With A Focus On Digital Innovation, GSF Launches Edtech Incubator Indiginus

In association with consumer startup FlintoBox and fintech startup IndiaLends, GSF has launched its edtech incubator and learning centre, Indiginus, to mark its foray into the Indian education ecosystem.

Nisha Bhutani, a seasoned entrepreneur and tech professional for over 20 years with experience in digital companies in India, the UK and Silicon Valley, will be leading GSF’s education business as founder and CEO of GSF Indiginus, along with GSF founder Rajesh Sawhney as Chairman.

“How should a business “go digital”, when it doesn’t have a tech DNA? How do business leaders innovate in digital – an area that is critical to their future growth – if it is not yet cored to their business? Even if you have started your digital journey, how do you upgrade your leadership team’s practices and skill sets to benefit from rapid changes in technology? Learn from the experiences of innovators in the tech startup ecosystem”, said Sawhney.

The edtech incubator will, therefore, help in bridging the demand for innovation and entrepreneurship in non-tech businesses, corporates as well as startups. As per Sawhney, Indiginus will launch with a presence in Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai.

More On Indiginus

With Indiginus, GSF is on a mission to help mainstream consumer companies and workforces gain skills in digital innovation, technology and entrepreneurship. The edtech incubator will complement GSF’s existing accelerator which provides mentorship and capital to Seed-stage startups.

Indiginus will use offline and online methods, with an emphasis on Indiginus-authored case studies, guest sessions, interactive workshops and hands-on exercises. Indiginus content and activities will cut across areas such as digital strategy, lean startup methodologies, digital products and marketing, online content, data analytics and current and emerging technologies — including big data, artificial intelligence, machine learning, blockchain — and their business applications.

The first original case studies by Indiginus are on Flintobox and Flintoclass, two businesses run by Chennai-based, GSF-backed startup Flinto Learning Solutions and IndiaLends, a Delhi based consumer lending startup. In December 2017, Flintobox raised $7 Mn in a Series A funding round led by early-stage venture capital firm Lightbox, wherein GSF took an exit from the startup.

While the Flintobox case study explores insights on digital marketing, it also attempts to explain the lean startup method in the Indian context. The IndiaLends case study, on the other hand, shows how the use of data in every aspect of running the business was critical to the company expanding its revenue by 20x over the course of just 12 months. Indiginus is also authoring a series of mini case studies on practical applications of machine learning by five businesses.

India already has a presence of several edtech incubators such as T-Labs and EduGild. The opportunity in the sector is currently ripe, posing the sector to be worth $1.96 Bn by 2021. As per Inc42 DataLabs’ funding report 2017, Indian edtech startups garnered $466 Mn funding between 2014 and 2017.

Among the edtech startups that raised fundings over the last few months are Univariety ($1.9 Mn), Springboard ($9.5 Mn), Meritnation ($5.8 Mn), Toppr ($6.92 Mn), Rubix108 Technologies ($1 Mn), IMAX Program ($13.5 Mn) and many others. As part of one of the biggest edtech acquisitions last year, Bengaluru-based edtech firm AEON Learning took over Acadgild in an all-stock deal worth $10 Mn.

Founded in 2012 by Innerchef founder Rajesh Sawhney, GSF has accelerated close to 50 startups, including HackerEarth, Pokkt, Little Eye Labs, and DocsApp, HeyMojo, Whatfix, DailyRounds, ZAPR, BrownTape, amongst others. Edtech is one fine bet in the current scenario and the focus on digital innovation is certainly the need of the hour. What the new GSF startup portfolio will look like in FY19 is something to watch out for.