HT Media is investing CAD$ 10 million ( approx Rs 51 crore) in Canada-based edtech startup betterU, which has operations in countries like India and China. The media group announced the development in its stock-exchange filing and said that betterU is in the process of seeking approval from Canada’s TSX Venture Exchange which is expected by March 1, 2018.
HT Media said that the investment will be made in 8 quarterly tranches of CAD$ 1.25 Million each, during the deal tenure of 2 years.
Incorporated as betterU Education Corporation, the ed-tech startup aggregates courses for K-12, skills development, higher education and self-interest. It also provides courses for professional development. betterU has tied up with education providers, such as BSE Varsity, Udemy, EdX, and Merit Nation, to name a few, and offers their courses to customers in developing countries like India and China. The startup claims that it has a course inventory of 1,000 programmes and has collaborated with 10,000 vendors for content aimed at skill development, education and employment.
Headquartered in Canada, betterU has offices in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore. Launched in 2016, the ed tech platform is a marketplace of education programs ranging from KG-12 courses to professional courses, skill development, self-interest training and employment services etc.
Hinting exit from recruitment services?
Note that, HT Media recently launched a separate e-learning marketplace Shine Learning as part of its job portal Shine.com. Targeted at working professionals, Shine Learning offers mostly paid courses & certifications. The platform offers industry and government recognized certifications, course recommendations, user reviews. Why? Note that Ht Media’s job portal Shine.com, which competes with Naukri, is consistently making a loss and is finding it difficult to scale. Shine.com went live on March 26th 2008, and the business was launched in 2007, and it is yet to make a profit. In its earning call for Q3FY18, an investor even asked HT whether there is any plan to close down Shine.com.
Read our E-learning coverage here.
