Here’s Why Edtech Firms are a Lucrative Option For Entrepreneurs and Investors

In the last few years, startups are emerging to resolve the problem of reach, as well as quality education, by utilising modern technology. According to KPMG’s reports, India’s online education market will reach a size of around $1.96 billion with a user base of nearly 9.6 million in 2021 in contrast to $247 million and 1.6 million users in 2016. 

Foreseeing the rise in edtech industry, the report states that while reskilling holds the major share as of 2016 with a size of $93 million, primary and secondary supplemental education is expected form the largest component in 2021 with a projected size of $773 million and a CAGR of 60 per cent.

The startups that are working in the edtech industry presently delivering a wide spectrum of knowledge from K-12 to entrance test-specific education. As education has become a vital instrument for upscaling one’s life today, the new entrepreneurs are trying to prepare young minds to become adaptive from an early stage. Focusing on sharpening cognitive skills, WizKlub entered the market in less than a year ago. The cognitive development ed-tech startup has recently garnered INR 7 crore in the seed funding round. 

Following the path of other successful edtech firms, WizKlub has now stepped on the first step of the ladder by collecting INR 9 crore in aggregate. Incubate Fund India along with Insitor Impact Asia Fund led this funding round of the startup.

“Supplemental education beyond the curriculum is the greatest need in the Indian education system today and we are addressing this area with our research-based learning programs. Technology is transforming the world at an unprecedented pace, which necessitates children of this generation to be lifelong learners and adept problem solvers. Further, this generation needs to grow up with the confidence to be creators rather than just being passive consumers of technology. Our HOTS and SmartTech programs are designed for maximum impact in these areas. We are grateful to our investors for supporting our efforts to empower young children to succeed in this rapidly changing world,” Amit Bansal, Founder & CEO, WizKlub, said.

Making Young Minds Efficient and Efficacious Learners 

The edtech firm, WizKlub primarily works on 33 cognitive areas, spanning across logical reasoning, critical thinking, problem-solving and technical aptitude. The company aims to deliver all the necessary skills to the young generation, which they need in the upcoming decade.

“The Indian education system is largely driven by curriculum, which gets delivered through a road memorization method. In today’s changing world, kids need to be lifelong learners and problem solvers and these are two skills that we focus on--How to make kids efficient and efficacious learners and how to let them solve new problems, which are not the ones whose method they already know. More so, learning efficacy is what the company focuses on,” Bansal, giving an outlook of WizKlub’s programs, in an interview with BusinessEx.      

"After-school-education for the K6 segment in India has been highly fragmented. At the same time, the rise of the middle class allows parents in urban India to start thinking seriously about giving quality after-school-education to their kids. So, platforms like WizKlub, which provide standardised quality and easy access to after-school-education has waited for a long time among parents of K6 students. As WizKlub's model is highly scalable and monetizable, we strongly believe that they will create a great impact on Indian K6 education space," Nao Murakami, General Partner at Incubate Fund India, said.

One of Its Kind 

The edtech company claims to have a unique product line which, in turn, leads to having no competitors in the market. According to it, other companies in the niche serve piece-meals solutions and thus, parents face difficulty in ascertaining a tool that helps in the holistic cognitive development of the child. Addressing this issue, the company works on the core IQ of the child.

“We are heavily investing in technology, we are also bringing vast products on smart technology, which kids as young as the six-year-old can use and start programming. Either the kids of this generation can grow as consumers of the technology or they can have the skills and confidence to create technology products. Our product line around that helps the kid build and code technology. We are investing in entire blog-based visual programming, which a six-year-old can start,” Bansal informs attributes of WizKlub’s application, in an interview with BusinessEx 

"Insitor is excited to partner with WizKlub on their journey to transform education from rote based learning to building cognitive and critical thinking skills. The team is focused on creating a holistic approach to education through an affordable, structured and outcome-based learning solution," Abhijit Nath, Insitor Impact Asia Fund, a VC fund headquartered in Singapore, added. 

WizKlub, which was founded in February 2018, by serial entrepreneur Amit Bansal who has had two successful ed-tech exits, alongside a leadership team with a wide experience in the education sector. The startups’ HOTS and SmartTech programs develop cognitive skills in children aged 5-15 years through an AI-powered tech platform that delivers a personalized learning path for every child.