NEA-IndoUS Ventures has invested $2.25mn in Idenizen Smartware, an education technology provider.
Smartcampus is a comprehensive smart card-enabled software solution which integrates all key activities of an educational institution onto a single software-enabled platform and automates several functions within an institution – department administration, staff profile, staff and student attendance, staff payroll, examinations, library management, accounting, student information systems, and hostel management, among others [via]
This is a growing market and I know of few college based startups who are pretty much trying to do the same. The market is quite nascent and the competition here is not among the companies, but with the bureaucracy that is deep rooted in most of the institutions.
Infact, Google too is pushing it’s apps to colleges but hasn’t been very successful so far (but it’s just a matter of time – they have got IIM B &K as partners).
What’s your opinion on this market?
Ashish
I am not sure if the market is “nascent”. I know of at least 2 dozens firms selling these school/campus management systems. And I am sure there are dozens more in every city. They are all selling similar software, same set of features with no real differentiators. Its a bad market actually. Price points vary hugely. And since school admins aren’t smart enough to appreciate a good product, everyone has to suffer because of it.
Like you said the main issue is with fighting the “bureaucracy”. Corruption is also deeply rooted in the Indian education system – be it public or private. And I guess that is also something most companies rely on to sell their products.
I have spent two years selling to Indian schools and my take is its very difficult to build a large scalable business in this market. The time it takes to make a sale and then the level of support and service the schools expect makes it really difficult.
In fact the bureaucracy and my inability to deal with it was the main reason I decided to shift my focus on stuff that can be done mainly online, with minimum interference of schools.
GVFL funded company, CEON, is into similar market. http://www.ceon.in