Edtech industry will shift focus towards personalised learning in 2023: Gaurav Goel

Toprankers Ed Tech Solutions (Established in 2015 as Ankalan Web Solutions) is one of the most reliable and trusted online preparation platforms for alternative careers in India. The company helps their students with guidance from top-notch faculties for undergraduate entrance exams based on careers in Law, Architecture, Design or Management.

The lockdown period was boon for some industries and bane for some. The edtech industry boomed during the lockdown period, but are now facing difficulties to survive during the post-Covid era.

In conversation with Adgully, Gaurav Goel, Co-Founder and CEO, Toprankers, traces the growth of the edtech sector in India, the boom witnessed during the pandemic period, as well as the growing challenges of a post-pandemic world in the edtech sector, and much more.

How has the journey of the brand been so far?

Since our inception in 2015, we have carved a new paradigm in India’s edtech space. Today, we have evolved as India’s largest super career platform for unconventional career choices with renowned brands under Toprankers, including LegalEdge, Supergrads, Judiciary Gold, Creative Edge, and Legaledge after College. In the coming times, we aim to further strengthen our mission of ensuring an unprecedented learning experience by expanding our portfolio of products and services.

What was the company's growth in terms of ARR?

Toprankers, in the last two years, has grown 2X and is one of the few profitable edtech start-ups in the Indian ecosystem.

How was the year 2022 for Toprankers and what are your plans for 2023?

2022 was an excellent year for us, our revenues followed the precedent and we doubled our revenues despite the growing challenges of a post-pandemic world in the edtech sector. Adding to our feat, we raised our series A of $4 million from Sixth Sense ventures, and our team has continued to grow both in size and reach in the past year.

How does the brand succeed in offering unconventional career options after 12th grade?

In recent years, the number of students enrolling in programs like engineering (JEE) and medicine (NEET) has considerably reduced, and students today are more inclined to try new things and take classes that aren't conventional.

According to the All India Survey on Higher Education (AISHE) 2019-20, released by the Union Ministry of Education, popular undergraduate-level programmes like BTech (Bachelor of Technology) and BE (Bachelor of Engineering) have witnessed a drop of 13.32 per cent in enrolments in the last few years. The decline in enrolments is more considerable in postgraduate level programs like MTech, with 33.68 per cent of students opting out of the course.

The survey also revealed that about 93.49 lakh students are enrolled in arts courses at the country’s undergraduate level, making it the most popular course against the science stream.

Toprankers has successfully prepared 3 lakh candidates for modern careers and aims to enrol around one million students in the next three years. Over 25,000 students have graduated from the LegalEdge, Toprankers, Bhopal centre. Recently 50+ students aced the exam with the 100 percentile in CUET, the industry-changing exam recently introduced by NTA and over 200 more students aced their respective subjects like English, legal studies, Physics, Chemistry, mathematics, Humanities, commerce, etc. This has cemented the platform’s position as the flagbearer of offering quality and strategic learning experiences to students aiming for new age careers.

To help them accomplish their career dreams, we leverage a 360-degree preparation engine to cover all aspects of education delivery, including comprehensive live sessions, consistent tests, personalised feedback, and mentorship. This significantly enhances the learning outcomes and results of students. The unprecedented expertise of our team has earned us the highest student-success ratios in India, and today Toprankers serves as the torchbearer for students who desire careers in unconventional fields.

What is the impact of new and skill-based learning on the edtech ecosystem?

Technology integration in education has given rise to new-age teaching and learning processes and enhanced communication and collaboration. Today, edtech is the game changer in educating children for future opportunities and challenges by promoting problem-solving and learning. Edtech platforms offer a plethora of digital courses that are particularly suitable to the requirements of the young employable workforce. Owing to these platforms' numerous skill-based learning options, students and budding professionals have an increased chance of landing lucrative jobs and climbing career ladders.

For instance, we at Toprankers utilise a perfect amalgamation of cutting-edge technology, new-age education delivery methods, and dedicated student support to foster quick, skill-based, and personalised learning for students.

Edtech companies grew exponentially during the pandemic period. But they witnessed a downturn in the post-pandemic period. What contributed to this? What are your marketing strategies to survive in this market?

In the post-pandemic era, students have again shifted towards the offline mode of learning. While remote learning enables students in distant regions to gain quality education from the comfort of their homes, physical attendance will always stay relevant in the education sector.

Realising this, we at Toprankers have forayed into new domains with our hybrid learning model, popularly known as Toprankers Classrooms, from where we offer a hybrid mode of learning to students.

Cementing our position as India’s leading digital education platform, we have also significantly invested in a high-touch model of learning and are further investing in student success and mentoring teams. We are also focussing on activities like virtual parent-teacher meetings, boot camps, and much more to boost the confidence of our students and their parents in the online learning segment.

Toprankers rank among one of the few edtech companies in the country whose students boast of AIR 1,2,3 in renowned competitive exams in domains such as law, management, etc. Furthermore, our proficient marketing team is consistently working on strengthening this position of trust with effective communication and building communities with social media.

What were the key trends that you witnessed in this sector in 2022? What will be the trends for 2023?

The Covid-19 pandemic considerably increased the adoption of digital education across the world. As digital transformation paves its way across geographies coupled with an extensive emphasis on experiential learning by institutions, the edtech industry is destined to grow manifold in the coming years.

In 2023, the edtech industry will shift its focus towards personalised learning for effective education delivery and better learning outcomes.

The sector will focus on evaluating student assessments in a more analysed manner and zeroing in on the practical elements of studies.

The coming years will also witness a host of edtech players integrating promising technologies like Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) for an immersive and fun-filled learning experience.

What are your expansion plans and focus areas for 2023? How is Toprankers gearing up to compete with the competitors?

Since learning today is not limited to classes, we will implement a 360-degree approach to educate students, including career guidance, end-to-end assistance, personalised learning experiences, and much more in the coming times.

To accomplish this, our team will take the following initiatives:

• Expand the presence of Toprankers’ Classrooms across the country by offering hybrid learning solutions and maximising our reach.
• Creating strategic and effective career products leveraging our comprehensive learnings from our successful outcomes.
• Strengthening our position as an edtech with exceptional results for the prominent CUET which will play a pivotal role in transforming the Indian education system. In our maiden year itself, we have produced over 50 toppers in this test and will continue to strengthen our position in the coming years.

We will continue to set new benchmarks in the edtech space with real results and will strengthen our student reach in 2023. We hope to accomplish this goal and enhance our revenues by three folds in the coming year with improved products, extended reach, and building a great place to work for our team members.