Education is top priority for every family in India and blended learning for competitive exams has evolved into a huge industry. However, the market is fragmented and there is very little holistic information online regarding institutes, faculty, courses and admissions. This creates issues for students while making crucial choices regarding coaching institutes. Kochings embarked on a mission to capture data which hasn't been easily available and convert it into high quality info for students. It was started in 2013 by Archit Kumar, Abhishek Goel and Brhamesh Alipuria.
The private coaching industry in India is one of the fastest growing areas in the service sector. It caters to various sections of students like primary and secondary education, engineering / medical / management / law entrances, etc. The current size of the private coaching industry in India is about $23.7 billion and is likely to touch $40 billion by 2015.
Kochings is the platform that aims to bring together and present quality information regarding this fragmented and growing industry.
Kochings provides well-researched information on institutes, private tutors (courses, fees, reviews, ratings, etc). They are also partnering with institutes to offer discounts via our platform’s seamless application service thereby making them a truly one-stop-shop for blended learning. Their market research and data gathering methods enable them to capture raw data to the minutest detail and present quality information which hasn't been easily available online. The product is currently in private beta stage.
Archit and Abhishek were classmates at different points of their life and came together in 2013 with the desire to create a disruptive product for the education sector in India. "We realized that a major gap is existing in the way decisions are made regarding blended learning solutions. While blended learning has become a part of life in India and is a huge industry, at the same time it is a very fragmented market, thereby making it difficult for students to make good choices," says Archit.
"Moreover, most of the prevailing institutes do not have the bandwidth or resources to market themselves properly thereby a majority of the students rely on word of mouth or opt for the larger institutes even though that might not be the best choice. Kochings, as an idea, was born to capture disparate data about the blended learning industry and curate it into high quality information that will enable students to make better and well informed choices," adds Abhishek.
Archit heads the operations whereas Abhishek leads the Marketing and PR. They are working hard to present high quality of information in a structured manner to students. "Kochings is not just about data – we also have a direct course registration service for students, which is a win-win for both students and institutes – students benefiting from discounted courses and institutes benefiting from a new channel for registrations. Institutes will also benefit from our 'Jobs' and 'Events' feature where they will be able to reach out to a very relevant population for either hiring or marketing their services," says Brhamesh, who handles the business operations for the Punjab and Haryana region.
"We have partnered with various colleges across Delhi University – Sri Ram College of Commerce, Lady Sri Ram College, Miranda House and Hansraj College to name a few. We have also tied up with AIESEC – the world's largest youth run organization. They are in talks with several other education-centric and youth-centric organizations," says Sagar, a team member. Sagar oversees business operations across North India concentrating on data collection.
They have currently targeted the Delhi/NCR region. They plan to consolidate there and on-board Dehradun and Chandigarh as well by end October. "That in effect would mean a database of 2500+ institutes catering to over a million students," says Archit.
"In parallel, we will work on building the private-tutor segment with a target of 5000+ genuine tutors by end Dec. Our portal will be ready for public launch by end July and post that we have planned a plethora of marketing initiatives at the time when the Delhi college new joining take place," adds Abhishek. They plan to present in at least 8 cities namely Delhi NCR, Dehradun, Kota, Jaipur, Bangalore, Pune, Kolkata and Mumbai in a capacity to be able to service institutes, tutors and students fully by March 2016. The company is funded (for an undisclosed amount) by Mr. Raj Kasi who is based out of Singapore
As an advice for future entrepreneurs, Archit says, "A ship is safe at harbor. But that is not what ships are meant for. Take risks and enjoy the journey."
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