Kalpathi Group Enters Edtech Space, Launches Veranda Learning

• Kalpathi Group launches edtech venture Veranda Learning with Rs 50 crore initial investment.
• The new edtech firm will offer training programmes for competitive exams in India and abroad.
• Veranda will also offer courses in software development, including programming languages, development tools, and others.

Chennai-based Kalpathi Group has entered the edtech space by launching Veranda Learning solutions with an initial investment of Rs 50 crore (or about $6.7 million).

The new edtech firm will offer courses in training programmes for various competitive exams in India and abroad, including IIT-JEE, NEET, GRE, TOEFL/GMAT, UPSC, and others.

It will also offer courses in software development, including programming languages, development tools, and others.

The newly-formed firm will be more focussed on competitive training programmes, said 25-year-old Kalpathi Group.

The company further said it is asserted to invest more in the firm from its own pocket and by roping in private equity players over the next few months.

Veranda Learning plans to expand its reach both through organic development and acquisition routes. Given the impact of the pandemic, the company is also working on multiple acquisitions in the space.

"The company aims at blending the best of offline and online learning models, and its USP is to offer quality educational content across all channels and leverage the digital route to focus on outcomes and be affordable to “real India," said Suresh Kalpathi, Co-founder, Kalpathi Group.

He further said, "We will not be an also-ran in our industry and are bringing our learning from offline education models to this online venture. We want to bring the culture of discipline and rigor that’s prevalent in offline education to the online medium. Veranda will hire 1,000 employees in one year, with 75% being regular staff."

The solution will be priced at least 50% cheaper compared to industry averages, he added.

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The Rs 4,000 crore worth Kalpathi Group, which was founded by Suresh Kalpathi, has a great history in education, software, property, finance, and entertainment space. The group also operates its investment firm name Kalpathi Investments.

Veranda will be focusing on providing a 360-degree approach to the learning process. The courses will be structured as a mix of video, reading, and assessment-based learning.

The platform will also use adaptive AI for quizzing- a tech where the difficulty of questions will change depending on the student’s performance.

Currently, the platform has 200 staff members and aims to reach around 600 in the next 12 months.

Veranda Learning is targeting an annual recurring revenue (ARR) of Rs 100 crore in the first year of its operations and Rs 1,000 crore ARR in the next three years.

According to the estimations by Kalpathi Group, The Indian online education market will grow to around $4.87 billion by 2024.

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