Online Education Platform Vedantu Bags Rs 77 Crore Funding; Co-Founder And IIT-B Alumnus Plans To Tap Small Town Markets 

Online tutoring platform, Vedantu, has raised $ 11 million (Rs 77.7 crore) in a Series B funding round led by investment firm Omidyar Network, said Vamsi Krishna, the company’s co-founder, in an interview. The funds will be used for deeper penetration in tier two and three cities and to expand their technological ability, reports Livemint.

The online portal which means ‘Knowledge network’, helps students by arranging one on one sessions with teachers or a group session which gives a classroom vibe. A group session which lasts for an hour costs Rs 50-150 while a private session costs Rs 300- 600. “Our group sessions are doing very well in tier 2 and tier 3 cities. That is why a major amount of this funding will go into expanding in that market,” said Krishna.

The technological advancements made by the platform will make the sessions more personalised and will help track aspects which are rarely considered while teaching such as a student’s attention span and concept understanding using machine learning, facial recognition among others which would in turn help the students grasp concepts better and retain them for a more extended period. The platform is currently operational in 80 cities across the country with students from over 36 countries and 1,200 cities.

The online education sector is on the rise in India as is estimated to grow at a compounded annual growth rate (CAGR) of 52 % which would take it up to $ 1.96 billion by 2021, according to a combined study conducted by KPMG and Google.

Investors are going all in on content start-ups of this nature because they can reach over 200-300 million internet users in tier three and tier two cities. Content deals that together amount to over $ 400 million are expected to be closed this year.