Over the past few years, the edtech space in India has witnessed substantial growth as numerous e-learning platforms have emerged to cater to the different needs of students. Vedantu, founded by four IITians Vamsi Krishna, Pulkit Jain, Anand Prakash and Saurabh Saxena, is one such online tutoring platform that has revolutionized academia not only in our country but all around the world. In this blog, we will delve into the success story of Vedantu and understand how this brand carved out a niche for itself.
How Did It Begin?
It all started with four IITians, Vamsi Krishna, Pulkit Jain, Anand Prakash and Saurabh Saxena, who met each other at the Indian Institute of Technology in Delhi. All four men were passionate about teaching and helping students achieve their academic goals.
After completing their graduation, they started working in different companies but stayed connected with each other. Following their passion for teaching, the four men launched their primary venture – Lakshya in 2006.
Lakshya Institute was founded with an aim to train the aspiring students for various types of competitive exams and tests. While the venture stuck to its goal for 6 years, it faced a lot of challenges in expanding the offline model. Moreover, getting qualified teachers was another big problem in remote areas.
Eventually, the founders realized that they needed to up their game, and wanted something beyond the brick-and-mortar institute. This could only be done by leveraging technology.
The IITians knew that their existing business model was not yielding desired results and so Krishna admitted that they have to change their strategy. As a result, they sold their business to a coaching player MT Educare for a whopping amount of Rs 30 crores.
After a two-year transition period with the company, the four men took the plunge and launched an online tutoring platform, Vedantu, in 2014. Since the beginning, they had a clear vision to use technology to make quality education accessible for everyone in India.
Obstacles In The Road
For Vedantu, the road to success was not without its fair share of obstacles. In the beginning, skepticism loomed large over the viability of online education in a country like India, where traditional methods of teaching were more trusted by people.
Vamsi Krishna even stated that people used to say “kya hota hai online classes?”. The founders had to deal with disenchantment at the initial stage. But these challenges helped Krishna and his three friends stay grounded and not to lose hopes in their new business model. It took a while but the founders finally convinced Indian parents and students to embrace a new way of learning.
Growth of Vedantu
The Bengaluru-based startup, which began as an online tutoring platform with just Rs 1 crore seed funding, has now become India’s fifth biggest edtech unicorn, after raising $100 million in the Series E funding. Today, Vedantu is one of the leading online tutoring platforms across the country with over 1 million registered students. It offers live classes to students from across 57+ countries and boasts more than 10 Lakh monthly views on YouTube.