Edtech player Great Learning scouts for start-ups in inorganic growth push

Firm has seen a 10x spike in user base since lockdown as companies such as Maruti and IndiaMart have tied up with it for employee training programmes

With inorganic growth becoming the flavour of the season in the edtech space, online professional course provider Great Learning is scouting for start-ups in the higher education space that would add value to the company’s offerings. 

“We are looking at companies that will help us add more value in the professional courses segment. We are not going to diversify into K12 or test preparation but want to be the best at what we are doing,” said Mohan Lakhamraju, founder & CEO of the Gurugram based start-up.

The company has seen a 10-fold increase in user base since the lockdown as corporates including Maruti and IndiaMart have collaborated with the company for employee training programmes to help them upgrade their skills. The company which focuses on higher education and professional learning offers up to 30 premium courses in areas such as data science, machine learning, software engineering, cyber security, IoT, and blockchain. There are other 180 short-term courses that are available for free on the platform.  “What we are teaching is how to use such an education for real world problems with our biggest focus area being digital economy,” said Lakhamraju. 

Started with a capital of $100,000, the company has been bootstrapped and has been funding its growth for the past 6 years. It is now in talks with VCs to raise funds to write its next chapter of growth as it looks to add about 10 more premium professional courses to its offering. 

“As part of a VC, you witness many businesses and get to see how the story ends. During my years at Tiger Global, I was fortunate to see many things of what worked and what didn’t. So we have been able to make strategic decisions without much external capital,” says Lakhamraju, who has earlier headed the Tiger Global Management India team focussing on education. 

The platform works on a hybrid model which is a combination of live and asynchronous. During the week, the student learns with asynchronous learning and gathers over the weekend in small groups with a mentor to discuss problems and go through case studies. “Education should be a combination of technology, processes and people. You do need the personal touch in online education,” believes Lakhamraju, who also set up Great Lakes Institute of Energy Management and Research in Gurugram in 2009 and later took his offline learnings to set up Great Learning in 2013.