Edtech startups around the country – or even the rest of the world have seen their demand spike over the past two months due to the pandemic. Schools that sometime ago were reluctant to even bother with SMS notifications are now trying their luck with learning management tools.

But what about tuition? What is that segment up to? That’s exactly what a local tech company is trying to figure out and tap on it.

Kumlaudi is a startup working out of Lahore and Bahrain that wants to bring the country’s – and region even – massive tuition market online. It lets students find instructors while offering tutors the tools to conduct lectures digitally.

Download the app, sign up with details and if you are a student, start looking for instructors by subject, location etc. You can open their profile, check the rate, send a message or book the session (only online available these days). Once timings are locked in, the two parties get a notification an hour (and then 10 minutes) before along with a link that takes you to the lecture, with the required virtual classroom tools such as screen sharing, or annotation.

As of now, payments are still made in cash or through bank transfers but the founder claims that digital channels will be integrated soon, starting with JazzCash that should be live in two weeks or so.

The startup was founded in 2018 by Adeel Abid, a Pakistani working in the Middle East, who was looking for a tennis instructor for his son.

“I was already working on a construction tech product after qualifying for a programme from my organisation that offered me one year off. But after this hunt, I decided to pivot towards education,” recalls the CEO.

Soon after he was joined by Daniyal Jawaid, a fintech professional, as the chief technology officer and co-founder.

Initially more of a platform to find offline tuition, their operations came to a halt after the Covid-19 outbreak, forcing Abid to act on his 2021 plans earlier.

“We wanted to offer learning before as well but didn’t think the market was ready. But after the lockdown, we quickly developed the virtual classroom and other required solutions and have started rebranding that as Instatute,” he says.

This is just the direct -to-consumer bit. Due to the increased demand for online learning facilities lately, Kumlaudi also jumped on the opportunity to cater to the corporate clients, by offering SaaS solutions to schools on the side.

Like all marketplaces, Kumlaudi is also exposed to model leakages, as the demand side often has the incentive to bypass the platform in order to save the middlemen’s cut. Are there plans to prevent that from happening?

“First of all, our messaging platform alerts whenever there is exchange of contact details. And for tutors, there is an earnings threshold after which they must clear their dues in order to continue availing our services, which given the recurring nature of services involved is easy to implement,” Abid explains.

The startup has two revenue streams, one each on the demand and supply sides: a certain commission is charged to the customers while a subscription fee exists for tutors to avail the online classroom facility. As for investment, Abid has been putting in his own money so far, along some help from Bahraini government grant.

Now to the competitive landscape, most of the work being done in edtech relates to ERPs for schools (Ilmversity, Queno) or content (Sabaq, NearPeer, MyInterAcademy).

Strictly on the tuition side, Dot and Line has a somewhat similar blended learning approach and the recent circumstances have forced them to move online as well.

Towards the marketplace side, Tesjo from Lahore is in the game too but it appears to largely rely on social media for its operations. And that brings us to possibly the biggest competitor to Abid’s business: Facebook groups. Though working on a community model and without a proper web portal, these platforms have amassed a significant user base and more importantly, a level of activity that is unmatched in the industry.

So how does Abid plan to carve out a share for himself in this market? “Dot and Line is very focused [with only women teachers and after-school math education], but our offline-merge-online and last-mile education offering is much broader. As for the groups, they do pose an indirect competition, but the quality of tutors can often be a problem,” says the founder.

The writer is member of staff:

m.mutaherkhan@gmail.com

Twitter: @MutaherKhan

Published in Dawn, April 26th, 2020