Teaching on the tablet and the black-board, too

Business models in edu-tech that have remained resilient over the years have stayed away from taking on the entire education system. So it’s likely that funding and fortune in the coming years may favour edu-tech start-ups that don’t bite off more than they can chew.

Adda247 (earlier known mostly as Career Power) is a test-preparation platform and the company has completed five years in operation. Here’s a look at how Adda247 plans to keep the human touch in its business while also betting on rapid growth with its online channel.

Adda247 says it will increase investments in technology and innovation to around 35 per cent (from an earlier 20 per cent) to help the company deliver smoothly and increase learner engagement on videos.

At least two crore data points are collected daily on the Adda247 app. Personalised recommendations are made to students based on where he is spending time or a topic in which she may be weak. Some 15 lakh students reportedly use the app with the average time spent being 25-30 minutes. Where students seem to lose track is where the company assumes content should be more engaging.

The company took the app route in April last year and claims it resulted in 100 per cent growth in revenue from its online channel within six months.

“About 98 per cent of our audience is on an Android device. Over the next five years, at least 90 per cent of our revenues will come from online,” says Nagar.

In an 18-month period between 2015 and 2016, the company’s own assessments revealed at least 60 per cent of its users came from metro cities with an additional 19 per cent coming from Tier-1 towns; but there was some engagement from Tier-2 and -3 towns as well as rural locations.

Nagar, who was born in Dakaur, a village in Uttar Pradesh, faced challenges himself while preparing for the IIT-JEE exam; he expresses keen interest in students from remote parts of the country finding support through Adda247. Meanwhile, his business has built up a presence in 80 locations over the years. Audio-video rooms will be added at these centres to further help students.

“We want to create a complete ecosystem for delivering education. This includes offline, which is necessary for student motivation, and so many other reasons. Today, students can book a slot and visit our centres to clear doubts,” shares Nagar.

Currently, 60 per cent of Adda247’s learners prepare for banking exams with the rest studying for SSC exams. In about six months, Adda247 aims to offer test preparation courses that cover the whole gamut of examinations for government jobs.