In conversation with Maneesh Dhooper, Co-Founder of PlanetSpark about the present usage of new techniques in learning English.
1) What motivated the founders to take their business to international markets?
The vision behind PlanetSpark has been to build a very large global learning company. We were witnessing excellent traction and customer love in India. We also received some organic requests from US and Canada through word of mouth. While serving these customers, we realized that personalized attention was a very high need for them and teaching internationally was a very strong proposition for our top teachers.
With excellent customer feedback and learnings from initial customers, we have ramped up our international team and are growing our international business at 40-50 percent month on month.
Language learning is a strong need across all geographies. However, it is very difficult for an edtech company in the US or Europe to provide personalized live language learning to a child. This is because of high cost of labour that makes it very prohibitive to build a large company. With a strong cost advantage, new-age content and a large pool of highly qualified teachers makes PlanetSpark uniquely placed to grow internationally and capture market share. This is a unique opportunity to build a global company from India, or ‘Vokal for Global from Local’.
2) What type of courses does PlanetSpark offer to foreign customers?
PlanetSpark offers highly personalized 1:1 English language learning with a highly qualified teacher and proprietary self-owned content. We English language learning courses in English Reading Comprehension, Grammar, Creative Writing, Communication and Phonics. We also offer programs in Mental Maths, Coding and Robotics.
3) What are your future plans?
In the next quarter, we are aggressively expanding our international team and are looking to roll out around 100 offers. This will help us expand further in our existing international markets and also expand into new regions such as the Middle East, Australia and Europe. We are also c to the needs of these geographies to offer a more customized value proposition.
4) What is the overall percentile for demand you’re getting for the languages, STEM and creative arts courses respectively?
Languages is our most dominant category with 80 percent revenue coming from languages. This is followed by STEM and Creative arts. We are looking to achieve a dominant position in the language learning market.
