India’s ed-tech unicorn Byju’s isn’t the only reason that the start-up environment in the country is chasing new ideas across the online education space. A new report suggests that there is a $10 billion market opportunity in this space where paid subscribers are likely to touch over the next four years.
India’s ed-tech market size is estimated to grow 3.7x over the next five years from the current levels of $2.8 billion to $10.4 billion, says a recently released report by Inc42 Plus. It suggests that ed-tech would go beyond supporting school curriculum and test preparation, to include skilling and learning management systems.
Titled “The Future Of Edtech In India: Decoding The $10 Bn Market Opportunity”. the report, which can be downloaded here, says that from K-12 and test preparation, the ed-tech startups would expand into skill development initiatives across industry and development expertise in learning management solutions.
The conventional education system has had limited impact on redressing issues that India’s economy is posing, says the study. From developing new skills to re-skilling and up-skilling initiatives, the university-level courses have not created adequate levels of traction. This is where the ed-tech revolution has shown potential, it says.
The study estimates that more than half of India’s workforce could need re-skilling and up-skilling over the next two years in order to meet the industrial demand for new skills. Given this requirements, education tech could become the only means to reach this large segment of learners.
Emerging skill requirements would be focused primarily on technology-led design and programming, complex problem solving, reasoning, ideation, emotional intelligence, critical thinking, and analysis.
In addition, India’s working-age population accounts for 67% of its total population of 1.3 billion people, which makes it imperative for ed-tech companies to expand their focus to include skill development initiatives, the report says. The right tech skill sets and certification are the two most important parameters for tech employment. It is to be noted here that the demand side of ed-tech is robust, thanks to the rising unemployment in India.
Factors such as the deep penetration of the internet and the rampant use of smartphones and other electronic devices have spiked the online content consumption in India. This has also, in turn, impacted India’s addressable market for ed-tech products and services. The report also noted that it is the youth of the country who is driving the adoption of the ed-tech products and services in India.
These two factors have exponentially increased the capitalisation opportunity in Indian ed-tech. This is seen in the business done by ed-tech startups in the previous fiscal. In FY 2019, the aggregate revenue of the top 38 ed-tech startups in India was $303 Mn, a 2.1x surge compared to the previous financial year.
