Indonesian edtech, Zenius raises undisclosed Pre-Series B round
By Digital News Asia January 14, 2021
- Openspace & Alpha JWC join Series A funders from its US$20mil Feb 2020 raise
- Zenius claims a 70% revenue increase in 2H2020 compared to same period in 2019
Indonesia-based edtech startuo Zenius has announced a Pre-Series B funding round for an undisclosed amount. New investors Alpha JWC Ventures and Openspace Ventures join Northstar Group, Kinesys, and BeeNext from its US$20 million Series A round in February 2020.
Established in Indonesia back in 2004, Zenius brought on former Gojek COO Rohan Monga as its CEO in early 2020 and reinvented itself as an edtech startup in March 2020.
The company plans to use the new funds to further develop its platform to meet rapidly growing customer demand. It claims strong growth in 2020, with revenues rising over 70% in the second half of the year compared to the same period in 2019.
Zenius offered most of its services for free during the first half of 2020 to support the Indonesian government’s learn-from-home initiatives during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. It moved to a freemium model following a major app upgrade and rebranding in June 2020.
In the live class segment, it saw user growth of over 10X from its launch in March 2020 to December 2020 and a user retention rate of over 90%. Live classes now represent nearly 50% of Zenius’ revenue. Classes receive a 4.9 average rating (out of 5), with an average class size of 400 students and where a particular 60 minute mathematics session reaching a record breaking 10,000 users.
“Zenius is one of the most promising edtech companies we've seen. They have demonstrated over a decade of track record in proven learning outcomes while reinventing the core offering as new mediums have emerged,” says Openspace Ventures director Ian Sikora.
“We believe its proven track record will be a key differentiating factor in the rapidly evolving education landscape and we hope that the fresh round of funding will propel its growth further.”
Zenius has had a track record of developing successful alumni. In August 2020, the startup released an internal survey that reported over 15,000 of its users have passed the high-stakes national college entrance exam - UTBK.
Zenius’ alumni have gained admission to 85 public universities and 8 polytechnics, both in Indonesia and abroad.
“In-line with our purpose of bringing Indonesia’ Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) competence to the global level, we continue to work around the clock to develop new features that will help students to get the best learning outcomes through our technology,” says Rohan (pic) who previously led Gojek as COO for four years prior to 2019.
“We have recently unveiled our Automated Doubt-Solving feature via our mobile app and WhatsApp. This will provide students with solutions using the snap of a camera button. The system recommends related concept videos and practice questions to explain the thinking behind the solution, allowing students to actively apply them in the given set of practice questions,” he adds.
“This fosters a deeper learning experience that contributes to a student’s critical thinking and ability to crack tough problems and future concepts.”
Across 2020, Zenius conducted several initiatives with a multi-stakeholder approach to boost its impact on Indonesian students. For one, Zenius has strengthened its partnership with Telkomsel, the leading mobile network in Indonesia, first through Ilmupedia that offers students 30GB of learning quota, then in the Zenius Telkomsel Scholarship Test.
Meanwhile, Zenius has also launched a free Learning Management System for teachers named “Zenius untuk Guru”. This feature brought Zenius into strategic partnerships with local governments and has been used by over 6,000 teachers in Indonesia.
Related Stories :