Profitable Indian edtech startup prioritizes slow growth over hyperscaling

Mayank Singh has a master’s degree in computer science, and he entered the IT industry in 2013 as a technical support executive in Ahmedabad, Gujarat in India. Over the next four years, Singh worked in four different companies, mainly in customer support roles.

In 2017, he, along with his two other friends Sandeep Verma and Shashank Trivedi, founded edtech firm Campus 365. The company, which had been bootstrapped until 2021, recorded a revenue growth of over 4x last year. Its revenue figure rose to US$288,000 in the financial year ending March 2023, up from US$58,000 in FYE 2022.

(From left) Sandeep Verma, Mayank Singh, and Shashank Trivedi / Photo credit: Campus 365

The edtech company has also been profitable at an operating level. “In FYE 2o22, our EBITDA margin was approximately 25%. However, in the last financial year, we reported an EBITDA of only 5%. Currently, this year, our EBITDA is hovering around 8% to 10%,” says Singh.

While the company recorded a net profit of roughly US$20,000 in FYE 2022, it experienced a slight loss of US$4,800 in FYE 2023. In the current financial year, the company is on track to hit profitability and has booked around US$10,800 in takings, says Singh.

Campus 365 is an all-in-one school management system that offers solutions for overseeing administrative and academic activities. These include managing online admissions, fee processing, employee payroll functions, examinations, grade books, and more.

This financial year, the company expects its revenue to grow 247%, reaching approximately US$1 million. It’s also eyeing a projected profit of 10% to 15%. However, it still has much ground to cover to reach this target. As of August 2023, it has collected only US$144,000 in revenue.

Singh spoke to Tech in Asia in detail about Campus 365’s financials and its fundraising journey.

What’s your pitch to customers? Why should they use your solution over alternatives?

There are about 10 different companies selling similar products in the enterprise resource planning (ERP) market now. Everyone has a unique selling point, whether it’s in terms of features or a specific essential feature that sets the company apart.

One such feature of ours is called Campus Collect, which we introduced about six months ago. This feature emerged from market research involving approximately 2,000 schools in our portfolio, and one common issue they faced was fee collection.

In urban areas, companies offer various solutions like sharing notices via SMS, WhatsApp, or email. However, when you move to Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities, parents might not access email as frequently. While they may have an email address, they tend to rely more on SMS and notifications.

Even with these services in place, there’s still a gap – roughly 70% of parents miss payment deadlines. For instance, if a school’s payment deadline is on the 10th of the month, only 30% of parents pay on time.

Campus Collect was created to ensure that schools receive the missing 70% of payments before the due date.