Started in April 2023, the OC Academy, a Bengaluru-based ed-tech platform, claims to offer a number of upskilling Post Graduate (PG) certification and PD diploma courses for medical professionals who are currently practising medicines. The platform further claims to have collaborated with both national and international institutions to run various courses. “Primarily, our courses are designed for user upscaling, particularly targeting professionals such as doctors with good experience in fields like general practice or specialised areas like cardiology within life sciences. Consider a scenario where a doctor, with a decade of experience, encounters diverse medical issues in their daily practice. Our courses aim to provide them with additional knowledge, enhancing their ability to address various patient concerns effectively,” Balu Ramachandran, founder and CEO, OC Academy, told FE Education. The company further stated that upon completion of these courses, practitioners can choose to specialise in specific medical areas relevant to their practice. d.
As the platform in its first year of operation, it expects to close FY24 with a gross revenue of Rs7-8 crore, however declined to comment on both net/gross loss. Further, it claims to target gross revenue of Rs 40-50 by the end of FY25. The company moreover aims to become profitable by the end of FY26. “As we are a young company and whatever we’re doing is new in terms of enabling learning for doctors, but targeting profitability is not our priority as of now as you also have to make investments to make awareness. But by the end of FY26, we hope to become a profitable company,” Ramchandran added.
The platform further claims to have 45 partnerships worldwide with institutions and hospitals for offering multiple courses. For example, for its PG diploma courses it claims to have partnered with three UK based universities including Queen Mary University, the University of South Wales and the University of Birmingham. It also claims to have partnered with a number of hospitals in India to offer practical skill-based courses. “In essence, our students enrol in the university’s programme and engage in online learning. Additionally, we have established partnerships with hospitals, providing students the opportunity to gain practical exposure integral to their university programme. For those seeking enhanced practical experience, we facilitate training with affiliated hospitals. Importantly, the degrees or diplomas awarded upon completion of these programmes bear accreditation from esteemed institutions in the UK,” he said.
Typically, the ed-tech platform offers two types of courses namely PG certification courses which span between four to six months and second online and offline PG diploma courses which span between nine months to one year. It further claims for its certification courses the fee ranges between Rs 10,000-15,000 and Rs three-four lakh for its PG diploma courses, respectively. The platform claims to have boarded around 3,500 for all courses so far. Of this 200 students applied for PG diploma courses while the rest opted for certification courses. As per the platform its cost of customer acquisition is around Rs 10,000 per student. “We operate on a per-student basis with international institutions, wherein the Institute provides compensation for each student enrolled in the course. Also, in some cases, we charge students directly and then share a percentage with the university. Both scenarios essentially involve a sharing model, where the university receives a portion and we retain the remaining part,” Ramchandran explained.