Toppr launches live classes to boost growth

Mumbai: Education startup Toppr has launched live classes on its platform where students can join batches with pre-published schedules, founder and CEO Zishaan Hayath told Mint.

“While we have practice, mock tests and live doubt sessions, live classes completes the circle of addressing student use cases for a learning app. (We think) Toppr will remain higher on preference order for students, with higher stickiness, higher conversion to paid plans and some improvement in fee per student,” he said.

Toppr runs an app providing education content for students from Class 5 to Class 12. This includes test series, question banks, chats for solving doubts and preparation for entrance exams in engineering, medicine, law and chartered accountancy.

The live classes will cost ₹12,000 a year, all subjects included, with classes for 2-5 hours a week.

Toppr’s earnings come only via subscriptions, although it provides free content. Its current products include about 7000 hours of video lectures, adaptive practice with over 15 lakh questions, mock tests and live doubts with chat via images or text.

It has about 100,000 paid subscribers, and claims to have doubled revenue and subscriptions in the past year, although Hayath declined to comment on specifics.

Education technology (ed-tech) startups have been an investor favourite in the last few years, driven by Byju’s, currently one of India’s most valuable startups at $5.5 billion. Byju’s $460.8 million in its ongoing funding round in the round, led by investors such as South Africa’s Naspers, private equity firm General Atlantic, and the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB).

Toppr raised $35 million in a Series C round in December last year, led by education-focused investor Kaizen Private Equity, venture debt firm Alteria Capital and Brand Capital. Its other investors include venture capital firms SAIF Partners, Eight Roads Ventures and Helion Ventures.

Other well-funded education startups include Unacademy, Vedantu and Eruditus. Of these, Vedantu also provides live lessons, in groups or one-to-one sessions.