The Indus Entrepreneurs (TiE) Bangalore has launched a Special Interest Group (SIG) for edtechs to promote, mentor and create new opportunities for entrepreneurs in the edtech space. Towards this, TiE Bangalore is collaborating with AWS EdStart, the startup accelerator from Amazon Web Services (AWS) supporting edtech companies, which joins as the SIG’s Annual Sponsor, with the joint objective of creating a more vibrant edtech start-up ecosystem. The SIG will be launched on July 17, 2021 at a virtual event, with a fireside chat with Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO of BYJU’S.
The Covid-19 pandemic has led edtechs to leapfrog as one of the most favourable sunrise sectors. According to a BARC India and Nielsen report, the number of people downloading edtech apps has risen by 88 per cent, with a 30 per cent increase in time spent on education apps recorded during the lockdown, leading to over 120 per cent growth in digital ad spends by edtech apps.
Galvanising this massive scope and potential of edtech startups in a post-Covid era, TiE Bangalore’s edtech SIG will enable edtech start-ups to scale and succeed by leveraging its strengths of mentorship, education, investor connects, and business networks, along with the resources from the AWS EdStart program to help entrepreneurs accelerate innovation even further to make a positive impact to students, educators, and educational institutions.
As part of this collaboration, the Edtech SIG will host an array of new and existing events as an exclusive offering for edtech start-ups. Together, TiE Bangalore and AWS EdStart will also engage actively with the broader EdTech ecosystem and enable meaningful connections to EdTech start-ups through their networks. The EdTech SIG will also nurture selected 20-30 EdTechs annually from this community via AWS resources and TiE’s Bangalore’s mentoring program, and help these start-ups scale up their impact.
TiE and AWS will also co-host several networking events and knowledge sharing sessions with support from edtech influencers, kick starting with the edtech SIG launch event, featuring a fireside chat between Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO, BYJU’s, and Srikanth Iyer, TiE Charter Member and Co-founder and CEO, Homelane.
Commenting on this launch, Madan Padaki, President, TiE Bangalore said, “Bangalore’s ranking as #7 in the Top 15 in the Global EdTech Index reflects not only its vibrant and successful trajectory in the edtech space, but also a conducive and thriving environment provided by the State Government to enable a robust startup ecosystem. With the Covid-led boom in the Edtech space, now is an opportune moment to harness these tailwinds and enable passionate entrepreneurs to succeed. We are thrilled to garner the support of AWS EdStart, whose mission is aligned with ours at TiE Bangalore, of fostering entrepreneurship and enabling entrepreneurs to succeed.”
Sunil PP, Lead, Education, Space and Non-Profits, India and South Asia, Amazon Internet Services said, “Our collaboration with TiE for the EdTech SIG is testament to the scope we see for EdTech and the innovation potential among entrepreneurs in India. Over the years, AWS EdStart has helped create a community of like-minded people and companies who seek to solve complex education problems globally. We will draw upon this rich experience and knowledge to enable edtech entrepreneurs in India to build the next-generation of education solutions on the cloud, and provide them access to peer learning, customised training, mentoring and technical support to translate their innovative ideas into reality.”