Indonesian education platform Ruangguru, which claims to serve 15M+ students and 300K+ teachers, raises $150M Series C led by General Atlantic and GGV Capital (Aditya Hadi Pratama/Tech in Asia)

Ruangguru, a platform allowing teachers to manage their schedules via video, wants to double their monthly users to 15M+ and add 300K+ teachers this year. With that growth comes a higher demand for qualified teachers, which they can deliver only if they can quickly hire top educators to support their system. This post outlines how they did it, which includes:

1. Building an ecosystem of teachers and schools willing to pay for their services.
2. An extensive marketing campaign to attract users.
3. Leveraging video and the platform itself to recruit and retain teachers.

 What is Indonesian education platform Ruangguru?

Founded by two graduates of Harvard Business School, Ruangguru is an education platform for school teachers, parents and students that aims to increase motivation and learning through real-time data sharing and personalized learning experiences. Ruangguru launched its iOS and Android apps, allowing the company to communicate directly with schools and teachers and connect the app with the school’s database. Using the Ruangguru app, parents and students can keep track of their children’s grades, assignments, and learning progress. Parents can even see their child’s classroom activities, such as drawing, writing, and math lessons.  Indonesian education platform Ruangguru, which claims to serve 15M+ students and 300K+ teachers, raises $150M Series C led by General Atlantic and GGV Capital.

How Ruangguru claims to serve 15M+ students and 300K+ teachers?

The company, founded in 2012 by a group of Indonesian high school students who wanted to build a platform to help teachers and students connect, is gaining traction. It currently serves 1M students and over 250K teachers with its product, Ruangguru. Its goal is to make learning in school easier and more efficient for teachers and students. The company’s product, Ruangguru, is a web-based tool that allows teachers and students to collaborate, communicate, share notes, access homework and assignments, keep track of grades, and save classroom resources. The idea is that by combining the needs of teachers and students, the platform is helping to improve teaching quality and efficiency.  

How Ruangguru raises $150M Series C led by General Atlantic and GGV Capital?

Indonesian education platform Ruangguru, which claims to serve 15M+ students and 300K+ teachers, raises $150M Series C led by General Atlantic and GGV Capital. Indonesia’s largest tech company (which counts Netflix, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Spotify, and Uber among its customers) and a top-ranked online learning platform have raised $150M in a Series C round of funding led by General Atlantic and GGV Capital, the firm’s flagship fund. Ruangguru is based in Indonesia and claims to have more than 15 million registered students. The new funding brings the total raised to $300M, with existing investors including GV, Firstmark Capital, RTPI, MMC Growth Partners, and others. Ruangguru CEO and Founder Arif Rahardjo told TechCrunch that the new round of funding would be used to expand the platform internationally.

Conclusion

This round marks a milestone for the Indonesian education marketplace as it raises its Series C funding at a significant growth rate and represents an important moment in the market. Ruangguru is on track to reach 20M users and 50M active learning hours in 2019. The company’s recent success has been enabled by its data-driven approach to personalizing learning experiences, leveraging AI to automate and scale personalized feedback and assessment, and bringing mobile and social platforms to the classroom. The Series C financing round was led by General Atlantic and GGV Capital and was joined by existing investors. The Series B round was co-led by GGV Capital and Social Capital. It took place in September 2014, and Ruangguru has now raised $275 million across two rounds.

FAQs

1. What is Ruangguru?

Ruangguru is an education platform that allows teachers and students to collaborate and connect.

2. How did you come up with the idea?

My co-founder, Surya Purnomo, and I were both in high school when we started the company. We had a lot of friends in the same situation. We wanted to find a way to help them connect and learn together.

3. Who are your investors?

General Atlantic and GGV Capital.

4. What is your mission?

Our mission is to empower teachers and students to connect and learn together.