Educomp Solutions, the largest education company in India, is looking to add 21,000 new classrooms under its flagship Smartclass program this fiscal. The company is in the process of signing up more than 11,000 classrooms during the second half of the current fiscal, in addition to the 10,000 already added in the first half of FY15.
The company has also changed its business model from hardware, content and after-sales-maintenance to that of a services provider. This is in line with Educomp's strategy to move up in the value chain. This will free up company's resources and funds and help Educomp concentrate on introducing more products into the market.
Over the last one year, Educomp has changed its financial model as well. The company is now selling the Smartclass product upfront as opposed to its earlier practice of subscription based EMI model. This has resulted in an improved cash flow.
The company currently enjoys about 50% market share in this segment. Credited with ushering in digital revolution in classrooms across India since its launch 10 years back, Educomp Smartclass is today present in around 15,000 schools in the country.
During the first half of the current financial year, the company has already installed Smartclass in 10,000 classrooms. The company is confident that it is well on its way to regaining its earlier near complete dominance in the space and expects to achieve a market share of 60% by March 2016.
Shantanu Prakash, chairman and managing director, Educomp Solutions said, "The addressable market for Smartclass is 2 lakh private schools in India, of which under 10% are currently digitized. Besides this, 14 crore children do not attend school. The need for Smartclass kind of infrastructure in schools is very high in India because of our increasing young population that needs access to quality education. We are confident that coming years will see an increased demand for digital learning innovations like Smartclass and our other new products in the country."
