Published By: Ipsita Jha

Top 4 Edtech startups that boosted e-learning during the lockdown

The lockdown imposed due to the COVID-19 pandemic has led to exponential growth in the online learning platforms. Take a look at these four ed-tech startups that received massive traction during this time.

With the Coronavirus induced lockdown since the end of March, online education and e-learning platforms have seen exponential growth in India.

During this unprecedented situation, when schools and colleges are closed, the ed-tech platforms have witnessed a massive boom in the number of users and the adoption rate. The rapid technology penetration and internet connectivity helped the ed-tech sector to tap a large number of audiences.

Here's a list of top 4 ed-tech startup companies that witnessed phenomenal growth & traffic over the last few months.

Byju's

It is India's earliest ed-tech startup founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath. The platform, launched in 2015, offers online courses for school-going students as well as comprehensive courses for competitive examinations.

Byju's saw a whopping increase in the user base after it started offering free access to their content for the students in April 2020 during the lockdown. This Bengaluru-based ed-tech firm recently attained decacorn status on the back of strong growth in online learning space due to the restrictions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Unacademy

This edtech platform, founded by Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini & Hemesh Singh in 2015, aims to build an online knowledge repository for multilingual education. With the increased emphasis on online learning in recent times, Unacademy recorded massive growth in terms of revenue, video views, enrolments, subscriptions, etc. on their application and YouTube channel post-March 2020 across the country due to the Coronavirus-triggered lockdown.

They offer multiple free programs for the school students and also provide a paid subscription service to the users.  

Toppr

Founded in 2013 by Zishaan Hayath, this Mumbai-based ed-tech startup has seen rapid growth in paid monthly subscriptions, with a 100 per cent spike in free user engagement. Toppr offers questions, solutions, concepts, practice tests, and videos to students to help them prepare for competitive entrance exams such as IIT-JEE mains, BITSAT, and NEET.

The platform has also announced free access to live classes and video classes for all students of class 5-12 amidst this COVID-19 crisis.

Vedantu

Banglore-based startup Vedantu founded by Vamsi Krishna, Anand Prakash, and Pulkit Jain offers live and interactive courses for students in grades six to 12, and recently expanded its services to incorporate classes 1-5. The number of subscribers on the platform surged after they announced free access to their learning platform during the COVID-19 lockdown.

Vedantu has amassed millions of subscribers in recent months after the shutdown of schools across the nation.

The ed-tech startup companies have a bright future in the post COVID world. The online education sector in India will continue to bloom, and online learning is here to stay even after the school and educational institutions reopen.

While the growth has been high, the ed-tech sector still suffers from challenges such as scaling up sustainably, overcoming infrastructure hurdles, and retaining growth. But with the inclusion of newer innovations and technology, these platforms can become a supporting feature in the curriculum in schools and colleges in the post-COVID-19 world.