Edtech segment offers huge potential for growth in coming years

English learning app OckyPocky of WhizKidz Media has seen huge adoption by children during the Covid period. Reaching 200,000 children per month, primarily in non-English speaking families, the company has emerged as a strong player in the preschool learning space. Promoted by former YouTube India head Amit Agrawal, who is the founder & CEO of OckyPocky, the company eyes to raise a series A round of funding this year. In a conversation with BizzBuzz, Agrawal said that this year is going to be an important period in the company's growth curve

The demand was huge during the pandemic period that our server crashed once. We saw a sudden doubling in our userbase in March. Developing speech recognition technology for children is far difficult than developing it for adults. Through our app, we can also teach mathematics to primary and secondary school children

We are a team of 20 people including sales people. We will expand depending on the business growth. Currently, the app reaches 200,000 kids per month, primarily in non-English speaking families. The app has more than 10 million video views as of now

What inspired you to be an entrepreneur, especially to work in edtech segment, after leading the India unit of YouTube?

I grew up in Lucknow and my parents are from the villages of Uttar Pradesh. They never got a chance to do good education due to various reasons. They could afford to only educate one child. So, the kind of background I came from, education is not seen as additional goods or services but is seen as a solution wherein the family will go to the next level if one child gets educated properly. I feel the importance of education in a middle-class household. Also, a lot of family members, both from my father's and mother's sides, still live in tier-III and tier-IV cities of UP.

There is a deep connection with education at a personal level. Also, when I was in YouTube, besides other roles, I got a chance to head the education content for the Asia Pacific. There I saw the adoption of technology for creating educational content. Of course, at YouTube, there are some limitations as it is only a video platform whereas education is an interactive process. I started researching and came to the conclusion that while students are preparing for competitive exams like IITs and medical entrances, the quality of education remains poor. I also came across the survey that around 95 per cent of our graduates are not industry ready. And the reason for that is communication. If a student can't communicate, he can't be taught new skills. So, we started our journey with early childhood education. 2017 was the year when we launched our first app. The idea is that the brain grows very fast in childhood days and that is the best time for language learning. We are the only app that teaches a child in his mother tongue. Our research shows that the parents want their children to know about their culture. So, we started creating content around those themes. So, we try to make a three-old child understand a theme in his language. For instance, we developed content around Chandrayaan for making children understand what it stands for. That initiative has earned a lot of accolades. 'OckyPocky' character on which our app has been developed, is an octopus, which is the friend of children.

How was the demand during the pandemic period? Has the userbase increased during the corona pandemic?

The demand was so much during the pandemic period that our server crashed once. We saw a sudden doubling in our userbase in March.

What is the difficulty level you face to develop speech recognition technology through Natural Language Processing (NLP) for preschool children?

Developing speech recognition technology for children is far difficult than developing it for adults. This technology has to recognise the speech of children which is indistinct. Our algorithm has been designed very differently.

How big is your company now? Is OckyPocky going to expand in the near future?

We are a very small team of 20 people including salespeople. We will expand depending on the business growth. Currently, the app reaches 200,000 kids per month, primarily in non-English speaking families. The app has more than 10 million video views as of now.

In recent years, edtech has emerged as the sweet spot in the startup ecosystem. However, this space is getting crowded with each passing day. Do you feel the business growth will be similar to past years?

There is a huge opportunity for us in the space we operate in. Through the app, we can reach each nook and corner of the country. We can teach mathematics to primary and secondary school children. We can do teachers' training. We are in talks for such partnerships as schools like our capabilities in the language space. So, we are beginning to see ourselves as a very strong emerging player. The opportunity in the education sector is so huge that we don't think there will be one major player dominating the space. The reason is the need for specialisation.

We have tied up with one of the biggest companies in India, wherein we will train children of their employees. So, we will stick to our language specialisation without opting for teaching mathematics or do teachers' training as of now. We will try to add more languages to our platform. We have very good quality advisors in our company.

Are you adequately funded now? Will you look at another round of funding this year?

As far as funding is concerned, we will look at another round of funding this year. We see serious interest from some of the international investors. One of the fund houses in the language space is evaluating. So, three-four active conversations are going on. We are looking at a series-A round of funding from investors. We raised a seed round (of around $400,000) in September last year. As a policy also, we have given a good amount of equity (ESoPs) to all our core members.

We feel that 2021 is going to be an important year for our company. We will have four to five important announcements coming up in the next few months. As far as tie-up with schools are concerned, we see a lot of interest in our live classes. For the app, we won't see any tie-ups with schools. We are thinking of providing after-school services.