If you weren’t someone keeping a keen eye on Indian edtechs (or even if you were), you’d be forgiven for thinking those such as BYJU’S, Vedantu, and Unacademy were the be-all and end-all of the industry. Sure, there are other smaller edtech companies out there as well—Classplus, Doubtnut, Extramarks, Adda247, to name a few. But that’s the extent of the picture most people paint when you ask them about edtech in India.
All it takes is a peek under the hood to smash that notion. Fuelled partly by the pandemic and the Indian government’s efforts to bring students online, several low- or no-cost edtech solutions have emerged that are filling the learning gaps left unaddressed by mainstream players.
Where big players face questions about the effectiveness of online learning alongside their massive valuations, these smaller edtechs have only one goal—turn the sector into a “public good” and make it accessible.
And where these big players have the heft of venture capital behind them, these smaller companies have philanthropic capital on their side. Like the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation, which has banded together with the UK-based charity British Asian Trust, diagnostic firms, development consultancies, and edtechs to launch the Bharat Edtech Initiative.
Or ACT Grants, a philanthropic fund set up during the pandemic that currently supports seven edtechs primarily working in low-income settings. Or the Central Square Foundation, which is collaborating with IIT Bombay to create a tool to help define research-based standards for designing edtech platforms.
Philanthropic capital can help edtech solutions prioritise learning outcomes. But that’s not easy. These new-age philanthropies can potentially cough up only $5 million annually, according to estimates by industry experts. VC-backed edtechs, of course, can outspend philanthropic efforts by 100X when it comes to scaling.
