SUMMARY
With 8 Mn+ users, the startup focuses on improving the employability of 40 Cr people in the 18-35 age group by empowering them with learning content in local languages
The funds raised in this round to be used for content development across existing and new languages
A few of its most popular course categories include: coding, personal finance, spoken English, state PSC exams, among others
Vernacular edtech startup Entri.app has raised $7 Mn in Series A funding round led by Omidyar Network India with participation from Boston-based Innospark Ventures and Integrated Capital, a Hong Kong-based private equity. This round of funding follows the company’s $3.1 Mn seed round and brings the total capital raised to $10.1 Mn, said the startup in a statement.
Notable angel investors Gokul Rajaram, a board member of Pinterest and Coinbase, and Sriram Krishnan, a partner at Andreessen Horowitz (A16Z), a venture capital firm in Silicon Valley, also participated in the round among others.
The funds raised in this round will be utilised for content development across existing and new languages, senior-level hirings, and strategic acquisitions to accelerate Entri’s growth.
Launched in 2017 by Mohammed Hisamuddin and Rahul Ramesh, the startup said it has more than 8 Mn registered users with over 250K paid subscribers. It offers 500+ courses in eight languages including Malayalam, Tamil, Kannada, Telugu, Hindi, Marathi, Bengali, and Odiya.
Further, all these courses are designed to help aspirants upskill for growth in the private sector and cracking exams for government jobs.
The startup said some of its most popular course categories include: coding, personal finance, spoken English, state PSC exams, nursing certifications, teacher exams among others.
It offers cohort-based courses called Entri Gold which connects a batch of students with an expert mentor who speaks their local language. The mentor ensures that the batch of aspirants achieve their goal through live interactive classes, analytics, community group activities and personalised guidance. The startup claims that more than 25,000 students have cracked a government job exam with the help of its Entri Gold program.
The edtech startup has partnerships with coaching institutes, educators, and influencers to generate quality content. The startup informed it has so far signed up 30 influencers in different languages with a combined following of 20 Mn subscribers for their skilling courses and are targeting to sign up 100 more in 2022.
“Entri.app is focused on the non-English speaking segment in India which has over 40 crore people in the age group of 18-35. We feel that with the right kind of training and learning in their mother tongue, they can improve their employability chances and increase earning capabilities. We are focused on this segment and firmly believe we can impact more than 4 crore users’ lives in the next 3 years with the kind of headstart we have got,” said Mohammed Hisamuddin, founder and CEO of Entri.app.
As part of its creator model, Entri.app has also recently acquired the TS Madaan YouTube channel, which enjoys more than 11 Mn subscribers.
“Entri.app has made great progress in terms of the variety of courses offered, a number of local languages catered to, and the number of students taking up the offering. We are excited to back the team at Entri.app as they march on their mission to become the #1 learning destination for ‘Next Half Billion’ users to improve their employability and earning capabilities,” said Sarvesh Kanodia, principal, Omidyar Network India.
Entri.app raised $3.1 Mn Pre-Series A funding round after raising an additional $1.7 Mn led by Good Capital in July 2020. HyperTrack founder Kashyap Deorah and BigBasket HR head Hari TN also participated in that round along with several angel investors from Silicon Valley and India.
According to an Inc42 report, edtech startups raised $4.7 Bn in 165 deals to emerge as the third most-funded sector in 2021. The segment was only behind ecommerce, with $10.7 Bn and fintech with $8 Bn funding received in the year 2021.
