Edtech: Focus shifts to offline mode

THE edtech landscape has been witnessing a rollercoaster ride since the pandemic, which led to a surge in online edtech startups and funding.

- UMA KANNAN

Covid lockdowns shifted the focus to online from offline coaching centres. However, the trend reversed as the effects of Covid started fading. The online coaching and tuition companies stopped getting the generous funding they got used to during the pandemic, and many online start-ups that started during Covid had to shut down.

Unacademy, Byju's, Teachmint, Skill-Lync and Vedantu had fired many employees.

Now, these online companies have started focusing on offline centres. The fall of Byju's, valued at $22 billion in 2022, has raised many questions including scope of online edtech and its future. Currently, Byju's has over 250 offline centres.

Other edtech firms like Unacademy, Cuemath and Physics Wallah are also expanding their presence offline.

Physics Wallah operates over 120 offline centres. The edtech company, which has a presence in online, offline and hybrid modes, became a unicorn in 2022, and its revenue in FY23 stood at Rs 772 crore.

Over 2 lakh students are studying in offline centres.

ONLINE TO OFFLINE CENTRES Ganesh Mahadevan, Partner, thinksynq consulting, says it is disheartening that edtech firms wasted the tailwind provided by Covid, which did all the selling for this industry by getting a large mass of relevant target segment to buy into the service and try them for a sufficiently long time.