Story of Second Most Valued Ed-tech: Vedantu Startup

Conventional learning techniques have been left way behind by the students. In this digital world, people prefer everything to be fast. Be it product or services people, we want everything at our doorsteps. The education sector has also revolutionized with the introduction of online education.

Vedantu - Introduction

Vedantu is an online teaching platform. Here teachers provide tutoring to the students over the internet. They use a real-time virtual learning platform to teach their students, named WAVE. The brand aims to change the education sector by providing an exception online program.

It is very famous amongst the students. Vedantu allows its students to choose, browse, and discover online tutors. It is also helpful for the teachers as they can teach students in a much simpler way.

Vedantu - Key Points

• Company - Private
• Industry - Edtech (Online Education)
• Founded - 2011
• Headquarters - Bangalore, India
• Founders - Vamsi Krishna, Saurabh Saxena, Pulkit Jain, Anand Prakash
• Area Served - India
• Parent Organisation - Vedantu Innovations Pvt. Ltd.
• Website – www.vedantu.com

Vedantu - Founders

A group of four friends founded this company. All of them are IIT alumni and founded this company in 2011. Vamsi Krishna, an IIT Bombay graduate and CEO & co-founder of the company, came up with the idea along with his three other friends. Their first venture Lakshay got acquired by MT Educare. Vedantu is their second venture and, they trained several students and teachers through their company.

From L to R : Vamsi Krishna – CEO and Co-Founder, Anand Prakash – Co-Founder & Head HR, Saurabh Saxena – Co-Founder & Head AIR, Pulkit Jain – Co-Founder & Head RDX

Vedantu - Brand Name and Logo

• Name The name Vedantu is an amalgamation of two great words. Here, 'Veda' means 'Knowledge' 'Tantu' means 'Network' and, both of these words got derived from Sanskrit. The name beautifully serves the purpose of the brand, which is providing a network of wisdom.
• Logo Vedantu's Logo is in bright red color that brings your focus. Their tagline is Live 'Online Tutoring'.

Vedantu – B2C Business Model

Vedantu operated in a business model of B2C. They provide services like online teaching and live doubt session classes for all the students using WAVE.

They also provide classes for several competitive exams both at the national level or state level.

Vedantu - Marketing Strategy

Some of the marketing strategies used by Vedabtu are:

• Advertises very nicely on TV and various social media platforms that attract many parents and students
• Markets their package digitally on various platforms like Google, on its website, etc.
• Use Google ads, video marketing, etc. to promote their brand.
• Signed an A-List actor to promote their brand
• It has created an influence through its strong campaigns. It mainly focuses on making children's online learning exciting and informative.

Vedantu - Investors and Funding

Vedantu has managed to raise funding of $200 million to date. It rose funding in various rounds at many stages. Some of its investors are listed below:

• $150K - In pre-seed Round by Ramaswami, 2013
• $5 million - Series A by Accel, Tiger Global Management, 2015
• $11 Million - Series B by Accel, Omidyar Network, TAL Education Group, 2018
• $1.3 Million - Debt Financing by Trifecta Capital Advisors, 2019
• $42 Million - Series C by Tiger Global Management, West Bridge Capital, 2019
• 424 Million - Series C by GGV Capital, 2020
• $7 Million - Series C by KB Global Platform Fund, 2020
• $12.56 Million - Series C by Legend Capital, 2020
• $100 Million - Series D by Coatue, 2020

Vedantu - Competitors

There is a lot of competition in every industry. Although Vedantu is doing great in its education sector, it also has several competitors. New companies are coming up every other day. Some of its strongest competitors are:

• Byju's
• Unacademy
• Toppr
• Flip class
• UrbanPro
• Tutorvista
• WizIQ

Vedantu - Awards and Honors

Vedantu has bagged many awards in various categories. Some of its achievements are listed below:

• Online Education Startup of the year - Elets World Education Summit, 2015
• Most Promising and Innovative Live Online Tutoring Platform in India - Praxis Media, 2015
• Best Organization to Develop Technology for Education - DNA Innovative Education Awards, 2016
• KINSES2016 EduAwards - Winner, 2016
• Top 100 startups - SutraHR, 2016

Vedantu - Services

The brand provides educational services to students from 4th to 12th. They cover two boards of education. One is CBSE (Central Board of Secondary Education) and, the other is ICSE (Indian Certificate of Secondary Education). They provide one-on-one student and teacher classes with many doubt sessions too. They have dedicated test series for every subject and standard. They also give preparation services for many national-level exams such as IIT-JEE, NTSE, etc. Some of the tutoring covered by them are:

• English
• Hindi
• Science
• Social Science
• Mathematics
• Sanskrit
• Environmental Science
• German
• French

Vedantu - Growth and Revenue

Vedantu has constantly seen growth and increase in its revenue for 3-4 years now. The current pandemic has hit several businesses badly but, it has been a boon for the online teaching platforms.

Vedantu's current revenue is $10 Million and, it has seen an increase of 97% from FY2018 to FY2019. They currently provide educational services to around 25 million students per month. They have seen a growth of 220% in the past few years in the number of students,

They focus on live classes to make them more interactive and entertaining for both students and teachers. They provide courses for exams like JEE, KVPY, NEET, IMO, NTSE, PSA, etc.

Vedantu - Future Plans

The company is recently planning to grow four times in the coming year and gather more students. They are also planning to start classes for primary level students starting from Nursery and Kindergarten.

They want to make online learning enjoyable and achievable for students living in remote areas. The company is also planning to explore new ideas and prospects. They are working hard to provide quality education to as many students as they can.

Vedantu's story is inspiring and a good lesson for all entrepreneurs. The founders have come far and worked hard to bring their company to this position. The brand is currently one of the leading online teaching platforms in India. Their brand ambassador is Aamir Khan and, this has also helped the company to grow and achieve a more customer base.