Summary [Webinar] Indian EdTech – Open for Vernacular Play?

EdTechReview, in association with AWS EdStart, hosted a webinar on 13 August 2021 on the theme “Indian EdTech – Open For Vernacular Play”.

Experts from non-profit organization, venture capital, vernacular edtech companies who took charge of the discussion sharing their views, success stories, experience, approach and details on how vernacular in education can help the Indian edtech market reach its full potential.

The speaker panel witnessed the following dignitaries:

• Gouri Gupta, Project Director – EdTech, Central Square Foundation
• Saraswathy Ramamoorthy, Co-Founder, Learning Matters
• Mohammed Hisamuddin, Founder, Entri.App
• Rahul Maheshwari, Investor, Beenext Pte. Ltd.

Few snippets of the discussions from the webinar:

Huge opportunity for startups – “the vernacular in education” play and associated funding

Rahul Maheshwari shares his take on the edtech ecosystem in India and the funding aspect of the vernacular sector; he says, “The edtech ecosystem has surely matured in India when I look at the platforms like Byju’s. But looking at the funding aspect of the market, especially for vernacular education, we haven’t reached the milestone yet. It is underfunded currently and will be on the rise.”

Is edtech helping the people in tier 2-3 India?

After research, observations, understanding the ground challenges in real-time and then developing their vernacular product, Saraswathy Ramamoorthy shares her experience of edtech usage in tier 2 and tier 3 India. She says, “Most of the edtech players are serving to the tier 1 consumer base. The tier 2 and 3 remains underserved, and we need to do something for these sectors as well.” she explains how Learning Matters is doing so by bringing vernacular voice solutions to people. Their AI product, “Tara” – a virtual voice teacher powered by AWS voice technology – Alexa –, provides voice education in multiple languages through multiple languages.

Mohammed Hisamuddin added his insights to the session by sharing the story behind the evolution of the platform Entri. The platform offers vernacular learning content to upskill and train for various jobs. An ideal platform for job seekers in local languages. The company has over 1.6 million users so far, and the number is increasing multiple folds more than before. The company’s founder shared how they took feedback, pivoted and developed Entri to what it is now; and also the importance of understanding the market from various perspectives to reach the potential user base and grow in the competitive market.

In between the discussions, the webinar had live polls for attendees to get the pulse of the audience of other edtech founders & investors, get their opinions on what they feel about the state of the edtech ecosystem, the importance of vernacular education and the driving factor for its success. Here are the results from the polls:

Seventy-nine per cent of people feel fundraising is a significant milestone in the startup journey.