Over the past year, every day, we’ve heard the news of mass layoffs and hiring freezes from big edtech startups that were earlier famous for having deep pockets and near-endless amenities for employees.
Venture funding in India’s edtech segment more than halved from $4 billion in 2021 to $1.8 billion in 2022, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Startup Deals Tracker – CY22. This was further down than even 2020, when total funding in the segment stood at $2 billion.
Although, it’s clear that the edtech sector as a whole is tightening its belt, leaving thousands of employees out of work — and more wondering if they’ll have a job within the next six months or searching for jobs in a sector that no longer has a spot for them, there is new hope.
There are a few edtech companies still hiring new talent, so is it time to forget the negative headlines?
Perhaps, yes.
Tech-based professional education platform Imarticus Learning is on a hiring spree and has announced its new hiring plan from this February onwards. The platform presently has a 450-member-strong team compared to 240 members in 2022, indicating a 100% increase. Continuing the trend, the company seeks to add around 200 more members to its team to support its expansion, according to a company statement.
It is expected that 40% of the new employees will be for the retail team, 30% for the admissions team, and 30% for the corporate, marketing, HR, finance, and tech teams.
Speaking on the hiring drive, Nikhil Barshikar, founder of Imarticus Learning, said that the firm believes that a competent team is the most important determinant of success. “We strive to ensure that our staff too have the same commitment to reforming education and creating a pool of skilled workers,” he added.
Creative Galileo, an edtech startup that gamifies early learning for children aged between 3 and 10, also has major hiring plans.
Creative Galileo has been undergoing rapid expansion and recently launched its second educational app, Toondemy, aimed at young learners, as per the company.
“Our first app, Little Singham, was immensely popular with over 10 million downloads and 100,000 monthly active users. Our recent Series A funding round with Kalaari Capital and other investors allowed us to increase our workforce and expand our reach into new territories, with a focus on Southeast Asia,” said Prerna Jhunjhunwala, Founder of Creative Galileo.
“The education sector presents ample opportunities, and we believe with right talent and technology we will be able to provide children with a blended learning experience that combines digital and physical learning,” she added.
After recently raising $3.5 million in its seed round led by Elevation Capital and Lightspeed, edtech startup Bluelearn plans to utilise the fresh capital to further strengthen the product and team. The startup is actively hiring across functions such as product, tech, marketing, and operations and plans to almost double its team size by the end of 2023, according to a company statement.