Indonesian edutech startup Zenius acquired local offline cram school chain Primagama. According to a source, this acquisition includes all offline branches of the institution in the country. According to a statement on Primagama’s site, the company currently operates more than 250 branches in various provinces in Indonesia, serving four million students with 3,000 employees. It operates using the franchise model.

By the time this article was published, DailySocial has reached out to a Zenius representation.

Founded by Sabda PS and Medy Suharta, Zenius is known as one of the pioneers of online tutoring services in Indonesia. They debuted with offline tutoring and packaged material on DVD before becoming a fully online service.

Primagama itself was founded in 1982. The collaboration between the two organisations will allow the integration of online-to-offline learning models or blended learning, utilising their infrastructure and capabilities.

Previously, in the early 2010s, Primagama has developed an online service called PrimagamaPlus. However, due to a premature market, the service did not manage to gain traction as direct (offline) tutoring remained the primadonna of the time. Currently, the applications are available to support the learning process, but there has not been much traction.

Zenius’ corporate action was held amidst the collapse of many offline tutoring businesses due to the pandemic. The school-from-home scheme as introduced by the authority throughout the pandemic has caused declining demand for offline tutoring, especially when edutech services are gaining popularity.

On the other hand, Zenius’s collaboration with Primagama has the potential to provide a more engaging learning experience, especially once offline learning activities resume.

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According to the 2021 KPAI survey, 78 per cent of students demand to return to class. Virtual spaces are considered less effective. Fifty-seven per cent of students find it difficult to follow the subject matter and conduct practicum.

Zenius growth

Zenius currently has several products with the best-selling being its online tutoring service. Throughout the 2019/2020 school year, the Zenius tutoring application was accessed by more than 20 million users. It contains around 100,000 learning videos and practise questions that are accessible for free. In addition to that, Zenius also provides Live Class services for direct guidance with selected teachers; there is also a written national exam simulation and several other learning products.

Apart from formal learning, the company also provides Zenius Land app for toddlers, ZenPro for professional learning with more general subjects, and teaching management platform ZenRu, in addition to its focus on students.

In early 2021, Zenius secured a Pre-Series B round backed by a number of investors, including Alpha JWC Ventures, Openspace Ventures, Northstar, Kinesys, and BeeNext. Earlier, they announced an investment of US$20 million in a Series A round. Zenius’s valuation is currently estimated at over US$100 million.

Market competition and value proposition

Indonesian edutech sector is growing rapidly. The two head-to-head players in the market are Ruangguru and Zenius – statistically, Ruangguru’s site visits and application downloads are far more superior. In addition to that, the two companies owned similar sub-product variants.

Zenius puts a strong emphasis on providing quality learning materials. Instead of driving students to simply memorise information, the materials by Zenius stresses the importance of understanding fundamental concepts and critical thinking through various case studies.

Apart from Zenius and Ruangguru, a number of edutech startups are performing a manoeuvre in the market. Recently, CoLearn secured a Series A funding of IDR244 billion (US$16 million). The app heavily focused on math and science subjects, helping students complete homework independently. Other than that, there are also Pahamify, Squline, and others.

Also Read: How edutech is solving the global teacher’s crisis

The presence of Primagama in Zenius’ line of business has the potential to strengthen its value proposition once it succeeds in wrapping up a hybrid learning experience – this could also be the first in Indonesia.

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The article was written by Randi Eka Yonida in Bahasa Indonesia for DailySocial.

Image Credit: torwai

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