Ruangguru edtech startup announced $55 million (over 800 billion Rupiah) funding led by Tiger Global Management. This is a follow on round of the series C announced in 2019, led by General Atlantic and GGV Capital.
GGV Capital also topped up in this latest round, followed by the ranks of Ruangguru’s early investors, East Ventures, Venturra Capital, UOB Venture Management, and others. The additional fresh funding is said to accelerate Ruangguru’s business expansion in three countries (Indonesia, Vietnam and Thailand) in the K-12 segment (SD, SMP, and SMA) and non-formal education.
In an official statement, Tiger Global Management’s Partner, Evan Feinberg said, as the leading edtech player in Southeast Asia, Ruangguru is ready to further transform and enhance the landscape for K-12 and adult learning. “We are very pleased to be partnering with them as they continue to innovate solutions for this market and advance high quality education for students of all ages,” he said, Monday (19/4).
GGV Capital’s Managing Partner, Jixun Foo added, “Our continued investment in Ruangguru proves our confidence in their commitment to advancing quality education for all [..] We will continue to support companies with a long-term impact on our future through educational technology.”
Edtech is GGV’s premier global investment thesis with portfolio companies such as Zuoyebang, Vedantu, HuoHua, and LiuLiShuo (NYSE: LAIX).
Ruangguru’s Co-Founder and CEO, Belva Devara expressed his high enthusiasm for the entrance of Tiger Global and with the sustainable support from GGV Capital. “We share the same vision of the world with access to quality education for all. Ruangguru has continued to have a strong growth trajectory in the past year and this investment will help us grow our business further and make a significant impact on education, through technology,” Belva said.
Product development at Ruangguru
In addition, with the accelerating adoption of online learning due to the global Covid-19 pandemic, Ruangguru has driven significant user volume growth throughout 2020. It is claimed that Ruangguru has served more than 22 million users throughout the country and achieved the highest Net Promoter Score (NPS) across all product categories and doubled the revenue growth, marking its first year of profitability.
The company arrived in Thailand with StartDee brand in 2020, and under the KienGuru brand the previous year in Vietnam. In Indonesia, it is said that Ruangguru is able to maintain a leadership position (based on user base) in the Live Tutoring segment through the Brain Academy and RuangBelajar+.
Furthermore, they released another product vertical, Roboguru, an AI-supported homework breaker with Photo Search and User Generated Content (UGC) technology to facilitate students in understanding difficult exercises. Also, launching the English Academy, an affordable online live teaching class with a Cambridge curriculum to cater the K-12 students and adults.
“The Skill Academy has served more than 3 million users, Ruangguru’s lifelong learning product is only 1 year after its launch. Skill Academy has positioned itself as a market leader in its category and winning Google Play Best of 2020 for Personal Growth,” Belva added.
In order to deepen market penetration throughout the pandemic, Ruangguru launched several social initiatives to have an impact on education. Among them are Ruangguru Free Online School to ensure learning sustainability, there are more than 10 million students in Indonesia accessing the service.
Also, in order to support distance learning during the lockdown, Ruangguru provides free access to Ruangkelas, the Learning Management System (LMS) platform that has been used by thousands of schools in 480 districts in Indonesia. Teachers are given free access to an online library of more than 250 teaching modules. There are more than 200 thousand teachers accessing the online library.
Ruangguru’s Co-founder & Chief Product and Partnership Officer, Iman Usman, added, “Ruangguru now has strong investors with expertise in the education industry. We plan to leverage their expertise and network to further enhance our products and our team. Therefore, it can help us in offering world-class educational products. We will continue to fulfill our mission to provide quality education for millions of students in Southeast Asia.”
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Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian