized by the rapid escalation of market value. During the Covid-19 pandemic, young Indian start-ups such as Unacademy became unicorns. As experts have pointed out, the core proposition of these start-ups was that these actually solved challenges for individuals and businesses during the lockdown for a large portion of the year. For example, during the pandemic, online learning continued to rise and led to a boom in valuation ...

Live Mint – Online Web

Ahead of International Women’s Day (8 March) brands across categories have launched campaigns and initiatives to celebrate the spirit of womanhood. These campaigns follow a variety of themes ranging from equality, breaking gender stereotyping to financial freedom to highlight what women go through on a daily basis ahead. Telling women how to live their life is another topic touched by few campaigns. Edtech firm Uncademy’s campaign shows a father telling his son to not meddle with his younger sister’s life and offer help when she asks for it.

Yourstory – Online Web

In fact, entrepreneurs from the Indian edtech sector, which witnessed a humongous growth amidst the pandemic, agreed.  Vamsi Krishna, Co-founder and CEO, Vedantu, spoke about the massive tailwinds in edtech following the pandemic, which made online learning the “only option”. He has been witness to the massive behavioural shifts taking place in students, parents, and even teachers.

MINT – Online Web

While standup comedians have been performing for companies for years, a new crop includes many former startup employees mining startup culture for material. In November 2020, Malik announced a first-of-its-kind show by the name of Roast of WhiteHat Jr. The proceeds from it were to be donated for the legal aid of Pradeep Poonia, who was named in a lawsuit by the company, but eventually went to Khan Academy, which conducts free online courses for students. Malik had made his place by not only talking the startup talk but embedding himself in the system, so to say. He followed this up with a Roast Of Byju’s, on the edutech market leader known for its aggressive marketing.

Money Control – Online Web

In 2020, out of India’s top 150 funded startups, 16.7% had a female founder and cofounder, compared to 10% in 2017, and the highest since data firm Venture Intelligence has been tracking it for the last five years or so. Some of India’s largest startups, including edtech firm Byju’s, logistics firm Rivigo and enterprise software firm Zenoti have a female cofounder.

Money Control – Online Web

Edtech startup Doubtnut raised $31 million after declining an acquisition from Byju’s the country’s largest edtech firm the largest deal in the week ended March 5, 2021. Doubt solving app Doubtnut raised the Series B round led by James Murdochled Lupa Systems and Susquehanna International Group (SIG), along with existing investor Sequoia Capital, while another Sequoia-backed firm, Apna raised $12.5 million in a Series B round.

Business World – Online Web

In 2020, around 90 edtech companies received investment of which 61 players have received seed funding this clearly shows that a lot of companies are at an early stage of their journey, and still innovation and ideas continue to simmer. India has two unicorns in the edtech sector Byju’s and Unacademy.

The Tech Panda – Online Web

This Hungarian EdTech startup, BOOKR Kids, is creating educational apps based on storytelling. 2020 has been the year of EdTech. Educators and students have become more reliant on technology than ever before. With the transition to this learning environment, there is a surge in the number of EdTech companies.

The Times of India – Online Web

Apart from the early to midstage startups, strategic investors such as Alibaba and Tencent own shares in large internet firms like Paytm, Bigbasket, Zomato, Policybazaar, Swiggy, Udaan, and Byju’s, among others Cashify, where Chinese investors such as Shunwei Capital, CDH Investments, Morningside hold over 3032% stake, has raised over $15 million from one single investorOlympus Capital with no participation from Chinese investors

Money Control – Online Web

For years, ESOPs have been a rare source of wealth-creation at startups due to lack of exits but over the last 18 months, many firms have been gone for buybacks, rewarding reward employee loyalty. These include Unacademy, Zerodha, Cars24, and Urban Company. The buyback was the company’s way of giving back to the employees for their contribution and a form of wealth creation for all to ensure that the employees, too, grow with the company.

The Financial Express – Online Web

India’s technology ecosystem is growing at a massive rate. Home-grown startups are going global and global giants are coming to India to build for the next over 500 million users which are supposed to connect to the internet in the coming years. India is one of the most talked-about technology ecosystems in the post-COVID world as 2020 clearly saw some rebellion against China. While all these great developments are happening, hackers are also becoming more and more interested in the data of Indian consumers. 2020 saw a series of data breaches on Indian startups. Unacademy, one of the most talked-about revolutionary startups in the tech industry faced a breach causing a ...

ET Government – Online Web

As of 2019, the report of the Internet and Mobile Association of India noted that almost two-thirds of the internet users in India fall into the age brackets of 12-29 years. The report found that from a total number of 451 million monthly active internet users, over 66 million were in the age group of 5-11 years and 385 million were above the age of 12 years. The Puttaswamy Judgement in the year 2012 was categorical in stating that “Privacy of children will require special protection not just in the context of the virtual world, but also the real world”. Eight years down the line, we have only begun to scratch the surface.

CIOL – Online Web

The edtech market can be broken down into K12 and professional education. Simplilearn is a professional digital skilling platform. Within the digital skilling space, there is a spectrum of engagement and outcome levels provided by various edtech providers from MOOCs, which are primarily self-learning based, to Online Bootcamps which are based on a high level of engagement and outcomes. Simplilearn is primarily an online Bootcamp model. Within the online Bootcamp space, Simplilearn delivers the highest level of interactivity (4-10X more than others in this space) and will continue to drive a higher level of engagement and outcomes.

News 18 – Online Web

Amazon is collaborating with the UK-based Macmillan Education to launch Altura English on Amazon Alexa. Through the partnership, Alexa-enabled Echo speakers and smart display owners can learn English with Macmillan’s “interactive” curriculum materials. The Macmillan Altura skill offers curriculum grade English learning content in storytelling format, vocabulary building exercises, interactive quizzes on listening comprehension and English grammar structured in levels 1 to 5. The storytelling and interactive formats aim to help learners improve their English reading, listening, writing, and speaking skills. To get started, just say, “Alexa, open Macmillan Altura” or “Alexa, open my English reader.”

Fortune – Online Web

Last year was tough for entrepreneurs worldwide as the Covid-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on businesses everywhere. But it hasn’t stopped global investors from cherrypicking opportunities and parking their money in Indian businesses which offer good returns. The numbers tell a story. In the education technology space, Bengaluru-based Byju’s alone raised over $1 billion in equity funding last year. However, the study also pointed out that the number of exits were lower last year at 148, worth $5.1 billion, down from 197 exits worth $9.2 billion in 2019.

Inventiva – Online Web

Piyush Goyal, Commerce and Industry Minister, on Monday, asked the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to drastically reduce charges for testing quality of products “throughout” for MSME’s and the initial phase for startups and women entrepreneurs to encourage them to get their products certified and meet standard norms. The acceleration in the rate of technology adoption provided the tailwinds for startups across categories. E.g., the number of students using edtech products in India has almost doubled this year.

Live Mint – Online Web

Edtech firm Byju’s spent Rs. 400-500 crore in advertising last year while gaming firm Dream11 spent Rs. 350-400 crore and My11Circle spent Rs. 150-250 crore, as per a Pitch Madison Advertising report published in February. Digital and television dominated ad spends. According to Star India, edtech and fantasy gaming emerged as the most advertised category during IPL 2020, followed by fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), and auto and ancillary (such as tyres and lubricants) companies. “There is enough data to prove the benefits of associating with sports, with exposure being the prime highlight. This provides emerging brands and startups that are looking to maximize reach, brand awareness and overall brand recall an opportunity to ...

The Hindu – Bangalore

Schools in the city are con­ ducting ‘satisfaction surveys’ involving students who are attending online and offline classes. Based on the feed­ back, they are tweaking the learning strategy. School management have got feedback that of­fline classes are the students’ preferred choice.

ET Tech – Online Web

After collaborating with startups to create branded content for them in the last few years, top creators are turning angel investors by putting anywhere between Rs 2 lakh to Rs 20 lakh in early-stage funding rounds of new economy businesses. Just last week, creators like Tanmay Bhat and Ranveer Allahbadia (@BeerBiceps) have announced angel investments in Qoohoo, a platform that helps creators monetize their followers, and Ready Set Jet, an American beauty brand looking to India for expansion respectively.

The Hindu – Online Web

A survey by Brainly found that Indian students were beginning to use edtech platform for their preparations. Based on a sample size of 9,029 respondents from across the country, the survey found that 23% students were taking help from their peers, while 17.5% were being coached by tutors or coaching experts and 15.2% by parents, 10.9% said that they used edtech rms to solve their queries, while 33.3% went with all the available options.

The Hindu – Bangalore

The shift to online learning, due to the pandemic, brought various challenges for teachers and students, in­cluding inaccessibility to devices, no or limited Inter­ net access, and other issues. The focus of educators has to be on recovering educational opportunities lost due to the pandemic-led online learning.

India Today – Online Web

Children actively seek to understand the causal structure of the world around them. Causal learning in childhood is a dynamic process of observation, explanation, and exploration within complex physical and social environments. Children’s learning is not exclusively the product of processing information individually; instead, learning is inextricably embedded in social activities and practices.

The Financial Express – Online Web

According to industry players, tablets witnessed a revival last year as people used it for online education and content consumption. Further to capitalise on the pent-up demand in the market during October-December 2020, vendors offered attractive discounts and competitive price points. In 2020, tablets emerged as a family device.

Punekar News – Online Web

TalentSprint, a leading EdTech platform, and NSE group company, today announced the launch of the third cohort of the pioneering Women Engineers Program (WE) with support from Google. TalentSprint WE were conceived in 2019 to address the gender disparity seen in the tech industry. Given the highly encouraging industry acceptance for previous cohort participants, the third cohort is being scaled up to accommodate 500 participants.

The Economic Times – Bangalore

While some have come with new digital solutions to combat the pandemic, some are helping in deliveries of essentials through drones, while few others are taking education to the next level across India with eLearning modules. Companies such as BYJU’s, Whitehat Jr, Unacademy, Toppr, Vedantu have ensured education is not obstructed.