Education start-up Infinity Learn by Sri Chaitanya has acquired Don’t Memorise, a concept-based multilingual content platform, to cater to Grade 6-10 learners who like to master learning with the simplest way to understand a topic through a bite-sized, and engaging video lessons and tap into the increasing learner market in tier-2 and -3 cities. The acquisition brings two platforms with distinct and highly complementary offerings and provides improved new-age learning solutions and offerings to new-age learners in India while accelerating the ambitious expansion plan of Infinity Learn. In 2021, they also acquired Teacherr, a privately-held, Hyderabad based company and one of the most widely-used digital platforms by the teaching community for an undisclosed amount. The brand has roped in Indian cricketer Rohit Sharma as the brand ambassador last year.
Ujjwal Singh, CEO of Infinity Learn– a strong believer in modernizing education and breaking the barriers of conventional education systems spoke to Medianews4u on the factors that differentiate Infinity Learn from other Edtech players, the brand’s market performance, marketing strategies, and more.
Excerpts:
Speaking on the factors that differentiate Infinity Learn from other Edtech players in the country, “If you look at the Edtech industry in the country in any way of ranking – whether, in revenue or valuation point, there are 3-4 players who are in the market and doing fairly well. One of the Top 3 players in Edtech has reached out to us seeking a partnership. This brought immense happiness to us. If we have reached there within 7-8 months, there is a huge impact we have created where people are ready to collaborate with us. We appreciate the thought of collaborating in some areas and competing in a few other areas.”
For academic purposes, Amazon Academy is fully dependent on Infinity Learn by Sree Chaitanya, we are their sole partners.
According to Ujjwal Singh, Credibility plays a huge role in the education sector.
“How Much Ever funds you have or well-known you are – at the end of the day when parents decide about their child’s future, they look for track record or credibility. No company can buy that, it is built over years. Luckily, we were backed by Sree Chaitanya which has huge credibility in the market. They are one of the largest educational institutions in the country. We have a credible backend team who are experts in the core of teaching and know how to prepare the students for exams and the future. I foresee that we will be a little ahead of every other player in Edtech because of our backend and the credibility that we bring to the students and parents,” he added.
Talking on the brand’s market performance, Singh said, “There is a thought that Infinity Learn’s major clients come from Andhra Pradesh & Tamil Nadu markets, but states like UP & Rajasthan are big markets for us. Jaipur, parts of Haryana and Punjab as well. We just started doing promotions in Bihar, it’s a big market for JEE and NEET, we foresee big success there.
We are doing great in state capitals – Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai is our core forte. Our 40 percent consumer base is from North India and 50 percent from South India. We haven’t ventured much in the West and East of India. We will soon come to see how the market is going to evolve for us.”
In 2021, Infinity Learn roped in Rohit Sharma as the brand ambassador, speaking about the brand’s association with Rohit, Singh said, “We don’t know who was lucky for who, soon after we signed the brand association deal, he became the T20 captain, later ODI, and India’s full-time Test captain. I think it’s amazing timing for us, we were in search of a brand ambassador and Rohit Sharma was our first preference. He gels with the brand and has always been a support system for the brand. He is fairly known among the 18 plus age category in the country. We could synergize him with the below 15 age categories as well. We benefitted a lot through the collaboration, I haven’t met anybody who said why Rohit and why, not this person.”
Elaborating on the brand’s marketing and ad strategies he said, “I have been talking to the Founders of different Edtech companies, those who are fairly successful and those who are not successful. I asked them about one learning they can share with me. They all had one thing to say, ‘between the break and make of an Edtech company in today’s world – what will be your aspiration to spend money on digital platforms. Because that’s not the only way you can reach out to the consumers, of late there is a perception that Digital is the only way to reach out to the consumers and traditional media are completely ignored. Many of the failed entrepreneurs have said that they have invested around Rs 30-40 Crore for marketing in Digital media platforms and busted which has led to the failure of the company.”
“The biggest for Infinity Learn is that there are several ways to reach out to consumers. We don’t want to let go of traditional marketing at the cost of digital marketing methods. Infinity Learn ad strategies are 30 percent on digital and 70 percent traditional. Last 8 months we have had to spend between Rs 25-30 Crore on our marketing strategies. In 2022, our marketing budgets are pegged between Rs 75-100 crore,” added Singh.
Throwing some light on the future of Edtech in the country, Singh said, “Education is a fragmented market and just for the reason that the Edtech sector is popular now fragmentation won’t be consolidated with 1 or 2 players. There are a lot of available niche solutions. All of us are focusing on the top of the pyramid, less attention is given to the middle and bottom of the pyramid. There are students from the village who need the best education, but don’t have access to a smartphone or internet connection. The digital divide is very high. We have to find different mediums to fill the gap.”
“Those Edtech players who think about helping the learners at the grass-root level and those who will solve the problem will survive for a longer period of time,” he concluded.
