Highlights:
- Launched recently in August 2020 in Indonesia, CoLearn has reached more than 3.5 million students.
- The company focuses heavily on teacher training programs to improve the quality of education.
- CoLearn Raises $10M Series A Investment Led By GSV, AWI.
- The start-up’s AI-driven problem-solving allows students to receive high-quality and instant homework support.
Introduction:
CoLearn is an EdTech platform that empowers tuition centers and tutors to create online learning experiences for their students. CoLearn’s mission is to improve education standards for Indonesia’s youth to make the country globally competitive. It was founded in 2018 and is based in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Indonesian edtech CoLearn raises $10M in Series A Led By GSV, AWI.
Indonesian startup CoLearn started as a chain of physical tutoring centers and was in the process of shifting to a hybrid offline-online model when the COVID-19 pandemic hit. The team sensed that remote learning would permanently change how students want to be tutored and decided to focus completely on its app, which launched in August 2020. CoLearn has since been downloaded more than 3.5 million times and has about one million active users, mostly students in grades 7 to 12.
The company announced today it has raised $10 million in Series A funding co-led by Alpha Wave Incubation and edtech-focused GSV Ventures. This marks the first time both have made an investment in Indonesia. The round also included participation from returning investors Sequoia Capital India’s Surge and AC Ventures.
One of the Jakarta-based company’s goals is to improve educational standards in Indonesia. The country’s PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment, a global ranking system created by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) rankings. CoLearn’s goal is to help move up Indonesia’s PISA ratings to the top 50% over the next five years.
CoLearn’s app offers more than 250,000 pre-recorded videos with homework help. The videos serve as a hook to convince students (or their parents) to sign up for CoLearn’s live online classes.
AI platform coincides with video tutorials recorded by over 400 tutors who break down key concepts
CoLearn made its offline debut in business in 2018, before shifting to the hybrid model. Once the epidemic arrived, the company decided to go completely online. Sabu said that even after the schools reopened, the team anticipates that most students will prefer the online afterschool learning facility, as brick-and-mortar tuition centers can eat up hours of their time each day.
CoLearn users ask about 5 million questions through the app each month. Its AI platform coincides with video tutorials recorded by over 400 tutors who break down key concepts. Sabu said that creating compelling videos is different from competitors like SnapAAC, instead of presenting solutions in the diagram, which raised $ 35 million last year to expand into Southeast Asia.
Prioritising the online classes:
CoLearn’s live online classes will be its main priority, going forward. The startup hopes to replicate the success of companies such as China’s Yuanfadao and Zuoyebang. As part of that goal, it runs teacher training programs. It has plans to train more than 200 teachers over the next two years. These teachers will have a training, notably in STEM disciplines. The company may eventually scale up in other countries that have similar issues with their education systems, but Sabu said Collearn plans to focus on Indonesia for the next few years.
CoLearn’s other investors include Leo Capital, TNB Aura, S7V, January Capital, Alpha JWC, Taurus Ventures, Alter Global, and Mahanusa Capital.
