The Story of Vedantu

The lockdown imposed amid the surge of COVID19, the dangerous virus with its dire implications has actually proven to be quite fruitful for EdTech startups. Several of them have witnessed massive revolutionizing growth over the past couple of months, particularly when it comes to the Indian education sector. 

 

With the EdTech era gaining popularity in full force, the recruitment levels of educational technology companies have highly boosted leading to the development of about 3,000 new jobs being observed in the sector, as reported by the Economic Times. With an increase in its investment, India becomes one of the few nations, with the most significant boost in this sector. 

 

As educational institutions across the world face imminent closure, upon the imposition of the lockdown, the reliance upon our technological advancements becomes a necessity.  Presently our technical resources are advanced enough to handle not just a couple of online classes but to develop an entire structure for distance education in schools and universities. Even upon the pandemic nearing its end, these structures will continue to hold the fort, revolutionizing the world of learning.

 

One of the top firms that has gained an edge over the lockdown includes Udemy, Unacademy and ofcourse Vedantu, an online tutoring platform developed for the purpose of offering live coaching classes for its students and enabling personalized learning. In this blog we will talk about the story of Vedantu. 

 

 

About Vedantu

 

"Vedantu has always believed in the concept of LIVE interactive classes being a superior format for online learning which creates greater learning outcomes. During lockdown, everyone is talking about LIVE classes and it is the best time for us to drive more adoption and strengthen our brand as the best destination for LIVE classes. On top of adding new categories, we will use the funds to invest into content and technology to create the world’s best LIVE teaching-learning experience.” - Vamsi Krishna, CEO and Co-Founder, Vedantu

 

Vedantu, where Veda is “Knowledge” and Tantu is “Network”. This makes the platform a knowledge network in which any student can access a teacher directly and enable personalized learning to take place at any place and any time. 

 

It all began when Vamsi Krishna founded his first venture "Lakshya" in 2006 with the help of three of his IITian friends. The venture aimed at training students for a variety of varied tests. Eventually, they observed that the educational sector in India requires a plethora of dedicated and skilled teachers. Hence they worked on developing such a platform through Lakshya. The platform was acquired by MTEducare, six years later, in 2012. 

 

Post this, began the preparation of the EDTech start-up we all know as Vedantu. The online tutoring platform was officially introduced in 2014. Presently the platform aims to enhance the education structure through its exceptional online EdTech platform.

 

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Vedantu is an online platform developed for the purpose of live coaching. It facilitates live coaching classes for 6th to 12th-grade students. The platform is also dedicated to the training for several examinations such as the IIT foundation. Additionally, online coaching sessions are offered for competitive examinations such as JEE, IMO NTSE. 

 

To offer its support to the 21st century’s education system, the platform allows LIVE interactive online learning amidst the pupils and teachers. It also offers individual as well as group classes. The platform makes use of two-way audio, video as well as whiteboarding tools which enables both the student as well as the teacher to view, listen, write as well as interact in real-time.  

 

 

Vedantu’s Progress

 

The lockdown has definitely led to massive growth for the Vedantu platform with its number of subscribers has expanded exponentially over the past couple of months across K-12 and competitive exams such as JEE and NEET.

 

Vedantu has been offering its services to 25 million students each month. As reported by Economic Times, the platform has stated that it registered a 220% growth in users to 2 million unique students who have participated in their live classes over the past three months.

 

In 2019, Vedantu launched its WAVE platform. This platform adopts Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning for personalizing teaching as well as learning for each student and has been developed for making LIVE classes more enticing and engaging. One of the main challenges online education generally encounters is the low completion rate of courses because of less engaging content. This factor has been tackled by Vedantu which extends its focus on LIVE interactive classes to make its classes more entertaining and interactive for its users. 

 

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As reported by Livemint, recently in late June of this year, Vedantu invested $2 million in an EdTech organization, Instasolv, which is a doubt-solving app for high school students as well as for IITJEE and NEET aspirants, as a step towards enhancing their role in doubt solving. 

 

In late Feb 2021, Vedantu acquired Instasolv, marking its first acquisition in the buzzing EdTech space. 

 

Amidst the lockdown, Vedantu has taken up the initiative of offering FREE LIVE Interactive Classes along with premium content for Grade 1 -12 as well as competitive examinations like JEE/NEET in order to ensure that the education of students isn’t hampered owing to the lockdown. 

 

During end-May, 2021, Vedantu set up a Rs 15 crore fund with the aim of assisting in offering education to around 12,000 children that have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

The platform has also launched a national initiative - V.O.T.E (Vedantu Online Talent Exam), in March 2021, that will include an assessment exam for students of grades 5-12.

 

As reported by Economic Times, presently with its latest capital infusion, Vedantu is valued at USD 600 million, making it the second most valued firm in the Indian Edtech sector, after Byju’s, which is valued at USD $16.5 billion.

 

 

Vedantu Founders

 

Vamsi Krishna is the current CEO of Vedantu. A graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, the man is a prominent Tech Enthusiast, Edupreneur, as well as Tutor. Prior to founding Vedantu, he had been the co-founder of Lakshya, alongside his college classmates, which is the EDTech organization that laid the foundation for the idea of Vedantu. He also worked as a Management trainee at L&T for about a year. 

 

Pulkit Jain is a co-founder of Vedantu as well as the former co-founder of Lakshya. He was also employed at EvalueServe till 2006. A graduate from IIT Roorkee, the man is presently an inspiration for various young entrepreneurs for his entrepreneurial journey. 

 

Anand Prakash is yet another cofounder of Vedantu as well as the former co-founder of Lakshya. A graduate from IIT, Roorkee in Pulp and Paper Technology, the man is presently an account academic head at Vedantu. Prior to Vedantu, he had served as a manager at Abhishek Industries.

 

Now the founder and CEO of the EdTech firm “Uable”, Saurabh Saxena, a graduate in chemical engineering from IIT Roorkee was also a former co-founder of Vedantu.

 

 

Vedantu Recent Funding History

 

“Strong growth and category leadership of Vedantu in live online tutoring -- these were the main reasons for us to gain investor interest. It was a good opportunity to raise more money and create a war chest.” -  Vamsi Krishna, co-founder and CEO of Vedantu.

 

 

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Vedantu’s Investors

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Vedantu has raised about $200 m in total funding across all its funding rounds for a valuation of $600m.

 

In the month of February of this year, Vedantu raised $24 million in a funding round through investors headed by GGV Capital, along with existing backers. 

 

In the second week of April, Vedantu raised Rs 96 crore (around $12.5 million) during its Series C1 round, which was led by Chinese venture capital firm Legend Capital, with participation from Omidyar’s Ohana Holdings LLC.

 

On April 20,  Vedantu raised $6.8 million in new funding round from South Korea-based KB Global Platform Firm. 

 

In its latest funding round in mid-July, Vedantu raised $100 million in Series D funding, led by US-based Coatue Management.

 

 

Conclusion

 

With India’s EdTech sector having endless potential towards boost and expansion, Vedantu shows massive promise for a successful and glorious future. As we head towards an educational structure dominated by educational technology, Vedantu is all set to become one of the most renowned firms dominating the Indian education sector.