A new-age online school Vikalp offers experiential learning

Vikalp India is reimagining the future of education by making learning accessible, inclusive, and experience-driven. With a growing student base across Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, children with disabilities, and NRI families in countries like Germany, UAE, and the USA, We are empowering learners who have traditionally faced barriers to quality education says Dinesh Gupta, Founder & CEO, Vikalp India in an interview with Bizz Buzz.

What is the nature of your business, and what are your key revenue streams?

At Vikalp, our mission is to transform K–12 education from rote-based blackboard teaching to experiential learning that genuinely enhances student outcomes. We do this through multiple formats, ensuring both reach and sustainability.

B2B - Private Schools: We partner with private institutions to set up dedicated Mathematics, Science, and Language labs. These labs are fully equipped with hands-on learning materials, and teachers receive comprehensive training. Schools typically fund the initiative through an additional annual fee of ₹750 (approx.) per child, ensuring affordability for parents while sustaining impact.

B2G - Government Schools: In public education, the model is similar in delivery but different in funding. We collaborate with state governments, NGOs, and corporate CSR initiatives to finance these programs. For instance, our Delhi project is backed by GE Capital, while our Karnataka initiative is supported by the NGO Navya Disha. This approach ensures that quality experiential learning reaches under-resourced schools as well.

B2C - Online School: Extending our vision into the digital space, our Vikalp Online School brings the lab experience home. Students receive customized kits to create a “mini-lab” in their living rooms and engage in live, interactive sessions with facilitators. This model especially supports homeschoolers and independent learners, who subscribe at ₹3,000 (approx.) per month for an immersive, activity-driven education.

How has Vikalp India’s business evolved over the years?

When we started Vikalp India, our vision was clear — to enhance learning outcomes in K–12 schools through experiential learning. Initially, we focused on designing and supplying learning apparatus to schools. However, we quickly realized that tools alone were not enough; teachers needed to be trained to use them effectively. This led us to build a dedicated team of trainers who worked directly with schools.

The next challenge was that schools were bound by textbooks, which remained their highest priority. To align with this reality while staying true to our mission, we developed our own textbooks designed around experiential pedagogy. To measure the actual impact on students, we further created an assessment platform — completing a holistic offering for schools.

Our journey began with private schools in and around Delhi, and soon expanded to Haryana, Punjab, Jharkhand, and Karnataka. As awareness about experiential learning grew, several state governments took interest. We signed MoUs with Delhi, Jharkhand, and Karnataka to implement our programs in government schools, which significantly scaled our reach.

Over time, we observed a rising demand for alternative education models — from parents seeking homeschooling options, NRIs wanting consistency in education, and families in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities with limited access to quality schooling. This insight pushed us to evolve into a full-fledged online school, blending our activity-based pedagogy with digital platforms. Today, we are not only serving students in India but also have enrollments from the Middle East, Europe, and the U.S., truly becoming a global online school.

How have you funded your expansion across India and internationally?

From 2010 to 2015, we bootstrapped while building and refining our product. In 2015, we secured our Series A funding from Acumen Fund, a New York–based impact investor, which enabled us to scale our experiential learning programs across schools in multiple Indian states. Given the seasonality in our business, we also leveraged debt funding from Canara Bank, a nationalized bank, to ensure stable operations. Later, when we ventured into online schooling, we required additional capital, which was provided by Grameen Impact. Together, these investments have supported both our domestic expansion and the foundation of our international presence.

What has been Vikalp’s year-on-year revenue growth?

Vikalp started in 2010 with a focus on building a strong foundation — developing learning apparatus, creating a teacher training team, designing textbooks, and building an assessment platform. At that stage, sales were not our primary focus. In 2015, we formally incorporated as a company, and by 2018–19 we crossed the million-dollar (around ₹7 crore) milestone. With the exception of the pandemic years 2020–21 and 2021–22, we have consistently maintained a year-on-year growth rate of about 35%, underscoring both the strength of our model and the rising demand for experiential learning.

What is the USP of your product that enables sustainable growth?

The education sector has many specialized players — some manufacture educational apparatus like Creative and Flintobox, others such as Byju’s and Vedantu develop learning apps, publishers like Pearson and Oxford produce textbooks, while companies such as Educational Initiatives and ConveGenius focus on assessments. Each of these offerings is valuable in isolation, but because they are built on different methodologies, they often fail to connect, leaving gaps in a child’s overall learning journey.

Consider a child learning multiplication. They might use Creative’s tools, a Byju’s app, an Oxford textbook, and EI’s assessments. While each tool is excellent on its own, the lack of integration makes it difficult for the child to connect concepts, limiting the true impact of learning.

Vikalp’s USP is its integrated ecosystem — we design tools, apps, textbooks, and assessments within a single unified methodology. This creates a seamless, consistent, and holistic learning experience, resulting in measurable improvements in student outcomes. What makes it sustainable is its adaptability: the model works equally well in online and offline settings, across both government and private schools. This ability to deliver integrated learning at scale is what sets us apart.

What is the nature of your competition?

Our competition varies across segments.

B2B – Private Schools: Here, we compete with companies like Creatives and Butterfly Edufields, which provide learning apparatus to schools. However, they primarily offer standalone products. What differentiates Vikalp is our integrated solution—combining products, apps, books, and assessments into a cohesive ecosystem.

B2G – Government Schools: In this space, we face strong players like Jodo Gyan and Akshara Foundation, who have scaled their programs across more than 10 states. Currently, we are working with four state governments and a more focused set of schools. While smaller in scale, our strength lies in depth of engagement and quality of outcomes.

B2C – Online School: Competitors such as K8 and Spruha operate in this segment, but their model is largely PPT- and video-driven. This passive approach often fails to sustain student engagement. Our edge comes from an activity-based methodology—students do and learn through hands-on kits and interactive sessions, making the online format both effective and engaging.

What are some of the key financials of the company?

While specific numbers remain confidential, Vikalp has been growing at a healthy double-digit CAGR. Online schooling now contributes a significant share of our revenues. Additionally, partnerships with governments, CSR foundations, and NGOs provide steady revenue streams, while direct enrollments in our online school add scalability. Importantly, our model sustains healthy margins thanks to lean operations and technology-driven delivery.

Are you looking at organic growth or also at inorganic growth?

Our core focus is on organic growth, driven by pedagogy, partnerships, and expanding online enrollments. That said, we remain open to strategic collaborations and selective acquisitions in niche areas such as AI-enabled learning tools or regional curriculum providers. Any inorganic growth will be carefully aligned with our mission of making learning both meaningful and accessible.

Will tariffs impact your business?

Tariffs have minimal direct impact on us since our core offerings are educational services and digital platforms. Our hardware-based learning apparatus is largely developed and sourced locally, which reduces reliance on imports and insulates us from tariff fluctuations. This ensures stable pricing and greater resilience.

How will tariffs impact the IT industry?

Tariffs could raise the cost of imported hardware and technology infrastructure, affecting IT companies reliant on global supply chains. However, the Indian IT and edtech sectors are increasingly localizing and investing in in-house capabilities. In the long run, tariffs may accelerate self-reliance, foster innovation, and reduce external dependencies.