Why Flipkart, Ola, Google India bosses are backing this mobile tutoring app

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The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and BITS are India’s premier engineering colleges. The competition to get into these colleges is fierce and a lucrative coaching industry has mushroomed on the back of this demand.

Edtech startup HashLearn aims to disrupt this industry with a mobile app that connects college entrance aspirants with the students of these colleges who become their personal coaches. Today, it announced funding by Binny Bansal, CEO and co-founder of Flipkart; Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO and co-founder of Olacabs; Rajan Anandan, Google MD for Southeast Asia and India; and other leading angels. “HashLearn is a fine example of a product leveraging mobile technology for large-scale impact,” says Binny.

Just how big an impact HashLearn is out to make can be seen from the following mind-blowing numbers about the college entrance scene in India.

Multitudes of aspirants for scarce seats

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Last year, over 1.3 million students appeared for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE Main) for admission to engineering colleges across India. Of these, the top 152,000 (less than 12 percent) were shortlisted for the JEE Advanced test, which is the qualifier for the IITs. Out of those, 117,238 scored above 75 percent marks in their school board exams to become eligible to appear for the JEE Advanced test. Finally, 26,456 qualified for admission to the 16 IITs – a miniscule 2 percent of the 1.3 million who began the process with JEE Main.

Meanwhile, for BITSAT, the test for admission to the three campuses of BITS, 180,000 students appeared and less than 2,000 qualified – about 1 percent.

A huge coaching industry is thriving on this desperation to get into the premier colleges. Industry body Assocham pegged it at US$40 billion for 2015. A committee set up by the government to look into this unregulated industry estimates that students spend US$3.5 billion on coaching for engineering college entrance exams alone. A two-year course at one of the popular coaching centers can cost anything between US$3,000 and US$6,000.

Disrupting the coaching industry

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HashLearn believes life could be a lot easier for the multitude of students gunning for a seat at the top-tier engineering institutes if they had access to high quality coaching in a more affordable and convenient way. Mobile tech and the rapid spread of smartphone usage make that possible.

The HashLearn app – only on Android as of now – connects students to tutors who have cracked these tough exams themselves.

Many of the tutors are students of the premier IITs and BITS who become personal coaches of the aspirants. The added advantage of this model is easy access to a tutor for questions large and small – a privilege only available otherwise to the affluent who can afford personal tutors of high caliber.

Well-funded players in the field