Peak XV-supported With its first physical location in Gurugram, QMath joins the offline sphere

 Peak XV-supported With its first physical location in Gurugram, QMath joins the offline sphere

By 2024, the business intends to open five of these centers, with a particular emphasis on Gurugram, Bengaluru, and Abu Dhabi, where it already has a significant office presence.

For QMath, life has fully circled around. The Pinnacle

"Offline will undoubtedly have to be a major part of the long-term strategy for India," QMath's founder and CEO, Manan Khurma, who just opened the new facility, told Moneycontrol.

When Khurma first established QMath in 2013, the company's innovative curriculum was taught to students in the Kindergarten to Standard 12 portion while they were at home, assisted by certified teachers. When the epidemic broke, the firm switched to an online model.

"This time, it will be company-run retail centers; previously, it was on domestic centers with no capital expenditure involved," Khurma said.

The recently opened learning center, according to QMath, is a physical setting featuring math classrooms, math play spaces with real math manipulatives, and a math library.

This comes after Khurma previously told Moneycontrol that some customers' decision to go offline in the wake of the epidemic had an effect on the company's aspirations for India. Khurma had predicted at the time that the Indian market, which contributed around 35% of its income, would account for no more than 25% of its revenue the following year.

We still have a lot of foundation work to do in the next year, so income growth is not our main goal. We can start acting aggressively and bringing in significant amounts of money for the company next year. However, the majority of our growth will still come from our overseas sector, at least in the next year.

plans for offline growth

With her past expertise in offline business, Khurma thinks the organization would face challenges. He said that rather than expanding too quickly, QMath would concentrate on developing the local team that is appropriate for each center in 2024, as well as generating favorable unit economics.

In 2024, the business intends to establish five such centers in Bengaluru, Gurugram, and Abu Dhabi, where it now has a significant office presence. According to Khurma, the business is also active in Singapore, the US, and the UK, but it intends to test the concept in these regions first.

"We'll operate a few facilities in each of these locations—probably not more than five. The model's economics, delivery system, educational program, and infrastructure will all be enhanced. We will increase our capital investment for the next year once we are certain that this is a model we can adhere to, Khurma said.

Among its principal sponsors are Alpha Wave, LightRock India, Peak XV (formerly Sequoia Capital India), CapitalG (previously Google Capital), Manta Ray, and Unitas. It raised $57 million in June 2022, more than tripling its worth to $407 million.

According to Khurma, the business is in a good position to use its bank cash to finance the initial wave of centers. "We may look at raising funds if we decide to scale up this model and open the next batch of centers," the man said.

This follows two waves of layoffs that the business conducted in May and August of this year, during which it let go of over 200 workers. Khurma does not anticipate any further personnel reductions since she thinks Qemath is now in a secure position.

In order to support its offline growth, he added, the firm intends to recruit between 1,000 and 2,000 teachers over the course of the next six months.

Undoubtedly, the edtech industry has seen phenomenal development in the pure online model over the last two years as a result of the pandemic-induced lockdown's increased need for distant learning.

But in May 2022, when edtech unicorns Byju's and Unacademy went offline, the back-to-offline movement started. The decision by the two biggest edtech unicorns in India also brought attention to the decline in demand that followed the establishment of schools and existing tuition centers, as well as the relaxation of licensing limitations.