Superprofs, the IDG Ventures-backed ed-tech startup which provides students with live lectures from reputed professors across India (and one of my favourite ed-tech startups), has today launched the same platform on mobile. Superprofs parent Aurus Networks had earlier raised a $2.8 Million round from IDG ventures and Kalaari Capital.
Superprofs, till date, operated via a web platform, offering students from across India, live lectures on some of india’s toughest educational curriculums, which includes CA, CS, IIT-JEE, GATE and UPSC/IAS exams. As of date, the platform claims to have over 90,000 registered students and around 200 professors from across India.
Though India has been seeing a surge in the number of startups coming up with online education as their background, what sets SuperProfs apart, is the fact that it streams classroom videos at a surprisingly low bandwidth, a feature which is an absolute necessity in a country like India where data plans are getting pricier and amount of data provided by operators is getting thinner. Moreover, low internet speeds continue to plague almost three quarters of current mobile phone users.
Superprofs has carried on its low-bandwidth feature to its app as well. Additionally, students can download the video lectures within the app on their phone and watch them offline. This would help students in tier 2/3 towns with poor Internet connectivity in carrying out their preparation without any hassles.
However, app-based education segment is still a nascent one in India. Noting that, CEO Piyush Agrawal says,
The concept of mobile apps in exam preparation is still nascent in India, although with increasing smartphone penetration, the prospect to innovate in the $ 8 billion exam coaching market space is extensive. Superprofs Mobile app could cater to over 5 crore students in the country, who prepare for competitive exams every year
As for traction, Superprofs mobile app has already witnessed a healthy 5000 downloads in less than 4 weeks of its launch on the Google Play Store. Student reviews for the app have been on the excellent side and Superprofs is now aiming to reach a 10,000 download figure within the next few weeks.
