Pandemic turns India into Edtech capital of the world

Chennai: Many Indian ed tech companies are witnessing a sharp increase in international enrolments as

demand

for AI, ML, data sciences and cloud computing bring in

more learners

. Switzerland-based kiteboarder and translator Ursina Sanderink (25), has enrolled with Simplilearn as it was cheaper and within her budget. Simplilearn’s founder andCEO Krishna Kumar said, “About 60% of our revenues are from overseas markets.” The education tech platform saw global learners enrollment growth at 70% in 2020-21, as compared to

previous

45% growth in the previous year.

Besides the US, the company saw demand coming from Canada, UAE, Thailand, South Africa, and Saudi Arabia.

Great Learning, launched in 2013, witnessed a 5x growth in overseas student enrolment at over 10,000 students between March, 2020 and March, 2021, over 2019.

Its co-founder Arjun Nair says, “Demand for our courses is largely due to their longer tenure (six-month courses), compared to those offered in the international market which are about 10-12 weeks long. The price point is also on par with international competitors making it an attractive offer.” “Cost of operations is much cheaper in India, mirroring the manpower cost. In a foreign country it would cost $1,20,000 to hire a teaching staff for Data Science, in India it costs only $30,000.” Edtech platform

upGrad

said it has seen enrollment from abroad doubled to over 400, across 50 countiers, in the last one year. Its co-founder and MD Mayank Kumar said, “In this quarter (JFM 2021) we have almost reached 400 learners, and given the remaining days in March and the kind of trend we see during March end (appraisals) we’re quite confident that we’ll easily have a hundred more” . All these Indian EdTech companies have signed collaboration agreements with global universities in 2020.