Pulkit Jain is a co-founder and the Product Head of Vedantu, an interactive online tutoring platform where teachers provide school tuitions to students over the internet, using a real-time virtual learning environment.
Education
Pulkit Jain graduated from Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, with a B. Tech in Chemical Engineering in 2005. During college, Jain was a chairman of Watch Out News Agency, a student news magazine at IIT Roorkee.
Early career
After graduating in 2005 from IIT Roorkee, Jain had a brief stint at EvalueServe as a Business Analyst, which he resigned in 2006 to join with three of his friends from IIT Roorkee days. Jain co-founded Lakshya Institute in Patiala, an institute in the competitive test preparation segment, along with Saurabh Saxena, Vamsi Krishna, and Anand Prakash.
At Lakshya, the team set themselves an aim to build an environment and nourish a culture which brings the best of the talent into teaching and innovating in the method of education deliverance. Lakshya expanded into a member team of 150 and with presence in Patiala, Chandigarh, Panchkula, and Bathinda. As part of Lakshya, the founders mentored and taught more than 10,000 students and trained more than 200 teachers between them. In 2012, the founders sold the majority share of Lakshya to MTEducare, a listed educational conglomerate at an evaluation of INR 300Million.
Vedantu
After Lakshya, Jain co-founded his second venture Vedantu, a Bangalore-based online tutoring platform, along with Saurabh Saxena (Head Academics), Vamsi Krishna (CEO), and Anand Prakash. Incorporated in 2011, Vedantu was launched in October 2014 for the public. The name Vedantu is said to be derived from Sanskrit words Veda-knowledge and Tantu-network.
In May 2013, Vedantu launched pilot programs, which enables any Educational enterprise to start their own Learning Apps. These can be Schools/Universities, professional training institutes, Educational Publishing houses, or any teacher. Through its powered app, Institute/Teacher can launch the marketplace on Mobile/Tablet devices for students of their paid/free Courses – increasing their reach and business.
It was announced on September 2017, that Vedantu was to hold the International Student League (ISL) second edition in November 2017.
Currently, Vedantu’s primary business is live online tutoring in Mathematics, English, Science (Physics, Chemistry, and Biology), Computer Science, Environmental Science, Social Science, French, and German. The startup offers private tutoring services from class 6 to 12 and also claims to deliver test preparation courses for Indian Institute of Technology Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Foundation, Problem Solving Assessment (PSA), Kishore Vaigyanik Protsahan Yojana Examination (KVPY), and National Talent Search Examination (NTSE). Vedantu also provides courses for National Science Olympiad and International Mathematics Olympiad.
Vedantu competes with online education startups including Unacademy, Byjus, Cuemath, Meritnation, and Toppr, among others.
Funding rounds
In July 2013, Vedantu raised $150,000 in a seed round. In August 2014, Vedantu raised $400,000 in another seed round. In May 2015, after six months of current operational format, Vedantu secured $5 million in a Series A round, co-led by Tiger Global Management and Accel Partners. Vedantu’s series A scaled up its platform so students can connect with a tutor in real-time and also make Vedantu available on mobile devices.
In November 2018, Vedantu closed $11 million in a Series B round, co-led by Silicon Valley impact investment firm Omidyar Network and also contributed by its existing investor Accel Partners, with the participation from new investor TAL Education Group. Vedantu used its investment funds for technology expansion and deeper penetration in tier two and three cities.
Vedantu has raised a total of $16.6 million in its four rounds of funding. Vedantu has $9.9 million in estimated revenue annually.
Awards and recognition
In 2015, Praxis Media recognized Vedantu as the “Most Promising and Innovative Live Online Tutoring Platform in India.” In the same year, the World Education Summit has awarded Vedantu as the Online Education Start-up of the Year. In 2016, Vedantu was named by SutraHR, among the top 100 startups to watch. Vedantu was also one of the winners of KINSES2016 EduAwards. In February 2016, Vedantu was one of the winners of the DNA Innovative Education Awards for the “Best Organization to Develop Technology for Education.”