Moodle Opens India Branch; Eyes 25% Increase In Headcount

SUMMARY

With the launch of Moodle India, the parent company Moodle plans to increase its employee base in India by 25% to 98 from the current 70 employees in the coming four to five years

The development comes almost two months after Moodle acquired Hyderabad-based edtech startup eAbyas Info Solutions for an undisclosed amount

So far, it has bagged more than $7 Mn funding. Its backers include Education for Many, an entity fund run by the French billionaire businessman Leclercq’s family office

Australia-based edtech company Moodle has launched its Indian subsidiary Moodle India.

With the launch of Moodle India, the parent company Moodle plans to increase its employee base in India by 25% to 98 from the current 70 employees in the coming four to five years, Martin Dougiamas, Moodle CEO told The Hindu BusinessLine.

“We are targeting educational institutions to help them generate content for their students and corporates for supporting learning and development programmes for their employees,” Dougiamas said.

The development comes almost two months after Moodle acquired Hyderabad-based edtech startup eAbyas Info Solutions for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition was made to enter the Indian edtech space.

Presently, eAbyas software is fully integrated with Moodle’s platform.

Set up in 2001 by Dougiamas, Moodle helps educators and academic institutions create personalised online learning spaces for students. It claims to support 41 Mn courses in 142 languages across the globe.

“Our open-source software has helped thousands of educational institutions and organisations around the world deliver more than 1.8 Bn course enrollments so far,” Dougiamas said.

Moodle’s CEO also asserts that about 60% of India’s higher education institutions use its products and services.

So far, Moodle has bagged more than $7 Mn funding. Its backers include Education for Many, an entity run by the French billionaire businessman Leclercq’s family office.

Interestingly, Moodle’s expansion plans are taking place at a time when India’s edtech space has been struggling. Unlike the pandemic years, edtech startups are striding for sustenance and actively exploring revenue generation opportunities.

Funding crunch, changing customer behaviour, low market sentiments, impending recession and Russia-US war are some of the factors that impacted funding in the edtech space.

Since 2022, edtech startups–DUX Education, Udayy, LIDO Learning, Crejo.Fun, SuperLearn, and Qin1 ceased their operations permanently owing to the turbulent situations.

On the other hand, 18 edtech giants including BYJU’S, Unacademy and Vedantu, among others have laid off more than 8,200 employees in the last two years (2022 and 2023), as per Inc42 layoff tracker.