Platform for payment after placement To turn the corner, Masai School introduces prepaid courses supported by IIT

Platform for payment after placement To turn the corner, Masai School introduces prepaid courses supported by IIT

Although the firm usually offers pay-after-placement courses to full-time students, these new programs are paid for in advance and are available to part-time students as well. In the event that placement is not obtained before the program's conclusion, a refund will be provided.

Masai School founder Prateek Shukla Source: ET Prateek Shukla, the founder of Masai School, a pay-after-placement firm, has revealed that the business had positive cash flow in April.

"We have maintained that the pay-after-placement model is the future of higher education and the only means of realizing India's unrealized potential since the day Masai started." Shukla expressed his satisfaction with his team's demonstration of this on the social networking site X on May 6.

Masai School has placed students steadily throughout the previous batches, but in the last month, there hasn't been any unusual rise in placements. What, therefore, caused Masai School to turn around?

The cash positivity puzzle at Masai School has one more component.

An edtech start-up supported by India Quotient In collaboration with the National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Masai School has begun to provide computer science courses.

But they are not the same courses as the Masai School program.

After non-placement, a refund?

Although the firm usually offers pay-after-placement courses to full-time students, these new programs are paid for in advance and are available to part-time students as well. In the event that placement is not obtained before the conclusion of the program, a refund will be provided. "We did not choose the pay-after-placement model because these online courses are taught by IIT professors, since it was not possible to bring scholars on board without compensation," Shukla said to Moneycontrol.

Shukla clarified that the firm would not have started offering prepaid courses if the IIT had not been engaged. "It would not have made sense to pursue a basic upskilling program without it," he said.

Even if the core model still accounts for 90% of income at the moment, he anticipates that in the next years, the share will shift, with the latter potentially contributing as much as 45%.

As a venture-funded company, we must have a sizable clientele and substantial income. We must create a source of income that is independent of the market because everything else is reliant on it, and when the market fluctuates, your company's monthly revenue might drop to zero. Any investor would not want to be in that circumstance, he said.

Though pay-after-placement courses have been at the core of the concept from its start, the head of Masai School underlined that the firm would continue to provide them in large quantities.

IIT for everyone

In collaboration with IIT Guwahati, IIT Mandi, and IIT Ropar, Masai School is providing these courses as part of the "IIT for All" project. According to Shukla, the requirements for qualifying include being enrolled in college or meeting the requirements for at least the 12th grade. He noted that since the courses are weekend-based, working professionals may also benefit from them.

"You need to dedicate nine months and twelve hours a day to join Masai today. This selection method is restricted since it is aimed at a certain group of people. College students find Masai to be popular, but they are not allowed to take part. Therefore, our goal has always been to open doors so that more people may become members of Masai," Shukla said.

Students enrolled in these courses may also choose to take part in campus immersion, which gives them access to IITs' graduation, orientation, and fest events, among other activities.

Indeed, students must pay around Rs 2 lakh for courses that last up to 14 months. "This is in contrast to the annual fee of 3.5 to four lakh rupees at IITs, which is roughly two to two and a half lakh rupees for a semester." Furthermore, I believe this is appropriate given that students obtain a minor degree that is assessed by IIT academics," Shukla said.

This implies that as soon as a student enrolls in the course, Masai School would get an upfront payment of Rs 2 lakh. In its primary vertical, the firm does indeed make over Rs 3.5 lakh in revenue per student; but, cash does not begin to flow until a student is placed.

On the strength of the two offers, Shukla now hopes to maintain positive cash flow for the next 12 months. The upskilling platform brought in almost Rs 36.84 crore in income and lost roughly Rs 39 crore in FY23.

Following three to four months of steadily positive cash flow, the business will begin approaching investors for the next round of investment, according to Shukla.

The latest $10 million Series B fundraising round was secured by Masai School in 2022. The business was recently valued at around $50 million and has raised approximately $22 million to far.