The Covid-19 pandemic and the resultant lockdown have provided an unexpected boost to education-technology companies. Many of them are on a hiring spree to manage their fast-growing businesses.
There are currently around 12,000 active openings for permanent job roles across levels at leading edtech companies, according to an estimate put together for ET by ManpowerGroup.
Some of the top employers are Byju’s, Unacademy, Whitehat Jr, Vedantu and Simplilearn, among others, said leading executive search consultants including ManpowerGroup, Kellly Services and Xpheno, which have seen doubling of edtech mandates. In addition to these, there are over 90,000 contractual or gig positions across edtech firms, which are looking to ramp up due to an increased demand for online learning, according to ManpowerGroup estimate.
Experts said the lockdown has accelerated the adoption of edtech which has been on a rise for the past few years, powered by smartphone and Internet penetration.
ManpowerGroup India has open mandates of 2,000 new requirements from edtech companies — all bagged in the last two months, said Alok Kumar, its senior director for sales, account management & global accounts.
Top roles in demand include product development, instructors, content writers, UI/UX and app developers, sales professionals and technicians. Companies are looking for domain expertise in the field of technology, product, finance, strategy and HR. Salaries could range from Rs 10 lakh for a fresher to Rs 50-80 lakh (including stock options) for a senior or top management role.
“Edtech is one of the sectors that have benefitted from the lockdown,” Kelly Services managing director BN Thammaiah said. “We have currently about 100 mandates for both technical and creative roles.”
Many edtech providers, which have seen a surge in userbase, are offering free content, hoping to retain new users later for paid services.
“Ed-tech providers such as Byju’s, Vedantu, Unacademy, Extramarks, Toppr have seen a surge in their userbase…This increase in new users, backed by continued investor interest, could drive growth in employment opportunities,” said Amitabh Jhingan, a partner at EY Parthenon.
Vedantu chief executive Vamsi Krishna said the company had seen a surge in traffic after it announced free access to its learning platform. “The number of subscribers on Vedantu’s platform has grown exponentially to 9,20,000 with collections and revenue which grew by 80%,” Krishna said. The company now plans to hire 1,500 employees.
Whitehat Jr is currently hiring 1,000-1,500 employees and 2,000 freelance teachers every month. CEO Karan Bajaj, however, attributed the increase in hiring to a revenue spike, driven by expansion into new markets such as the US, rather than a Covid-related boom.
Online learning platform Byju’s has added more than 1,000 employees since January, according to LinkedIn company insights collated by professional services firm EY. Byju’s did not comment on an ET query on its hiring plans.
Others such as Unacademy and Simplilearn too are ramping up their teams. “We’re also strengthening our leadership team,” said Tina Balachandran, vice president-HR at Unacademy, which plans to bring on 500 more educators in the next one year.
Simplilearn has more than 100 full-time openings and 500 freelance positions, said CEO Krishna Kumar. “The good thing is that the government is also encouraging online education. Going ahead we will see more online-offline collaboration,” he said.
“With more schools evaluating eLearning and online tutoring, the focus has shifted towards business development, customer service, social media sales and marketing functions,” Xpheno cofounder Kamal Karanth said. However, experts such as Yeshab Giri, director staffing and Randstad Technologies at Randstad India, said that for students to sustain the platform as an alternate source of learning could be one of the challenges going forward.
Investors such as Omidyar Network and Blume Ventures said edtech businesses would remain a highly attractive segment and with top dollars chasing these companies, a lot of senior-level talent would gravitate to edtech firms backed by venture capital and private equity firms.
The total education sector in India, including government spending, is expected to be around $135 billion, according to industry estimates. Of this, $750 million to $1 billion is captured by Edtech startups. “We expect the sector to grow many-fold in next five years to $3.5-4 billion,” Blume Ventures director Sajith Pai said. The venture capital fund has invested in Unacademy, Classplus and Leverage Edu. Pai expects leading edtech startups to grow rapidly in the next five years to be valued at $30-40 billion; of this about 20% could be direct funding from investors.
“Education is inherently a sticky product and can deliver sustained growth with great unit economics. Edtech businesses will remain a highly attractive segment for investors,” said Omidyar Network India director Namita Dalmia.
EDTECH HIRING SPREE
- 12,000 permanent job roles
- 80,000-100,000 contractual or gig positions
- Source: ManpowerGroup India
TOP EMPLOYERS
- Byjus
- Unacademy
- Whitehat Jr
- Vedantu
- Simplilearn
TOP DOLLAR INVESTMENTS
- Total 181 deals worth $2.28 billion in edtech sector in 2015-2020 (Venture Intelligence data)
- Leading edtech cos estimated to be valued collectively at $30-40 bln in 5 years; of this about 20% could be direct funding from investors
LEADING INVESTORS
- Tiger Global
- General Atlantic
- Blume Ventures
- Sequoia Capital
- Omidyar Network
Leave a Reply