The spread of COVID throughout the globe has ushered in a new digital revolution. The movement to digital information, including learning online, payments, as well as purchases and deliveries has attracted entrepreneurs to the digital space who are quickly finding solutions.
Large companies are also quickly investing in Indian entrepreneurs to take advantage of a country that has more than a billion people. The upshot is that students need a place to learn and the new-normal related to the spread of COVID might generate further opportunities in the e-learning space.
What Sectors Are Benefiting
One of the biggest issues around the globe is how to educate students during a COVID pandemic. Without the use of a vaccine, the coronavirus is spreading at a rapid pace in countries like India as well as the United States. Online learning is becoming more of a reality as it does not seem logical that students in many countries that are experiencing widespread infections are going to be able to return to school in the autumn.
The concept of putting hundreds of individuals in large lecture halls or have children actively sitting in small classrooms seems like a recipe for disaster. One of the best solutions to this issue is to either have complete online learning or use a hybrid approach where students come into a classroom environment occasionally but receive most of the information related to school through an online portal.
Unacademy Focuses on E-learning
One of the most prolific new ventures in India is Unacademy. This online ed-tech start-up provides students access to e-learning material that will help them prepare for different competitive exams. According to reports, the company has raised $110 million in a Series E round led by General Atlantic, Sequoia, and Facebook. This is in conjunction with prior investors in the company including Nexus Venture Partners, Steadview Capital as well as Blume Ventures.
The company was founded approximately 5-years ago and started initially as a You-tube channel. The company with the use of new investment money developed its platform and mobile application that is focused on providing educational material. The platform now has more than 1-million educational videos from more than 10,000 educators across the Indian country. Additionally, the mobile application has more than 10-million downloads from Google Play.
How Will the Company Expand?
Unacademy plans to use the additional funds it is receiving from outside investors to further penetrate deeper into the test preparation categories. They are also trying to add several new categories and bring top educators. The expansion of the business and the new round of funding allowed some of the initial angel investors to exit their investment in the company according to a statement released by Unacademy.
Subscriber growth in the company appears to have surged. Unacademy co-founder and chief executive officer Gaurav Munjal recently tweeted that the company’s subscription service increased to more than $30 million annually. Subscription services are a recurring revenue stream, which is very attractive to outside investors. It now has more than 90,000 active subscribers.
The bottom line is there is an opportunity in the e-learning space, as COVID continues to spread and students ponder how they will learn. There is lots of money going into E-learnings startup Unacademy as they continue to expand on their online and mobile platform. With powerhouses like Facebook that can be actively traded through online trading in India, paving the way, the entrepreneur space should continue to gain traction.