EdTech Startup Zenius Reportedly Raises 283 Billion Rupiah from Northstar Group

A trusted source comes with information that the edtech platform, Zenius, one of the firsts in this industry, has received funding worth $20 million (around 283 billion Rupiah) from Northstar Group (probably through its venture capital). Zenius' CEO, Sabda PS avoids making any comment on this issue.

The edtech sector is currently evolving. Tech-based education platforms aim to enhance the quality of student learning, not limited to classroom activities.

Without any specific player dominating the market, Ruangguru is said to lead in this vertical and one of the centaurs with over $100 million valuations according to the Startup Report 2018. They're projected to be the next unicorn. Aside from tutoring, they've expanded to some other segments, such as Ruangkerja for employees and Skill Academy for those who want to learn non-academic subjects.

The raised funding, supposed to be the first external funding for the company based on Crunchbase, will tighten up the competition and innovation in the edtech sector to have better solutions.

Was founded in 2007, Zenius is a paid online course targeting all academic levels, starting from elementary school up to SBMPTN (Joint Entrance Exam for Public University). The subscription fees vary from 172 thousand Rupiah per month up to 650 thousand Rupiah per year. Zenius is said to create over 80 thousand education videos.

After this funding, Gojek's former COO, Rohan Monga is to be appointed as the new CEO. Sabda PS will take the Chairman position, and the other two co-founders (Medy Suharta and Wisnu OPS) are still helping the company grow.

–Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian