Chasing students: Naspers Ventures into online education

Chasing students: Naspers Ventures into online education

• Online education is the next big thing for technology giant Naspers, judging from its recent investments.
• The company has announced a $30m investment into Brainly, an online learning community for students, parents and teachers, along with two other funders.

30th July 2019 by Stuart Lowman

It’s no secret Naspers trades at discount to the value of its Tencent stake. So much so that this discount was deemed part of the reason the technology giant pushed for its offshore listing on the Euronext in Amsterdam. Naspers is also at odds to defy this one-trick pony tag, with investments across sectors from online classifieds to food delivery. Education is another such topic, online in particular, which has seen investments range from $30m to $383m, from the United States to India. But not enough is made of these investments. In the Business Maverick article below, Sasha Planting maps out the group’s investments into online education. – Stuart Lowman

Naspers rides the education wave

By Sasha Planting

Online education is the next big thing for technology giant Naspers, judging from its recent investments. The company has announced a $30m investment into Brainly, an online learning community for students, parents and teachers, along with two other funders.

This is its second investment into the company, which has headquarters in Krakow and New York. The first was a $15m investment in 2016.

Brainly’s “crowd learning” model combines online education, social media and machine learning, and is disrupting the education market on a global level. From 2018 to 2019 it has grown from 100 million to 150 million active monthly users.

In December 2018 Naspers invested $383m in Indian online tutorial start-up Byju’s, which develops online learning materials. It is the world’s most prized EdTech company, having recently been valued at $5.7bn.

Online learning is booming thanks to exploding internet usage around the world, largely because of the ubiquity of cheap smartphones and decreasing internet costs.

While this trend is catching on in both developing and developed markets, Naspers is particularly excited about opportunities in India. It notes in its recently released annual report that India is the world’s fastest-growing large economy, with more than 1.3 billion people and some of the planet’s most talented entrepreneurs.

“We’ve been investing in India for more than a decade – over $2bn, or around 20% of our worldwide investment in the last decade,” says CEO Bob van Dijk in the report.

Prior to this, in September, Naspers invested in SoloLearn, a social platform that helps individuals become better coders as they consume, create and share bits of code-related content with peers around the world.

Naspers’ first investment in the EdTech space was in June 2016 when it invested $60m in Udemy, an online learning marketplace for adults. The growth in the platform has been nothing short of extraordinary with 40 million students making the most of the 130,000 courses offered in more than 60 languages.

The investments are housed in Naspers Ventures, which is dedicated to seeking out, investing in and nurturing companies that will generate the next wave of growth for the tech company. This is the type of thinking that saw Naspers transform itself from a South African print media business in 1915 to today’s global consumer internet group.

“Naspers Ventures’ remit is to find investment opportunities for Naspers beyond our traditional market segments, but that are a strategic fit for the company,” Naspers Ventures CEO Larry Illg said at the time of its investment in Udemy.

“We are looking for companies and leaders with high potential and the ambition to have significant global impact. Education is a sizeable market that has not yet seen the technology impacts we have seen in other sectors, but we are now seeing dramatic innovations appearing. That makes EdTech a perfect fit for Naspers Ventures.”

Certainly, it seems that the online learning market has limitless potential. According to an article in Forbes magazine, it was predicted that â€œe-learning” would reach $107bn in 2015 – and it did. Now, Research and Markets forecasts show that this figure will triple in the coming years – in other words, it will grow to $325bn by 2025.

“The brilliant aspect about marrying learning with technology is that it enables all kinds of innovative ways for more and more people to add to their skills and knowledge: often more quickly, effectively and enjoyably than before. This is an opportunity that can make a real difference to people’s lives around the world and there is still much more to be done. So for us, it ticks all the right boxes,” says Illg in the annual report.

In the 2018-19 financial year, Naspers’ food-delivery businesses (Swiggy, Delivery Hero, Mr D Food and iFood) reached a size and level of profitability that saw it graduate from Ventures to become a core standalone Naspers segment alongside Classifieds and Payments & Fintech. While not yet a profitable business, online food delivery is growing at 30% a year and is already a $75bn plus global market.

As a result, Naspers has dramatically upped the level of investment in this space. During the year, it committed, along with Innova, to invest an additional $400m in iFood to enable the business to accelerate growth. It also invested $716m in Indian food-delivery leader Swiggy during the year.

It is a matter of time before its online education business reaches a similar scale. BM

Source: https://www.biznews.com/sa-investing/2019/07/30/naspers-education-wave-students

[Funding alert] Edtech platform Brainly raises $30M led by Naspers; plans to expand user base in India

The latest investment brings the total funding received by the edtech platform to $68.5 million.

• Poland-based Brainly, a peer-to-peer learning community for students, parents, and teachers across 35 countries including India,
• has raised $30 million in its new funding round led by Naspers with participation from Runa Capital and Manta Ray. 

By: Sujata Sangwan

Poland-based Brainly, a peer-to-peer learning community for students, parents, and teachers across 35 countries including India, has raised $30 million in its new funding round led by Naspers with participation from Runa Capital and Manta Ray. 

The latest investment brings the total funding received by the edtech platform to date up to $68.5 million.

The company said in a statement that the current round of funding will be used to enhance Brainly’s user experience and invest further in the quality of the help provided to students and parents across the globe. In addition, these funds will enable the company to further expand its user base in India, one of its key markets, which is witnessing continual growth with more than 15 million unique monthly users.

Brainly CEO and Co-Founder, Michał Borkowski said

“Our goal is to extend that access to academic help to every student in the world, including India, giving them the resources and the tools to succeed while inspiring collaborative learning. This funding allows us to do just that. We also plan to utilise these funds to expand our offerings for the Indian community of students, parents, and teachers, by providing a platform to discuss and study in other local languages like Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, Telugu, and Punjabi, to name a few.”

Brainly CEO and Co-Founder Michał Borkowski with students

Founded in 2009 by Michal Borkowski, Lukasz Haluch, and Tomasz Kraus , Brainly last raised $38.5 million in Series B round from seven investors, including Naspers, which also funded India’s first edtech unicorn BYJU’s.

“We have been impressed by Brainly’s growth over the past 10 years, particularly in the US, and high-growth markets like India, Indonesia, Turkey, and Brazil,” said Larry Illg, CEO of Naspers Ventures.

“At Naspers, we extend our support to companies that can address grave societal needs like education, helping them fulfill their vision with the ultimate aim of bringing about a change at a global scale,” he said.

With more than 150 million monthly unique users, Brainly now reaches out to students, teachers, and parents across 35 countries in solving their academic problems and exchanging knowledge. In addition to India, the platform’s largest communities are in the US, Russia, Indonesia, India, Brazil, and Poland, among others. 

Middle and high-school students, as well as their parents across India, have been leveraging Brainly’s platform to strengthen their skills in core academic subjects such as Math, Science, local languages like Hindi, and Social Studies, the company added. 

In 2016 and 2017, Brainly closed $15 million Series B funding and $14 million Series B-1 funding, led by Naspers and Kulczyk Investments, respectively. The platform’s previous investors also include General Catalyst Partners, Point Nine Capital, Runa Capital, and Learn Capital. 

Brainly’s ‘crowdlearning’ model combines online education, social media, and machine learning, and is disrupting the $2.6 billion education market on a global level.

Source: https://yourstory.com/2019/07/edtech-platform-brainly-funding-naspers-runa-capital-manta-ray

How Edtech Solutions are Building a Productive Digital Space for Millennials

Beas Dev Ralhan Co-Founder & CEO – Next Education India Pvt. Ltd.

• Education technology has, therefore,  undoubtedly helped the millennials gain a productive, adaptable learning environment in the digital space that caters for multiple kinds of learners in multiple ways.
• Need for governmental policies to work towards the integration of such tools in an organised and all-encompassing manner so that such a space can become much more productive than it is today.

The 21st-century learners are characterised by their inherent thirst for knowledge that goes beyond the linear search of information, their preference of choice and individualism over one-size-fits-all trends, and their expertise in tech tools and social networking via various forms of digital media. On the other hand, the 21st-century teacher may be one who is concerned about quality but lacks the resources and skills necessary to ensure that the learners’ potential is not wasted. Edtech solutions are bridging the gaps in the teaching-learning ecosystem by transforming the essential elements of the education space. Let us see how.

Breaking the Traditional Frames of Learning

Traditional models of education dictate the frames of learning such as time and place; for instance, the majority of academic activities happen in the brick-and-mortar confines of a school within 8-10 hours of a day. E-learning has done away with such frames and given students the ability to learn anywhere, anytime. Similarly, while books were once the chief source of learning, aiding only the visual learners, the edtech sector has helped in bringing multimedia content, including immersive experiences such as augmented and virtual realities to cater for all kinds of learners.

Most of all, such tools challenge the passive one-way lecture-mode learning, helping learners be more active in their learning with hands-on learning, flipped learning and peer interaction. Now teachers are facilitators of their students’ learning, monitoring their individual performances and helping them with personalised feedback/recommendations.

Doing and Understanding: The Real-world Connection 

Edtech tools help students learn better by providing the platform to solve real-life problems with ease, which hones their understanding of the world around them and helps them develop skills necessary to navigate through their lives. For instance, robotics help youngsters develop their STEM skills, and in the process, aid their understanding of the existing problems in the world around them. Similarly, collaborative digital spaces are being utilised in a constructive manner to drive discussion and action with respect to real-world situations. Game-based learning also helps in a deeper understanding of situations in a simulated environment with the help of creative games such as Minecraft.

Innovative Methods of Assessments

For education to meet the requirements of the students, it is necessary for the instructor to know precisely where the individual learner stands at the beginning of the academic course and to measure the gaps through the course of learning. Assessment is the best method to carry this out. Unfortunately, traditional tests do not give an accurate picture of what the learners know or don’t know, and what kind of instructions the students need to learn new concepts. 

Artificial intelligence, one of technology’s greatest boons, has helped shape adaptive tests to quantify the proficiency or knowledge level of the examinee accurately. These tests adapt to the abilities of the learners and act as a morale booster, since the chances of discouragement or boredom are reduced.

Gamified assessments are also an innovative way to assessments, so that fear of tests are eliminated. Gamified assessments will capture learners’ attention, provide simulated situations to train them in handling real-life scenarios and help them retain information better. Questionnaires can be prepared in a Kaun Banega Crorepati (How To Be A Millionaire) style, or in crossword-puzzle mode, or based on motifs of common games, such as Tic-Tac-Toe, Hangman and Find-Your-Way so that students enjoy the process of assessments. 

Promoting Personalised and Self-learning Styles

The viewpoint of learning has changed from teacher-centred to learner-centred, and therefore ‘personalisation’ and ‘self help’ are the buzzwords in today’s education scenario. The factory method of learning does not help most students and hinders their potential by trying to fit all students in a single mould. Personalised learning is powered by adaptive learning technology, which helps the individual student understand his or her skill level, and suggests the most suitable course of study. A lot of self-learning solutions are also available which can help students and teachers upskill themselves as per individual requirement. This has bolstered distance learning through popular platforms.

Education technology has, therefore,  undoubtedly helped the millennials gain a productive, adaptable learning environment in the digital space that caters for multiple kinds of learners in multiple ways. We need governmental policies to work towards the integration of such tools in an organised and all-encompassing manner so that such a space can become much more productive than it is today.

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/337212

Ed-tech Startups: A Highway Towards Rich Quality Education For India

• As per the reports released by Google and KPMG in 2017, the online education market in India currently stands at USD 247 million and is estimated to rise to $1.96 billion by 2021
• At present, there are about 1.57 million users of online education. This user base is said to increase to 9.5 million by 2021.

By Aakanksha Ahire

Since ages, the Indian education system has been following rigid methods of educating the students. Right from the tender age of 5, children are made to fall into the vicious cycle of sitting for classes in school, surviving through the long hours at tuition classes, filling out hundreds of pages as homework, rote learning from textbooks, vomiting it out on the answer sheets during examinations and then anxiously waiting for the results, only to repeat the same cycle but at a higher level.

Its way past high time we change the ways we acquire education and make it more student-friendly to foster effective learning. This seems possible only if the education system holds the hands of technology and decides to move forward. The development of technology is boosting by leaps and bounds. In such a scenario, the education sector must make the most of it.  

Education Technology startups, more commonly called as ed-tech startups are a pragmatic solution to better the education system of India. Edtech startups is a platform that combines education and innovative technology and provides to students effective learning methods and solutions which are very different from the education imparted at the brick and mortar schools.

Image Credits: Inside Higher Ed

As per the reports released by Google and KPMG in 2017, the online education market in India currently stands at USD 247 million and is estimated to rise to $1.96 billion by 2021. At present, there are about 1.57 million users of online education. This user base is said to increase to 9.5 million by 2021.

These figures clearly indicate that the students have started demanding for quality options in the field of education. They have started looking out for gaining a deep understanding of the concept at lower costs. To cater to this demand for education by the students, the ed-tech startups have dived into the education sector.

The ed-tech startups are undoubtedly going to be a harbinger of change in the education system of our nation. They have already brought in AR(Augmented Reality), VR(Virtual Reality), MR(Mixed Reality) in order to present effective education solutions. These provide students with practical and experiential learning through AR and fosters interactions via VR. Some of the best examples of edtech startups which are into AR and VR would be NewGenApps, Smartivity, and Veative. These startups are not just providing top class and effective educational experience but are also cost-efficient since the hardware and software used in making these technologies available too are cheaper.

With the advent of ed-tech startups:

• Websites and apps are being developed by the ed tech startups that provide on-the-go study material and content which makes it easily accessible on laptops and mobile phones. The app and website are also updated from time to time with new concepts and topics.
• Since every student signs up individually, the website has each student’s individual profile which enables the website to track the student’s progress, analyse the weakness and accordingly provide study material and tests for further improvement.
• Schools too have welcomed the efforts made by the edtech startups by developing STEM and Innovation labs to teach subjects like Mathematics, Science, Technology, and Engineering, etc. in a practical way.
• Further, the use of AI (Artificial Technology) has enabled the tracking of a student’s progress and helps in customising the learning approach based on the performance. Schools, colleges and other educational institutions fail to realise that every student learns at his/her own pace. By providing personalised education, edtech startups like Byju and Vedantu who are equipped with customised learning algorithm help each student to grasp subjects at his/her own pace. 
• Edtech startups bridge the knowledge gap that exists between the urban and rural education by providing the same education to all which doesn’t happen in traditional education as the skills and knowledge of teachers teaching in urban India and rural India differ vastly. 
• Moreover, in a highly competitive world where a zillion of careers has been created, an intense need is felt, for education that trains the pupils for such careers. Ed tech startups like upGrad are the perfect platforms that provide innumerable courses which range from Blogging to Data Science and Blockchain.
• As edtech startups are the birth children of technology and are accessible on digital mediums, the content put up is highly visually appealing, even the most complicated concepts are made easy to understand for the students thus strengthening the students’ knowledge.  

In India, there are many small as well as big edtech startups that performing greatly in the market. Some of the small edtech startups include Open Door, ClassPlus, NeoStencil, etc. Big startups that have risen to massive success over the past few years include Byju, the largest funded edtech startup in the country founded by Byju Raveendran, upGrad, a higher education platform co-founded by Ronnie Screvala, Embibe, the largest Artificial Intelligence platform for education in India, and Unacademy, which provides around 50,000 courses.

At present, India is home to over 3,500 ed-tech startups. The loopholes present in the Indian education system is such that they cannot be filled overnight. If we all join hands and together and shift our likes from the traditional methods of schooling to online education, and for a change instead of participating in the mad race of scoring more marks, focus on deeply understand concepts, the country will blossom producing not just highly qualified individuals but also intellectual and experienced professionals. 

Source: https://youthincmag.com/ed-tech-startups-a-highway-towards-rich-quality-education-for-india