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<ul><li><keyword id="8080458" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="WhiteHat-Jr">WhiteHat Jr</keyword> is the latest venture of former Discovery Networks CEO, <keyword id="327937" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Karan-Bajaj">Karan Bajaj</keyword>.</li><li>This edtech startup helps children between the age of 6 and 14 build market-ready apps, games and animations online, by using the fundamentals of coding.</li><li>The idea is to train children from an early age and instill in them a spirit of creation. </li><li>Following the initial success of the venture, Bajaj is confident it will do well in global markets too and will soon come up with a plan to take WhiteHat Jr to other countries.</li></ul> Barely a year after launching <keyword id="6345492" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="edutech-startup">edutech startup</keyword> WhiteHat Jr, former Discovery Networks CEO and founder Karan Bajaj is firming up plans to take it international. Based in Mumbai, this edutech startup helps children between the ages of 6 and 14 build market-ready apps, games and animations online, using the fundamentals of coding. Within a year of its launch, Bajaj shares that WhiteHat Jr received a phenomenal reception from parents in India and is therefore hopeful that the global market will accept the product too. Since an edutech platform like this doesn’t really exist anywhere else currently, it is expected to do well even outside India. He adds that starting December, they will start pushing the startup internationally. The idea for starting WhiteHat Jr came to Bajaj when he was reading about the Industrial Revolution and how Mathematics hadn’t been a part of school curriculum till then. “After the Industrial Revolution, every school had to create a new curriculum but it took them 10 years to implement that. I realized something similar is happening now. Today, consumer tech is at the center of every household but the school curriculums are extremely basic. Nobody is teaching children coding from an early age,” explains Bajaj. Why parents are invested in the idea As a part of WhiteHat Jr’s curriculum, a six and a half year old Venkat Raman Patnaik developed a reward management system app that keeps a record of a ‘to-do’ list for school children, along with reward points that they earn for it. Similarly, 7-year-old Hirranyaa Rajani created a sign language app for the hearing impaired that benefits those with hearing impairment and those who want to learn sign language. Bajaj says that parents are welcoming WhiteHat Jr wholeheartedly because they are seeing the world changing in front of their eyes. With more and more automation disrupting the industry, a lot of jobs are getting redundant. “With automation, conventional occupations are getting disrupted. And more and more parents are aware of that,” says Bajaj. The startup has been witnessing 100% month-on-month growth since its launch in November 2018. “Between November and March, we were forming the product in beta and launched in April. After that, we doubled every month. We also raised our Series A funding very quickly in June, so the response we’ve been getting indicates that parents are quite aware of everything,” he adds. While their current curriculum caters to children between the ages of 6-14, Bajaj says they will soon launch a curriculum for 9-12 grades too. How WhiteHat Jr works The model of WhiteHat Jr is simple. It is a web-based system, much like a virtual classroom, and the teacher to student ratio is 1:1. The kids have to book a session online which then connects them to the teachers. There is also a coding platform where the participants can practice coding. Each session is around 45 minutes to an hour long. The sessions encourage children to develop apps, games and animation. “We are sending the top 1% of these kids to the US for a week-long mentorship with Silicon Valley entrepreneurs. We also have an in-house team that helps them think on how to take a product and make it more market-ready,” says Bajaj. Currently, around 3,000 students and 350 teachers are on-board. It is also heartening to see children from non-metro cities are coming on board too. The metro to non-metro ratio is about 55:45. The future of WhiteHat Jr In November, when Bajaj started the company, he raised a seed funding of $1.3 million. He has just raised a Series A of $10 million. “Right now we are running a positive cash flow business, so there’s no immediate need for more funding right now,” explains Bajaj. The entity’s marketing and growth strategy would be linked to acquiring more users. “Right now we’ve only been doing B2C digital marketing but next we want to enter school channels and build more alliances. Till now, we’ve only done performance marketing but the outpouring of demand has been significant,” he adds. Bajaj further adds that they might consider an ad campaign after their next round of funding and has a plan to go global. “Taking the organization global is an important part of the plan because nobody has ever heard of a six-year-old creating apps and products that are disruptive and market-ready. So I think it has a great potential globally too where parents have already seen consumer tech to be the centre of their households. The idea that their kids can be a part of a technologically-driven future or create that future is a resonant idea globally. Starting December, we're going to push for international markets, but those plans are still being defined,” Bajaj says.

Former Discovery CEO Karan Bajaj’s edutech startup WhiteHat Jr to go global soon

<ul><li><keyword id="6630114" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="unacademy">Unacademy</keyword> has raised $50 million in a series D round of funding. </li><li>The startup has investors like Steadview Capital, Sequoia India, Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures.</li><li>The Indian <keyword id="6379645" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="Online-Education">online education</keyword> space has players like Byju’s which has also reported profitability.</li></ul>Indian online education startup Unacademy has raised $50 million in a series D round of funding from investors like Steadview Capital, Sequoia India, Nexus Venture Partners and Blume Ventures. The investment, which will go towards bringing on board more educators and better the product, also saw the founders Gaurav Munjal and Roman Saini participate in the round. “In the last few months, we have taken bigger strides toward achieving this mission. We have more than 400 top educators from across the country taking live classes every day on Unacademy Plus. This is available to every student, irrespective of their location,” said Munjal. Unacademy plus is the startup’s subscription plan which has more than 50,000 learners. The startup, which was founded in 2015, has over 13 million learners. “We are seeing unprecedented growth and engagement from learners in smaller towns and cities, and are also very humbled to see that top-quality educators are choosing Unacademy as their primary platform to reach out to students,” said Munjal. This also shows the growth trajectory of Indian online education space. Online education industry in India is expected to hit 9.6 million by 2021 user base, which was 1.6 million in 2016, as per a KPMG report. In fact, a survey by education startup GradeUp also shows that students are counting on online teaching for competitive exams — JEE, NEET, GATE, SSC and banking exams. Meanwhile, the big player in Indian <keyword id="1974983" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Edutech">edutech</keyword> space remains Byju’s – which had recently reported profitability with an increase in the number of paid users. Its revenue has tripled to reach ₹14.3 billion in the financial year ending March 2019, though it has not shared the net profit numbers. This volume of numbers has also brought in the renewed interest of investors, who are betting on the Indian education technology space. Interestingly, Sequoia is a common investor between Byju’s and Unacademy. See Also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/indian-students-prefer-online-coaching-for-jee-neet-gate-ssc-and-banking-exams/articleshow/69956565.cms">Indian students prefer online coaching to offline classes</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/mukesh-ambani-reliance-jio-and-byju-feature-in-meeker-report/articleshow/69770325.cms">Mukesh Ambani’s Jio and a startup Byju's are in global spotlight as India’s internet users exceed that of US</a>

Unacademy raises $50 million as Byju’s success draws top dollars into online education in India

<ul><li>The education and skilling ecosystem will accelerate job creation and put India on the fast-track to greater economic growth. </li><li>TiE Delhi-NCR is hosting the 6th Annual <keyword id="8020615" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="India-Education-Entrepreneurship-Day">India Education Entrepreneurship Day</keyword> (IEED) on 30th August, 2019.</li><li>The event will see entrepreneurs, mentors and influencers all under one roof.</li></ul>The Indian education and skilling ecosystem has a huge role to play in accelerating India’s aim to be a $5 trillion economy by 2025. This will further accelerate job creation and put India on the fast-track to greater economic growth. In light of the same, TiE Delhi-NCR is hosting the 6th Annual <keyword id="1020702" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="India-education">India Education</keyword> Entrepreneurship Day (IEED) on 30th August, 2019. IEED is a leadership conference that looks at setting conversations around Vision 2025 for the industry. With an audience of 300+, #IEED brings together the brightest minds of the country with ideas focused on a wide range of subjects. It aims at initiating conversations that matter to the education and skilling sector, and have the power to foster learning and inspiration. From busting myths on the jobs ecosystem to evaluating the role of tech platforms in transforming the jobs ecosystem, the event will see participation from key industry leaders. The event will also give a platform to <keyword id="1974983" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="Edutech">edutech</keyword> <keyword id="6362513" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="startups">startups</keyword> to network and build more business opportunities. “The education sector has the potential to steer a country into a prosperous, tech-enabled future. Recognizing its importance, multiple new-age educational startups are cropping up across the country. Yet, there is a lack of cohesion in terms of quality and clear business models to sustain in the ever-changing environment. IEED will present these startups with a platform where they can exchange new ideas and gain a wider perspective about the flourishing education sector. We believe that creating an enabling environment for startups in the education sector through this platform will go a long way in preparing them amply for the future,” said Geetika Dayal, Executive Director – TiE Delhi-NCR. The event will see entrepreneurs, mentors and influencers like Vineet Kaul (VP, Paytm Education), Sandeep Sinha (Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Lumis Partners), Akshay Chaturvedi (Founder, Leverage Edu), Ayush Jaiswal (Co-Founder, Pesto), Charu Noheria (Co-Founder, 3RDFlix), Jairaj Bhattacharya (Founder, ConveGenius) and Kinner Sacchdev (Co-Founder, Knorish), among others.

Education has a big role to play in India’s $5 trillion economy dream

As the number of <keyword id="1974985" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Edutech-startups">Edutech startups</keyword> is rising in the country, another player SuperProfs.com that has entered this space to revolutionize the way competitive exam preparations are done is now emerging as one of the strong pillars in the sector. Backed by investors like Kalaari Capital, IDG Ventures and Indian Angel Network, SuperProfs.com has already seen close to 300% growth back in 2014. 
 With over 500 courses, the subscription-based online coaching destination for students is going strong. It prepares students for Competitive Examinations like CA, CS, CMA, GATE, UPSC, Banking &amp; SSC among others. Founded in 2010 by Piyush Agarwal, an alumni of IIT Kanpur and <keyword id="101399" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Stanford-University">Stanford University</keyword>, the vision for this portal has been to make quality education accessible to masses right from its inception. 
 
The idea of a portal like Superprofs came by during Agarwal’s stay at Stanford University. He realized the importance of digitizing classrooms and how this could help in making quality education accessible to masses. 
 
With this idea, Piyush dropped out of the graduate program at Stanford University and decided to come back to India and set­up a start­up in 2010. Piyush and the team developed a cutting edge technology which later got various education and training institutes to deliver HD quality live Classroom sessions at extremely low internet speeds (as low as 100 Kbps). This led to widespread adoption of the technology across major coaching institutes, preparing students for competitive exams like IIT-­JEE and CA. These institutes opened up multiple learning centers across the country to make their classes available to remote students using the technology developed by the team. 
 
Now, the company has managed to get onboard some of India’s top professors, who are experts in their respective fields. They are hired looking at three qualities – whether they are result oriented, tech savvy and student friendly. 
 Headquartered in New Delhi, with offices in Bangalore and Hyderabad as well, Superprofs team has 100 people from various walks of life. Many of them are alumni of prestigious institutes like IITs, IIMs, Stanford, among others and have previously worked at top tech companies like <keyword id="10387" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Microsoft">Microsoft</keyword> and <keyword id="6355629" type="CITY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Google">Google</keyword>. 
 
How it works 
The online classrooms are available in HD Quality, yet they work on low internet bandwidth (as low as 2G / 3G). The students are required to download video lectures in their mobile app on their phones/tablets and they can watch them offline too. 
 
Superprofs claims to have a repertoire of courses taught by over 200+ professors from various parts of the country to cater to students from different geographies. 
 
The portal is also extending real-time doubt clearing, assessments and study material in its bid to ensure comprehensive learning experience for students. 
 
Data shows more than 5 lakh students have registered with the portal, and their Android mobile app so far has over 2 lakh downloads.

Superprofs - Another EduTech Startup trying to
revolutionize the way students are preparing for competitive exams In India

<ul><li><keyword id="6357120" type="DEFINITION" weightage="20" keywordseo="paytm">Paytm</keyword> aims to garner a GMV of ₹20,000 crore in FY 2020 from its <keyword id="6355445" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="education">education</keyword> vertical. </li><li>It will offer services across payments, commerce, financial and academia to students, parents and government job aspirants.</li><li>It has already partnered with the Railway Recruitment Board, Indian Navy, IITs, IIMs, NITs and more.</li></ul>Vijay Shekhar Sharma, the Founder of Paytm truly wants it all. The leading digital payments unicorn has now set its sights on the education sector. It will offer services across payments, commerce, financial and academia to students, parents and government job aspirants. Paytm wants a piece of the ₹100,000 crore education sector pie. And believes that it can gain Gross Merchandise Volume of ₹20,000 crore in 2019-20, from education alone. The digital payments company is not just offering services for payments but many more to help students. “Right from providing details on 25,000 colleges, schools, courses and exams, our bouquet of services will include – payments (in-app and in educational centres), commerce (coaching, scholarships, test preparation, admission forms etc.) and financial services (student insurance, educational loans, easy EMI, and banking),” said Vineet Kaul, Senior Vice President - Paytm. To enable this, the company has partnered with Railway Recruitment Board, Maharashtra Public Service Commission, National Testing Agency, Indian Navy, Amity, VIT, Manipal, AKTU, Army Public Schools, Delhi Public Schools, Delhi University, IITs, IIMs, NITs, Aligarh Muslim University, AIMA, ICAI, Narayana Group, Career Launcher, Made Easy, Career360 and several others. Paytm already offers options to schools and colleges to accept fees via Paytm app. It is now hoping to bring onboard 350 million more users from 20,000 private schools, 1,000 higher educational institutes and 1,000 coaching institutes. The Indian education sector is expected to reach a size of $5.7 billion by 2020. The sector is also brimming with startups like the unicorn Byju’s, Unacademy and more. They have been raking in users, business in addition to attracting investors.

Paytm education will help students and government job aspirants with education loans and coaching

Education start-ups in India seem to be the hottest targets right now, going by the kind of <keyword id="6357455" type="EVENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Funding">funding</keyword> they are attracting from local and global investors. A couple of days ago, Delhi-based start-up <keyword id="1974964" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Avanti-Learning-Centres">Avanti Learning Centres</keyword> raised an undisclosed amount in <keyword id="948731" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="seed-funding">seed funding</keyword> from <keyword id="1894311" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Pearson-Affordable-Learning-Fund">Pearson Affordable Learning Fund</keyword> (<keyword id="1954796" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="PALF">PALF</keyword>). Two more <keyword id="6365770" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="angel-investors">angel investors</keyword> also took part in the round. Avanti will use the <keyword id="1974977" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Seed-round">seed round</keyword> to develop an <keyword id="1974975" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Online-offline-learning">online-offline learning</keyword> &amp; monitoring system, create more <keyword id="755302" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="educational-content">educational content</keyword> and build new <keyword id="68244" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Learning-centres">learning centres</keyword>. Currently, the <keyword id="1044076" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="education-start-up">education start-up</keyword> operates stand-alone and in-school centres in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kanpur, Roorkee and Puducherry, besides helping the <keyword id="3216" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="students">students</keyword> in three Tibetan schools in Uttarakhand and Karnataka. 
 
This is the second investment in India that Pearson has made through PALF, and the third overall since the fund was launched in July 2012. 
 In November this year, <keyword id="1954793" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Global-education-leader">Global education leader</keyword> Pearson’s inaugural <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/These-2-Peer-selected-Start-upsShared-150K-Investment-To-Boost-Low-cost-Education/articleshow/26512179.cms">edupreneur programme</a>, jointly launched by PALF and US-based investor Village Capital, came to a close with <keyword id="1954794" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Experifun">Experifun</keyword> and <keyword id="1467859" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Sudiksha-Knowledge-Solutions">Sudiksha Knowledge Solutions</keyword> walking off with a seed funding of $75,000 each. The <keyword id="6362476" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="investments">investments</keyword> will enable the start-ups to further develop their low-cost education ventures and assist underprivileged school children. 
 Pearson launched PALF in July 2012 with a capital of $15 million. Investments are made into private companies that offer <keyword id="1974987" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Affordable-educational-services">affordable educational services</keyword> and schooling in Asia, <keyword id="12925" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="80" keywordseo="Africa">Africa</keyword> and Latin America. 
 Set up as a <keyword id="456748" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="non-profit">non-profit</keyword> in March 2010 by <keyword id="258061" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Akshay-Saxena">Akshay Saxena</keyword> and <keyword id="1974967" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Krishna-Ramkumar">Krishna Ramkumar</keyword>, Avanti Learning Centres supports students from low-income families (those with a family income of $5,000 per annum or below) and prepares them for <keyword id="1974989" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="College-entrance-exams">college entrance exams</keyword>, especially the highly competitive engineering and medical entrance tests. Students can study up to 18 hours a week at a centre and need to pay only $20 per month. Costs are kept low as a large network of volunteers and partners, including universities, public schools, policy makers and private sector businesses, help with teaching and administration. 
 Instead of traditional lectures, Avanti follows a comprehensive programme including <keyword id="1951606" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="book-learning">book learning</keyword>, <keyword id="144248" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Videos">videos</keyword>, <keyword id="1974990" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Peer-learning">peer learning</keyword> (developed by Dr <keyword id="1974994" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Eric-Mazur">Eric Mazur</keyword>, the company’s chief academic advisor and a physics professor at <keyword id="53675" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="harvard">Harvard</keyword>), <keyword id="956032" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Self-study">self study</keyword> &amp; <keyword id="969316" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="group-work">group work</keyword>, <keyword id="1974991" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Recorded-lectures">recorded lectures</keyword>, <keyword id="140811" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="mentoring">mentoring</keyword> and doubt-solving. Students are enrolled after a highly selective two-stage process. 
 “It was the commitment from Akshay and Krishna to focus on improving the <keyword id="1974995" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Education-of-low-income-communities">education of low-income communities</keyword>, combined with an <keyword id="1974993" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Innovative-learning-model">innovative learning model</keyword>, which was the most attractive aspect of the <keyword id="718769" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="investment-opportunity">investment opportunity</keyword>,” said PALF executive director, <keyword id="1974962" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Katelyn-Donnelly">Katelyn Donnelly</keyword>. 
 “Avanti is particularly exciting because it is a non-traditional pedagogy with very strong initial results. Our investment allows us to partner with a mission-led company to bridge a crucial gap between secondary and <keyword id="6375224" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="higher-education">higher education</keyword> for low-income learners. PALF is enthused to support the Avanti team to successfully grow across India, and we look forward to working with them to deliver on their long-term vision,” she added. 
 Commenting on the funding, Saxena said, “Once we decided that a <keyword id="1975001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="For-profit">for-profit</keyword> model was the best way to reach scale, we knew we would need expert strategic insight and advice. We are incredibly excited to be working with the Pearson Affordable Learning Fund as they bring unrivalled education expertise to the table that can help us achieve our long-term objectives. We look forward to building upon the relationship with Pearson as we improve outcomes for low-income learners in the years to come.” 
 
Recent fundraising by education start-ups 
uFaber: Mumbai-based <keyword id="1975002" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="uFaber-Edutech">uFaber Edutech</keyword> (http://www.ufaber.com/), which runs an <keyword id="1975003" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Online-education-marketplace">online education marketplace</keyword> for <keyword id="1975006" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Professional-skill-development">professional skill development</keyword>, hobbies, crafts, academics and vocational training, got Rs 37 lakh from <keyword id="1975007" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ah-Seeders">Ah! Seeders</keyword>, the seed funding network of <keyword id="1975008" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Club-Ah">Club Ah!</keyword> It is the network’s maiden investment in India after its launch in the country. Ah! Seeders puts its money into very early stage companies and typically invests in the range of Rs 25-50 lakh. 
 
<keyword id="1573710" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Meritnation">Meritnation</keyword>: Delhi-based <keyword id="1962741" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Applect-Learning-Systems">Applect Learning Systems</keyword>, which runs the online education and assessment site Meritnation.com (http://www.meritnation.com/), secured Rs 10 crore from <keyword id="80004" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Info-Edge">Info Edge</keyword> (India) Ltd, the biggest consumer Internet company in India by market value. With this fresh round, Info Edge has put in a total of Rs 71.5 crore and holds around 55.81% stake in Applect (on a fully diluted and converted basis). 
 
<keyword id="900714" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="InOpen-Technologies">InOpen Technologies</keyword>: Mumbai-based InOpen Technologies (http://inopen.in/), a start-up developing educational content and <keyword id="1975016" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Teachers-training-solutions">teacher’s training solutions</keyword>, received an undisclosed sum in Series A from <keyword id="1975017" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Japanese-education-firm">Japanese education firm</keyword> Benesse Holdings, Inc. In August 2011, the company raised $500,000 in seed funding from <keyword id="1975018" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ventureast-Tenet-Fund-II">Ventureast Tenet Fund II</keyword>. 
 
MangoSense: The Pune-based edutainment start-up (http://mangosense.com/) got an undisclosed amount from <keyword id="164924" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Mumbai-Angels">Mumbai Angels</keyword>. Its products include <keyword id="1975022" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="MangoReader">MangoReader</keyword>, <keyword id="1975023" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="MangoReach">MangoReach</keyword> and <keyword id="1975025" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="MangoSocial">MangoSocial</keyword>, through which users can create a fun and social environment for reading books and sharing them with friends. 
 
<keyword id="1975033" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="K2-Learning">K2 Learning</keyword>: Bangalore-based hybrid (online-offline) start-up K2 (http://k2learning.in/) secured Rs 8 crore in angel funding from <keyword id="244269" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Radheshyam-Agarwal">Radheshyam Agarwal</keyword>, founder and director of <keyword id="1975034" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Calcutta-Tube-India">Calcutta Tube India</keyword>. The start-up specialises in <keyword id="1975035" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Commerce-content">commerce content</keyword> and plans to set up <keyword id="1974968" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Tab-Labs">Tab Labs</keyword> in more than 100 <keyword id="37181" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="colleges">colleges</keyword> that will get special tablets with <keyword id="1975036" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Pre-loaded-commerce-data">pre-loaded commerce data</keyword>. 
 
<keyword id="1309724" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Simplilearn">Simplilearn</keyword>: Bangalore-based <keyword id="1974963" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Simplilearn-Solutions">Simplilearn Solutions</keyword> (www.Simplilearn.com), a company offering <keyword id="1309739" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="professional-certification-courses">professional certification courses</keyword> online, secured $10 million in <keyword id="1095983" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Series-B-funding">Series B funding</keyword> from <keyword id="309606" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Helion-Venture-Partners">Helion Venture Partners</keyword> and existing investor <keyword id="1397792" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Kalaari-Capital">Kalaari Capital</keyword>.

Another Education Start-up From India Gets Seed
Round From Pearson Affordable Learning Fund

If you are sceptic about run-of-the-mill online courses or can’t decode the learning materials on your own, it’s time to go for the best of both worlds. How about <keyword id="1928389" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="WizIQ">WizIQ</keyword>, a <keyword id="406113" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Virtual-classroom">virtual classroom</keyword> that can be accessed from anywhere, from any device, while teachers handhold students just like they do in a physical institution? But there’s more to it. Even premier institutions such as IIT-Delhi, Vellore Institute of Technology and <keyword id="59489" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Indian-School-of-Mines">Indian School of Mines</keyword> (Dhanbad) are tying up with this Mohali-headquartered firm for certificate courses and distance learning programmes. Overseas organisations using the solution include <keyword id="1928396" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Atlantic-University-in-Virginia-Beach">Atlantic University in Virginia Beach</keyword> and Des Moines Area Community Colleges in Iowa, among others. The SaaS-based (<keyword id="753967" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="software-as-a-service">Software-as-a-Service</keyword>) education platform is hosted on the Cloud and successfully operates a marketplace where teachers can sell their courses to its 3-million-strong student community. 
 WizIQ offers a collaborative and flexible platform for delivering and enhancing any online course – be it high school maths, hybrid courses for university students or employee training programmes. What sets it apart from other <keyword id="1928409" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="edu-tech">edu-tech</keyword> companies is its focus on teacher-and-learner-centred methods instead of just providing gigabytes and gigabytes of content. It is also an excellent interface for conducting <keyword id="1071995" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Massive-Open-Online-Courses">Massive Open Online Courses</keyword> (<keyword id="1539483" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="MOOCs">MOOCs</keyword>). Best of all, WizIQ’s Virtual Classroom software works cross-platform – on PCs, <keyword id="75489" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="IOS">iOS</keyword> and <keyword id="6355645" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="android">Android</keyword> devices. It can also be integrated with <keyword id="1928395" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="learning-management-systems">learning management systems</keyword> like Moodle or Blackboard or with an organisation’s own website. 
 True to its global stature, the platform has a multilingual interface and supports 19 languages. The company also opened an office in Bangalore yesterday in a bid to expand further. WizIQ has other offices in Hyderabad and North Carolina as well. Here is a snapshot that captures the vision and viability of the <keyword id="13178" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="Mohali">Mohali</keyword> start-up gone global. 
 
Who runs WizIQ: The venture was started by <keyword id="222685" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Harman-Singh">Harman Singh</keyword> (CEO) in 2007. The parent company is <keyword id="1696366" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Authorgen-Technologies">authorGEN Technologies</keyword>, which was founded in 2002 by Harman and late Harbir Khurana. Harman holds a master’s degree in Computer Science from <keyword id="283601" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="North-Carolina-State-University">North Carolina State University</keyword>. Prior to WizIQ, he had also founded authorSTREAM, an online PowerPoint sharing platform. 
 
What inspired the venture: The concept of making quality education accessible to all at reasonable charges. Harman came up with the idea during his graduation years and the goal was to make teaching and learning easier for everyone. 
 
What’s the pitch: Do more than stand and deliver – engage your students. Content might be the king but at WizIQ, teachers are back where they belong and replicates the classroom experience online. That creates a distinctive style and ensures a great engagement model. 
 
How it works: WizIQ enables teachers and trainers to hold ‘live’ classes and share tutorials in all possible formats – PowerPoint presentation, PDF, Word document, virtual whiteboards, voice and video. Learners only need an Internet connection to ‘attend’ those classes and don’t require to download anything or pre-install cumbersome client software. An integrated chat is there as well to make each session interactive. 
 
Technology: The platform leverages Microsoft technologies. For real-time communication between students and teachers, it uses Flash Media Server (FMS) and Flex at front-end. Amazon S3 is used for data storage and wherever heavy computation power is needed, Amazon EC2 service is used. To optimise the ‘live class’ experience, servers are placed at multiple locations like the US, Singapore, Sao Paulo and Ireland. 
 
Claim to fame: Traction and awards. WizIQ claims that over 250,000 teachers and 3 million learners are using the platform across 100-plus countries. The company also says it has the largest collection of paid courses created by educators on the Internet and hosts more than 2,500 live classes daily via WizIQ Virtual Classroom. Teachers and organisations are also using WizIQ to conduct successful MOOCs. 
 
Show me the money: It is essentially a paid platform for teachers looking to conduct online classes. Fee starts at $19 per month (or $190 a year) and can go up to $69 per month (or $690 annually). WizIQ offers a freemium model and some features on this platform are free. For instance, teachers can hold 2 classes per month free of cost and there’s a 30-day free trial for those who want to try out its advanced features. Around 8,000 of the total 250,000 teachers are paid members, the company claims. 
 Unlike many other start-ups, this one has been well funded all along. Educomp, India’s largest <keyword id="255607" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="100" keywordseo="education-technology">education technology</keyword> company, invested an undisclosed amount in the very first year. In January 2013, WizIQ also raised a Series B round of $4 million from education-focused PE firm <keyword id="342246" type="COMPANY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Kaizen">Kaizen</keyword> and German media major Bertelsmann. 
 
Biggest challenge: Poor Internet penetration and stiff competition from those in the same space. But the toughest one is positioning. Web-enabled distance learning is definitely looking up in India, but it is yet to catch up with mainstream courses administered offline. Until that happens, scaling up will remain a major problem.

From IITs To Universities Abroad, This Virtual Classroom Is Going Places

<keyword id="6355629" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="google">Google</keyword> on Wednesday expanded its programme for startups to support startups working on the solutions to solve real-life challenges towards the new normal post COVID-19 landscape in India. <keyword id="9416148" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="google-for-startups">Google for Startups</keyword> has opened applications for the new batch of <keyword id="9416150" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="google-for-startups-accelerator">Google for Startups Accelerator</keyword>, with a special focus on health-tech, fin-tech, edu-tech, agri-tech, retail and SaaS startups, the company said in a statement. The next batch will commence in August 2020 and the last date of applications is June 30. This will be the fourth class of startups mentored by Google, which has so far closely mentored over 60 startups in India to date. "We have been working very closely with over 250 Startups founders over the last two months, holding consults with our network of experts, mentors and VCs to help solve for the immediate challenges faced by the founder community," informed Paul Ravindranath G, Programme Manager, Google for <keyword id="9416146" type="COMPANY" weightage="20" keywordseo="startups-accelerator-india">Startups Accelerator India</keyword>. In addition to the fresh call for applications, Google for Startups also announced the launch of 'Emerging stronger: Playbook' for startups to face the Covid-19 Challenge. "We have captured the work of these last two months into a handy playbook which we hope will benefit the larger ecosystem," Ravindranath added. Beyond the Accelerator, Google for Startups will continue to offer support to startups via its partner programme and mentor network.

Google launches program to support Indian startups creating solutions for post COVID-19 world

<ul><li>Bengaluru needs to turn into a deeptech hub too </li><li>Bengaluru is the only Indian city to be among the top 30 global startup ecosystems of today. It jumped two ranks up in the world’s top 30 startup</li><li>The city is known for its Edtech and Fintech startups but has been facing challenges due to weak environment policy in India.</li></ul> Bengaluru might be India’s <keyword id="6357722" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="silicon-valley">Silicon Valley</keyword> but it is in dire need of a strong framework to develop and commercialise “deep tech” like smart cities, robotics, autonomous systems, <a href="https://startupgenome.com/reports">said</a> the Global Startup Genome Report 2019. <a href="https://startupgenome.com/gser2019">Startup Genome</a> is an independent research firm that provides data and insights to startups. Bengaluru is the only Indian city to be ranked among the top 30 global startup ecosystems ranked by the report. It jumped two ranks this year in the world’s top 30 startup ecosystems list, according to the report. There are 30 global cities that it said have the potential to become the “next” hubs including Bengaluru. Bengaluru is home to a number of unicorns and is known for its edtech and fintech startups. However, it has been facing several structural bottlenecks. “A weak policy environment in India, as well as relatively low levels of research production, means that <keyword id="6355033" type="LOCATION" weightage="20" keywordseo="bangalore">Bangalore</keyword> might face more challenges in deep tech startup sub-sectors — those requiring tangible IP — than it did in Software, the report explained. It further said, “Potentially, this might become a significant hindrance in the ecosystem, threatening its future growth,” said the report. The city is also facing challenges due to “quality” of funding. The past growth “Bengaluru, Sydney, Stockholm, and Berlin stand out for their relatively low levels of Funding Quality, driven by lack of local, experienced VCs compared to other ecosystem”, said the report. Edtech and fintech hub India has witnessed exponential growth in co-working spaces over the last year which has fueled expansion in fintech and edutech hubs in India, with about 42% of startups based in Bengaluru. A recent India FinTech Report 2019 by global innovation platform MEDICI says that India is the second biggest Fintech Hub after the US with over 2,000 startups nourishing in the zone. Almost every top ecosystem has a strong national regulatory environment that encourages IP commercialization, according to the report.Here, too, Bangalore, along with Beijing and Shanghai was an exception. “Bangalore has all of the ingredients to create a world class tech ecosystem - investors, engineers, clients, experts - and the potential to build high-quality global startups at a fraction of the cost.” <a href="https://startupgenome.com/reports">said</a> Varun Chawla Founder, 91springboard in the report.

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