How philanthropic capital can make Indian edtech accountable

A patchwork effort by Indian philanthropies wants to make edtech solutions for students affordable, accessible and, most importantly, accountable. Without the millions in VC capital, and a complex government system to navigate, scaling a public-private partnership is no easy feat

The VC-backed edtech bubble is slowly popping. Funding crunches, layoffs, and shutdowns have exposed the vulnerabilities of the business model

Beyond for-profit models, though, a new ecosystem of solutions is emerging. Backed by philanthropic capital, these models don’t have to rely on aggressive marketing or ROI demands

Philanthropy, instead, can insist on learning outcomes and link future investment to results from these solutions

But scaling without the millions in venture funding means these affordable edtech solutions need to rely on the government

India’s edtech sector is on the edge of a precipice. After being engulfed by a funding winter, a slew of negative headlines on layoffs layoffs MoneyControl Deep cuts at Byju's: Over 2,500 employees laid off across Byju’s, Whitehat Junior and Toppr Read more , cutbacks cutbacks Business Standard Unacademy's lessons on frugality: Pay cut for founders, no biz class travel Read more , and burgeoning losses burgeoning losses MoneyControl Edtech unicorn Vedantu's loss widens four times in FY21 as employee expenses soar Read more over the last few months has put even the largest of edtechs on notice to turn profitable.

Thanks to venture capital’s unfettered trust in edtech during the pandemic—it was the third-highest funded sector third-highest funded sector Inc42 With 3 New Unicorns, India’s Edtech Startups Raised $4.7 Bn In 2021 Read more in India in 2021, with a total of $4.7 billion raised across 165 deals—the valuations of companies like BYJU’S, Unacademy, and Vedantu also snowballed. But behind the massive valuations, questions about the effectiveness of learning online have bubbled up.

Under this high-octane, VC-fuelled industry, though, a stronger bedrock has emerged. 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. Their goal is to turn the sector into a “public good” and make it accessible.

Like Noida-headquartered ConveGenius, a business-to-business (B2B)-focused company that builds affordable learning solutions. In October 2021, it raised raised Economic Times ConveGenius raises $5 million to launch its conversational AI platform Read more a $5 million seed round to expand its direct-to-consumer (D2C) WhatsApp service for lessons and quizzes. “There are 400 million students in India who attend government or affordable private schools. I believe there’s a market for a low-cost edtech solution there,” says Jairaj Bhattacharya, co-founder of ConveGenius.

What philanthropic capital can do is reverse the order—enable edtech solutions being implemented to look at learning outcomes first. However, this is “challenging and requires a recalibration of how impact is assessed,” says Aakanksha Gulati, director at ACT Grants, a philanthropic fund set up during the pandemic.

AUTHOR

Olina Banerji

Based in Delhi, Olina writes about mega-trends in urban mobility, education, skilling and the environment, with a focus on how institutions and innovations can help cities grow sustainably. She is a graduate of the London School of Economics, and has worked previously with India Today and global non-profit Ashoka.

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