Introduction

News Corp VCCircle Education Investment Summit
Assessing Business Potential in the Education Sector: Driving RoI

India holds an important place in the global education industry and is poised to witness major growth in the years to come as the country will have world’s largest tertiary-age population and second largest graduate talent pipeline globally by the end of 2020. The government and the private sector are working intently to provide funds as well as relevant, skill based and employment assuring education to the this young talent.

However, reach, accessibility, quality and difference in regards with international standards remain some of the big challenges for the Indian education system.

Entrepreneurs and startups and trying to offer some solutions to these challenges through use of technology and unique models to increase the reach to all stakeholders including students, teachers, supplementary education providers and parents. Going by media reports, edtech startups seem to hold their ground in the country, with rising popularity, fundraising activities, and increasing business opportunities. In the same pursuit, though investors have backed entrepreneurs but it has been with cautious approach. So while in 2014, around 44 players raised a total of $96 million in the education category, 2016 saw around 58 education startups collectively raising investment of over $210 million. Considering the massive opportunity presented by the sector, the investments are way lesser compared with ecommerce or fintech sector. This can be due to reasons like long duration of sale cycles, the hesitance to invest in something new, highly regulated study material, segmented market with multiple stakeholders, specific demographics that are yet to adopt the digital culture etc. Also, not all startups have a sustainable revenue model and are able to survive.

Again considering that startups might have answers to multiple questions of accessibility and quality, how do we bring investments to the forefront in the education space? How do we bridge the gap between investor expectation, entrepreneurial offering, consumer acceptance and student benefit?

The News Corp VCCircle Education Investment Summit will discuss some of these issues in detail, understand perspective of each stakeholder and help industry come with solutions.


Agenda

09.00 - 10.00AM
Registration & Networking

10.00 - 10.10AM
Welcome Address by Jaideep Mehta - CEO, News Corp VCCircle

10.10 - 11.00AM
Panel Discussion 1:  Investment trends in education
The past couple of years saw increased investments in startups catering to certain products and offerings. The panel discussion will narrate what’s happening in the vocational education, supplemental education & test preparation, Edu finance, skill based learning & corporate learning space. It will also discuss the investment outlook, rational of investments, expected RoI’s, regulatory and other hurdles and market cap opportunities in the current investment scenario.
 
Krishna Kumar, CEO, Simplilearn Solutions
Mayank Kumar, Co-founder and MD, Upgrad
Imran Jafar, General Partner, Gaja Capital
Vandana Bhatnagar, Chief Program Officer, NSDC
Neeraj Sharma, MD & CEO, ‎Indian School Finance Company
Prachi Jain Windlass, Director-India Education, Michael and Susan Dell Foundation    
Archna Shukla, Editor-in-Chief, News Corp VCCircle (Moderator)

11.00AM - 11.20AM
Fireside chat:
Rohit Agarwal, Entrepreneur, Investor & Former GM, Amazon Education
Jaideep Mehta - CEO, News Corp VCCircle

11.20AM - 11.40AM
Special address - Education as a tool to become the most dominant nation in the world – What India should do? A 20 years plan
D K Goel, Chairman, FIITJEE

11.40 - 12.00Noon
Networking Break

12.00 - 12.45PM
Panel Discussion 2: Leveraging a $1.96Billion online education opportunity - Challenges and the way forward
Latest report released by Google suggests that online education industry will grow at a healthy rate of 8x, to become a USD 1.96 billion industry by 2021. There are many factors driving this growth including the perceived convenience, increased reach, hybrid learning channels, professionals seeking skill based learning and personalization offered by online channels. It is also noted, that high growth in education search queries is now coming in from Tier 2 and 3 cities, which points to the opportunities that growing penetration of smartphones and improving quality of internet have opened up. However, with approx. 11 deals amounting to $22 Million in Q1 of 2017, are the investors holding themselves back on leveraging this opportunity? This panel will discuss how to attract investments in this space while making sure that RoI in short and long term is achieved.

Mohan Lakhamraju, Founder and CEO, Great Learning
Ishan Gupta, Managing Director, India, Udacity
Piyush Agrawal, CEO & Founder, Superprofs.com
Ali Asgar Kagzi, Co-founder, Genext Students Pvt. Ltd
Pranjal Kumar, Principal, Bertelsmann India Investments
Ragini Bajaj Chaudhary, CEO, Gray Matters Capital (India)(Moderator)

12.45 - 02.00PM
Networking Lunch

2.00 - 2.15PM
Special Address: Global Landscape vs India
US and China are leading the race when it comes to venture capital deals in the education space, with Xueleyun raising series C funding worth $200 million, followed by age of learning raising $150 million. Our home grown Byju’s also received considerable funding but it is indeed a rare occasion. Considering that Indian education market is almost as big as Chinese market with ample business opportunities, how do we attract investors to bet the money on it?
Gaurav Jain, Principal, Kaizen Private Equity

02.15 - 03.00PM
Panel Discussion 3: Bridging the rural-urban gap & breaking the traditional: Entrepreneurs in action
With low enrolment rate, low attendance, affordability, reach and quality issues; the education sector in India is full of opportunities for entrepreneurs. Ugam foundation, Hippocampus and learning delight are few entrepreneurs that are trying to bridge the gap between demand and supply, whereas, investors like Acumen, Aavishkar, Michael & Susan Dell and Unitus are working alongside. This panel will discuss business opportunities arising out of urban rural divide and how stakeholders intend to make best out of them.
    
Anurag Agarwal, Partner, Aavishkaar
Parinita Gohil, Partner, Learning Delight
Lopa Gandhi, Founder, Ugam Foundation
Brajesh Mishra, Co-founder, Varthana
Srikrishna Ramamoorthy, Partner, Unitus Seed Fund (Moderator)

3.00 - 3.30PM
Showcase Session
We bring our Showcase session, a curated platform that brings a set of handpicked innovative education startups to make an elevator pitch to select jury of angel investors, houseful of VCs & fellow entrepreneurs. This is also an opportunity to early stage, pre-revenue, startups as well to grab investor attention.

Jury:
Srikrishna Ramamoorthy, Partner, Unitus Seed Fund
Ragini Chaudhary, CEO, Gray Matters Capital (India)
Anurag Agarwal, Partner, Aavishkaar

3.30 - 3.45PM
Networking Break

3.45 - 4.30PM
Panel Discussion 4: Re-imagining education – AI, Robotics & VR to lead the way
IoT, Cloud based content, digital scanners connected to smartphones, RFID & QR for student’s content and virtual classrooms are few technologies that are changing the face of education. While both investors and entrepreneurs are excited about the space, which in turn is witnessing maximum action; the funding is not to the expected levels. It is understandable that investors have to look out for product ready and sustainable business models, so what are the yardsticks for investors. What are some new technologies from other industries which can be used in edutech space as well? How are entrepreneurs ensuring value offering?

Aditya Malik, MD & CEO, Talentedge
Amit Mahensaria, Co-founder & CEO, Impartus    
Raman Talwar, CEO and Founder Director, Simulanis
Rohit Manglik, CEO, EduGorilla
Sanju Walia, Principal Consultant, SAP IBSO (Moderator)


Speakers

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D K Goel

Chairman, FIITJEE
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Imran Jafar

General Partner, Gaja Capital
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Krishna Kumar

CEO, Simplilearn Solutions
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Prachi Jain Windlass

Director, India Education, Michael & Susan Dell Foundation | @MSDF_Foundation
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Parinita Gohil

Partner, Learning Delight
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Aditya Malik

MD & CEO, Talentedge
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Srikrishna Ramamoorthy

Partner, Unitus Seed Fund | @UnitusSeedFund
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Mayank Kumar

Co-founder and MD, Upgrad
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Ragini Bajaj Chaudhary

CEO, Gray Matters Capital (India)
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Brajesh Mishra

Co-founder, Varthana
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Anurag Agarwal

Partner, Aavishkaar
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Lopa Gandhi

Founder, Ugam foundation
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Ishan Gupta

Managing Director, India, Udacity
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Gaurav Jain

Principal, Kaizen Private Equity
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Amit Mahensaria

Co-founder & CEO, Impartus
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Piyush Agrawal

CEO & Founder, Superprofs.com
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Raman Talwar

CEO and Founder Director, Simulanis
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Ali Asgar Kagzi

Co-founder, Genext Students Pvt. Ltd
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Mohan Lakhamraju

Founder and CEO, Great Learning
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Neeraj Sharma

MD & CEO, Indian School Finance Company
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Vandana Bhatnagar

Chief Program Officer, NSDC
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Pranjal Kumar

Principal, Bertelsmann India Investments
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Rohit Agarwal

Entrepreneur, Investor & Former GM, Amazon Education
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Rohit Manglik

Founder, EduGorilla

Our Sponsors & Partners

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Want to be part of it?

VCC Events opens up the avenues for participation. Join hands to be a part of India’s largest gathering of alternative investments leaders, industry stakeholders and Asia’s influential limited partners, general partners and marquee advisors. Your chance to actively participate and augment yourself as thought leaders.


Venue :

The Westin, Gurgaon

Date: December 14, 2017
Venue: The Westin, Gurgaon


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