25,000 Crores

Just a few weeks ago, I was discussing with friends in the ecosystem that digitizing India's tutor ecosystem is a venture scale problem and opportunity. 

So I was glad to see these numbers in black and white and published by the Education Ministry of India. Let's take a close look: 

  • Indian families spend a whopping INR 25,000 crores on private tuitions for their kids. 
  • This amount is more than one third the central government’s total budget allocation of Rs 59,845 crore to the department of school education and literacy.
  • The average spend on private tuitions for students in higher secondary level is INR 2,516. Slightly more than 25% of the students in higher secondary take private tuitions. 
  • The average spend on private tuitions for students in the secondary level is INR 1,632. Slightly more than 30% of the students in secondary take private tuitions. 
  • The average spend is INR 845 for upper primary and INR 502 for primary school. 
  • AND private tutors are hired at even the pre-primary level, where the average expenditure per student is INR 300.
  • The overall expenditure incurred by parents for their child's education is estimated to be INR 1,90,000. 20% of expenses are for books and other materials. Private tuitions account for 13% of the overall spend. 

These are incredible stats and something that is core to my conviction in building for the 1M+ tutors in our country - a number that continues to grow. 

Discuss on LinkedIn View Discussion

Building for "Digital India"

So how do we build for "digital India" that pays you nothing?

Indian users don't pay for anything. more insights here -- https://lnkd.in/dp92RA7Indian businesses don't pay for anything. more insights here -- https://lnkd.in/dDRuwuhAnd our all-weather lending business model is under house arrest right now.

So what do we do?

I think the answer lies in finding a sliver of opportunity that becomes a no-brainer win-win-win for all parties.

Rupeek is doing this for gold loans. Open Financial Technologies is doing this for MSMEs. FITTR is doing this for fitness instructors & seekers. Riskcovry is doing this for insurance distributors. YAP from M2P Solutions is doing this for fintechs. Renewate is doing this for contractors. Teachmint is doing this for tutors. And there are more, whom I may not know yet.

Some are further along and some are early. But it is clear that product-first teams which laser focus on delivered value will find a way to get paid -- and to win. It's important to not view them with the old lens - but with a new one. They are also creating new TAMs & a lot more.
Discuss on LinkedIn View Discussion