While the pandemic came as a blessing in disguise for online learning startups, it presented a rude shock to educational institutions which had to rush to adapt quickly.
This gave edtech startups, including Technologies, a window of opportunity.
“Most educational institutes are used to working in the traditional classroom-based style. Online teaching was a luxury before COVID-19 but during the pandemic, online learning became a requirement. Our business improved a lot during this time,” says Seethaprasad Mandikel, Founder and CEO, TriByte technologies in a conversation with YourStory.
Post-pandemic, many schools have now switched to hybrid education—which is now popular among students. According to HP India Future of Learning Study 2022, 91% of students surveyed believe online learning supplements traditional classroom learning.
Founded in 2010 by Seethaprasad, Bengaluru-based B2B edtech startup TriByte Technologies provides educational institutes with a SaaS-based, interactive learning management system (LMS).
The LMS is a multipurpose platform which supports learning requirements for self-paced learning, online tutoring and large-scale assessments. It is deployed in eight languages including Bahasa, French, Tamil, Kannada, Hindi, Telugu, and English.
TriByte has close to two million users on its platform currently.
Product offerings
Prior to starting Tribyte, Seethaprasad was a core member of several companies like Talisma, Robert Bosch India, and Microsoft Corporation. He also served as one of the founding members of PI Corporation.
With years of experience gained working in edtech departments, Seethaprasad realised the focus of education had to be more on learning and less on “studies”.
TriByte started as a platform that primarily built engagement on videos for both learning and entertainment purposes. In 2012, the company started focusing on only edtech, and started adding its proprietary technology LMS as the core feature on the video platform. Over the last 10 years, the company has only focused on education, especially learning engagement and delivery.
Bootstrapped with Rs 10 lakh as an initial investment, the startup offers LMS to educational institutes including test prep institutes, colleges and universities, skill-development institutions, as well as to corporates for training.
“The platform is primarily targeted towards India where internet connectivity is a big challenge. The platform can also work completely offline, which means the student can download the app and use the learning material offline. When they are back online, the platform will automatically synchronise all the information based on what the student used—which is a differentiator for our platform,” explains Seethaprasad.
Its clientele includes the likes of Aakash Education, Azim Premji University, CodeVidhya, LEAD School, Wadhwani Foundation, Goldman Sachs, HP, NIIT Foundation, ICT Academy, and Career Point, among others.
The startup provides browser-based access to learning material, an app—for both Android and iOS smartphones, and an admin where live classes can be conducted.
The TriByte learning app has over 1,000 downloads, with a rating of 3.2 on Google Play Store.
“After the pandemic, students are returning to physical centres to take tests. Our platform can get those results also. It puts all of them together and defines a uniform rank across demographics. It also does gap analysis using comparisons on which areas the student has to learn more,” he adds.
Business model
TriByte charges educational institutions a monthly fee on a case-by-case basis, based on either the number of monthly active users or monthly registered users as specified on the terms of the agreement.
However, foundations and universities are charged on an annual basis. TriByte gives them an upper cap on the amount they will be paid for a certain number of users.
TriByte says its revenue has been growing at an average of 20-25% year on year. Pre-COVID-19, the startup clocked around Rs 4.5 crore in revenue annually. The number has now gone up to Rs 7-8 crore annually.
Tie-ups
The startup currently has partnerships with 45 educational institutes in the country.
In July 2022, the startup partnered with Azim Premji University to offer a blended English Language Enrichment Course (ELEC) to 80,374 teachers in Telangana as the state transitions all its schools to English medium.
“It is amply clear that the hybrid mode of education, especially for working professionals, is here to stay and comes with lots of advantages,” says Nisha Butoliya, Anchor of the ELEC Programme, and faculty at Azim Premji University.
The course was conducted by university faculty members, state-level key resource persons, and mentors from the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT). It was offered in two phases—covering 51,441 primary school teachers and 28,933 higher secondary teachers.
Future plans
TriByte started its global expansion earlier this year. It is focusing on skill development institutions in Australia and test prep startups (ACT and SAT) in the US.
The startup is in the process of closing an agreement with the MasterCard Foundation, wherein it would provide LMS for 200 universities across Africa in the following year. It is looking to expand into more countries in the coming year.
TriByte competes with the likes of Mintbook, My Class Campus, Uolo, LMS of India, and Blackboard
The global learning management system market size was $14.43 billion in 2021. The market is expected to grow from $16.19 billion in 2022 to $40.95 billion by 2029, exhibiting a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 14.2% during the forecast period, according to a report by Fortune Business Insights.
The rising demand for smart and interactive learning platforms and the growing trend of multichannel learning are expected to fuel market progress, the report added.
