EdTech Firm Getmyuni Acquires Avagmah from AEON Learning

With the acquisition Getmyuni will enable universities to offer online degrees

Benguluru based edtech startup GetMyUni has acquired online learning company Avagmah from AEON Learning in an all-cash deal on June 18th 2020. Avagmah, founded in 2015, had raised $5M from marquee investors like Lionrock Capital, Zodius Capital, Kris Gopalakrishnan, Atul Nishar, MEMG(Manipal Group) before it merged with Acadgild to form AEON Learning. 

Avagmah is a full stack OPM (online program manager) and enables universities to fully outsource their online programs. Through this acquisition, Getmyuni now enters the online certification and degree-granting space which has seen tremendous growth over the last couple of years and an even more significant uptick post Covid-19. Avagmah has worked with some top tier universities and colleges such as IIM Ahmedabad, IIM Calcutta, Pondicherry University, Bharathidasan University, Alagappa University, NIT Kurukshetra to name a few.

Getmyuni is a TimesInternet backed edtech platform which helps students with their post K-12 learning journey. It owns and operates getmyuni.com, ieltsmaterial.com and thecollegemonk.com. Post the Avagmah acquisition Getmyuni will be using its existing distribution of a 40M annual user base and 300+ university partners to enter the OPM space.

"Since inception, we have always wanted to create impact at scale. Our core business of student acquisition for universities across India and abroad has grown over 200% since 2019. This acquisition allows us to complete the value chain for our users, by directly impacting the content delivery part of the business too. After the lockdown, online learning adoption has surged and there are huge regulatory tailwinds which suggest that this would end up being a multi B$ market, very similar to how it has panned out OPMs like 2U in the west. 

This acquisition allows us to pursue our vision to make higher education accessible to everyone in India, irrespective of their financial status or access to traditional offline setup, wherein private education is too expensive and public, very average in outcomes," said Upneet Grover, CEO and Founder of Getmyuni.

The OPM space is booming and with this acquisition Getmyuni is well positioned for the to be a category leader in this space.Upneet Grover- Founder and CEO of GetMyUni.

This Edtech Startup Could Be An 'IIM-For-Online-Education' In India

In the last 2 decades India Inc marched ahead to work with the world’s best, however, the education system in India did not keep pace to produce top quality manpower resources in large numbers. Millions of students joined the workforce but are hitting the glass ceiling for want of apt knowledge and competence. In the developed world working professionals take an academic sabbatical a few years into their working life, however in India because of various reasons at their personal front this is not an option. Distance education was also not an option because of both distance and poor quality.

With millions of working professionals aspiring to compete with their global counterparts, Avagmah was started to meet this opportunity by helping good universities in reaching quality contemporary

THE IDEA

Based out of Bangalore, this startup seems to have all the trademarks of success. Avagmah provides state-of-the-art intuitive Avagmah Technology Platform (ATP) to universities, which is an amalgamation of cloud-based SaaS technology. Avagmah’s technology platform is available on a managed services model, assisting universities with application-based and web technology solutions for delivery of courses. Avagmah offers end-to-end app and mobile app platforms, helping universities manage marketing, student counselling, virtual classroom, student engagement and retention.

They also have the Avagmah app. The app helps a student find his desired course from the desired university amongst the partnered universities, enroll themselves with the universities, get access to the course materials, lectures, recommended books and suggestions, everything on a single device. The application is made keeping the working professionals and their hectic work schedule in mind. Thus it is enabled with features like automated weekly study planner based on the time that the user can devote. The app keeps a track of the portions and assignments completed, and also sends alerts or reminders when a bulk is incomplete or the exams are approaching. The app helps create short notes for the ease of the working professionals as their last minute exam preparation guide. Study groups and discussion forums along with advanced case studies from reputed institutions like MIT facilitate the studies further are other key enablers in reaching quality contemporary education.

MEET THE MAKERS

Karthik is an NIT Kurukshetra alumnus and a serial entrepreneur (edupreneur) too. Karthik is the founder & CEO of Avagmah. Prior to founding Avagmah, he co-founded 24×7 Learning, India’s largest eLearning consulting, technology and implementation company. He also runs an NGO that helps educate and enroll underprivileged children into formal education. Karthik has over 23 years of industry experience and is deeply passionate about the education space.

 

Difference With The Competitors

Avagmah emulates a successful model in the US, leading amongst them being academicpartnerships.com. The only difference is they are operating in a much larger market with costs being dismally low.

In India there are many companies offering short courses catering to immediate enhancement in skills. Avagmah helps the pent up demand of quality education amongst working professionals by helping existing universities use technology to reach out to them. The pent-up hunger to complete a graduation or post graduation is what Avagmah meets.

TARGET MARKET

Avagmah has a two-way benefiting approach. while on one hand, Avagmah helps the universities with an end-to-end solutions with their online education programs, including enrollment, digital marketing, web delivery support through Avagmah Technology Platform (ATP), dissemination of course material, connecting students, etc. On the other hand, Avagmah helps thousands of students access to quality education and earn their graduate or post graduate degrees remotely.

FUNDING

Avagmah recently (March, 2016) received funding from Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and former CEO & MD of Infosys and Atul Nishar, founder of Hexaware and Aptech Computer Education for an undisclosed amount. In the last 18months, Avagmah has raised $5million dollars in investment. Our existing investors also participated in the current round of funding. They include Singapore-based Lionrock Capital, serial entrepreneur and investor K Ganesh, founder and former CEO of TutorVista and Neeraj Bhargava, founder and CEO of Mumbai-based investment firm Zodius Capital.

PLAN OF ACTION

In the last 18 months, they have enrolled 3,651 students. Through our platform, Avagmah offers MBA, BBA courses and other post-graduate degrees like those in finance and human resources. About 52% of those enrolled on the Avagmah platform are from tier 2 & 3 cities.

They have also launched the Avagmah app for the ease of the working professionals to take their courses on the go, keeping the mobility factor in mind. They have around 3000 users of the app, given that it is paid for app, i.e. only students enrolled under Avagmah programs are the end users. They have received great responses from the users.
Avagmah plans to go pan India partnering with the top notch universities in the next 5 years. New courses are in the radar to be introduced in the app.

Ed-tech Startup Avagmah Raises Funding From Kris Gopalakrishnan and Atul Nishar

Avagmah, a Bangalore-based edtech startup focussed on higher education, founded in 2013, announces investments by Kris Gopalakrishnan, co-founder and former CEO & MD of Infosys and Atul Nishar, founder of Hexaware and Aptech Computer Education. In the last 18 months Avagmah has secured $5 million in investments. In the same time it has grown 8 times, and has already become operationally profitable.

Avagmah will use the latest investment on technology enhancement in acquiring new Indian university clients. It currently works with three universities that include Pondicherry University, Bharathidasan University and Los Angeles-based UCLA Extension.

Kris Gopalakrishnan, an investee in Avagamah says, "The current brick and mortar higher education system is facing major challenges of excellence and access, with only 24 million students enrolled out of the potential 120 million. Universities and top tier institutions have to adopt technology to provide access to quality education to millions of working professionals and students in urban and remote India, which would then address the demand-supply gap of skilled talent. I see great potential in startups like Avagmah which can bring in positive disruption in our education system through technology."

Avagmah provides state-of-the-art intuitive Avagmah Technology Platform (ATP) on a managed services model, assisting universities with digital marketing technology. It also provides application-based and web technology solutions for delivery of courses by universities. Avagmah offers web and mobile app platforms, helping universities manage the entire lifecycle of their students including marketing, admissions and other administration processes.

Atul Nishar of Aptech, who is also an investee in the startup says, “Shortage of quality faculty is the single major challenge which universities are facing today. Universities will gradually resort to using technology to increase their reach and ease faculty access to students. I firmly believe that education technology players like Avagmah will play an important role in the future of education in India.”

Millions of working professionals today who wish to continue their higher education for career growth are not able to because they cannot take a sabbatical from work and travel to the universities. University degree aspirants, thus, are forced to opt for multiple short term certificates. Using Avagmah’s globally benchmarked technology platform, universities are now helping busy working professionals and remote students study for a degree program on the go and connect with their faculty for lectures and doubt clearing even when travelling in the bus to work. At present, 45% of the students who are enrolled for various university courses through Avagmah’s Technology Platform are from Tier 2 & 3 cities.

Avagmah was founded by Karthik KS, an NIT Kurukshetra alumnus, a successful entrepreneur. Its leadership team includes Sankar Bora, co-founder of Myntra and an NIT Kozhikode alumnus and Prasad Palla an ex-Microsoft, Informatica, USA and IIT-K and IIM-B alumnus.

Karthik KS, founder and CEO of Avagmah says, “Avagmah spent the first two years in building a robust collaborative technology and demonstrating its business model at three of the university clients it had acquired. We are satisfied with the success in the initial phase, with one of the university clients reporting 200% growth in student enrollment in 12 months which reached itself to a much larger audience using Avagmah’s technology and services. Avagmah is now focussed on scaling its success to grow 10x in the next 2 years.”

Avagmah’s existing investors which include Lionrock Capital, Singapore; Ganesh Krishnan, founder and former CEO of TutorVista, a serial entrepreneur whose investment portfolio includes startups like Portea Medical, BigBasket, BlueStone and others; and Neeraj Bhargava, founder and CEO of Mumbai-based investment firm Zodius Capital, too participated in the existing round.

There are successful similar business models in the edtech space in USA, like Embanet and 2U.com, the latter having a current valuation of $ 1 billion after going public in March 2014. In comparison, Avagmah operates in a much larger market, where the challenges in quality education are much more severe and the cost of operation is just a fraction. The universities that Avagmah work with have constraints in terms of course delivery and tapping into the potential of the available student base.

Avagmah’s university clients also use the platform to reach to corporates who invest in employee education helping them to build their leadership pipeline without the employees having to go for an academic sabbatical. Many corporates including Convergys, Indiamart, Metlife, Quatrro, Fidelity Investments etc have sponsored their employees to undergo University courses through the Avagmah Technology Platform.