How edtechs are honing ambitious teenagers into junior MBAs

Edtech start-ups that offer school students a platform to acquire management, networking and communication skills to embark on an entrepreneurial journey or prepare themselves for B-schools are seeing huge traction. And this traction is being propelled by the aspirations of students and their ambitious parents.

Data from Tracxn, a start-up data analytics company, shows that Indian edtech firms have raised $5.77 billion in funding in 2021 so far, of which $99 million was raised by K12 education specialists. The overall number was $10.14 billion in 2020. As for market size, German analytics firm Statista estimates the online education market in India will be around $2 billion by the end of this year, significantly up from $250 million in 2016. By 2025, the size of the overall segment would surge to $10.4 billion, says Statista.

Clever Harvey, a Mumbai-based start-up, offers three modules aimed at students in the age group of 13-18. The modules—Junior MBA each in strategy, technology and marketing—run for three weeks or 25 hours and each batch has 10 students. Each student gets to work on projects with reputed companies such as Puma and Samsonite, among others, that give them real business problems to solve. For instance, Puma asked one of the batches to create a social media campaign that resonates with youth. Similarly, Samsonite wanted the teenagers to develop a strategy to increase sales of backpacks among school-going kids.

"Nearly 70 per cent of our country is graduating in arts and commerce. When these students join a company for the first time, they have no idea about what they have to do as there is very little real-life knowledge given to them," says Madhu Agrawal, Co-founder of Clever Harvey. "We are giving teenagers a sneak peek inside different career options so that they are able to first-hand understand and decide if that is the right field for them."

The edtech firm is planning to start eight new modules in the coming months as parents and students have been demanding courses in new-age fields like advertising, product management and UI/UX, among others. It will also tie up with eight new companies to offer students a real-world experience.

The husband-wife duo of Aarti and Ishaan Gupta started Qin1 in early 2019 while targeting students in the age group of four to 14. What started as an edtech venture focussing on various course modules soon turned into one specialising in improving communication skills especially of students from non-metro places. While Qin1 has around 6,000 students now, its monthly growth is pegged at 20 per cent and more than 100,000 students have cumulatively engaged with the start-up ever since it was founded.

More importantly, around 60 per cent of the students are from Tier II-III towns where access to good faculty for English communication skills or personality development is limited.

"Success in the real world is dependent on a mix of things including effective communication and personality skills. Unfortunately, most students from Tier II-III cities do not have access to these skills," says Aarti Gupta.

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