Kerala edtech startup helping State board students get future ready

Edtech space is growing at a faster rate in the Indian startup ecosystem. While there is growing adoption of services offered by the edtech players, there is also rising competition. India has around 275 million students enrolled in various educational institutions, out of which 140 million go to government schools. While there are many edtech startups focusing more on central board schools, there are very few startups operating in the state board space. '90+ My Tuition App' is an edtech startup that has chosen the state board syllabus as its focus area. The company provides digital courses in 14 state syllabuses. To overcome the hurdle of proper internet connectivity, the content is completely offline. In a conversation with the Bizz Buzz, company's Founder Vingish Vijay said that the company is looking at more national presence in the current financial year. The edtech startup has signed cricketer Rishabh Pant as its national brand ambassador. To expand in both Indian and overseas markets, it is looking for another round of fundraising this year. The company will also grow its team size to support the expansion plan

What is the motivation behind the formation of '90+ My Tuition App'? How do you see the company's future growth as competition in the edtech space is intensifying every day?

We started our business in 2015 and brought our products in 2018. So, we are not a new player as we started operations before the pandemic period. In 2018, we launched our products on Kerala state syllabus and launched our campaign. We have a number of teammates, who have come from teaching backgrounds. I and another co-founder conceived this idea when we were doing our MBA. After that, we worked with many companies. In 2015, we decided to start this edtech startup which will cater to the needs of students across the country.

What is the number of subscribers now who are taking services from your edtech platform? Is it growing very fast?

We have around 5,00,000 subscribers. Most of our subscribers are in Kerala as of now. Though we launched our product in 2018, we worked till 2020 in the market, taking feedback from the students and parents apart from other stakeholders. As our major focus is on Kerala till now, that is the reason that most downloads of our apps are from Kerala. In November 2021, we launched our national product. We are just starting in other states. We now have teams in Maharashtra, New Delhi and Karnataka among others. With this national-level launch, we are confident to add more subscribers. As we are adding more team members in different states, we will grow faster. We also have a new sales model called '90+ Connect'.

Will you throw some new light into the new initiative '90+ Connect?

We have a mission of creating 10,000 entrepreneurs in India in edtech space. We already have all the products available offline. In the second stage, we need to interact with the students. We understand that many people are trying to do business. So, we are connecting them through '90+ Connect'. We are training those people how to do business, we are monitoring them and we are supporting them. That will help them to sell products to the students for which we are giving 50 per cent margin to them. Our pricing is also very low compared to other companies. It is easy to sell our products.

For Kerala, we are providing all subjects. On a national level, we are providing science and mathematics. For instance, we are charging Rs 12,000 per annum for providing all subjects in Kerala. For the same money, we are providing physics, chemistry, biology and mathematics material on national level for CBSE board students.

The uniqueness of our product is that our application is like a textbook. Everything that a textbook has is available in the application. We are replacing the traditional ways of tuition. We support students for their doubt-clearing classes. Our videos are very simple to understand.

Is there any expansion plan with regard to going abroad given that this model can be easily replicated in other geographies?

We plan to go to the GCC (Gulf General Council) with our services because there are so many students who are following our syllabus. We just opened in Bahrain and we are opening this month in UAE.

Can you throw some light on the profitability front? Are you close to breakeven? Also, please give us some views on the fund-raising aspect.

We are planning to be profitable in the current financial year. We are looking for fundraising to support our expansion plans. Discussions are currently underway. We have raised $5 million in Series A round of funding from Pearl Investment LLC, a Dubai-based business group which helped us to expand our business further across key Indian cities. After this round of funding, we will go for national branding.

As far as the amount is concerned, we are looking for a $20 million round in this fund-raising series. We are planning to raise this $20 million round in three phases and complete it by the end of this year. This will help us in getting a good valuation.

You have signed wicket-keeper and batsman Rishabh Pant as the company's brand ambassador. How is the response so far?

We have signed Rishabh Pant as our national brand ambassador. The first commercial is also out. We hope to get a good response from this association.

How big is the whole team now? Will you throw some light on the technology team and the kind of innovations they are working on currently?

We have a 500-big team working on various aspects of the company. Each operation is inhouse for us. In the content and product developments side, we have around 180 people working on this area.

On the technology side, we have a small team. This year, we are planning to raise the headcount to 3,000 people.