Vernacular learning app Entri raises $1.4 million seed funding led by Good Capital

Entri works on the philosophy that learning concepts are the most effective when done in the native language.
Vernacular learning app Entri raises $1.4 million seed funding led by Good Capital
Vernacular learning app Entri raises $1.4 million seed funding led by Good Capital
Written by:

Entri, a learning app in local languages has crossed a milestone of 1.6 million users and has raised Seed round of $1.4 million lead by Good Capital

When it is online content that is relevant to securing jobs, in government or private sector, it ought to be a successful formula. That is precisely what Entri has done. This is a startup in the edu-tech space and helps people learn all important subjects in the vernacular languages instead of English.

The concept is based on two or three basic facts available in the Indian context. First is there is dearth of material, especially online, to learn in a local language. It’s all in English or in Hindi. The second is there are several skill sets which can be acquired by an individual without the knowledge of English. The third is there are brilliant minds out there who can be successfully employed but they are deprived of the opportunity since they have had their education throughout in the local language or their mother tongue and the tests for employment are held in English.

Mohammed Hisamuddin, who hails from Kerala, has identified this void and has floated Entri. He has developed a learning app that is in the local language. The app hosts content in the form of mock/adaptive tests, flashcards and video lessons, all delivered in the vernacular language.

Entri is currently available in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Hindi. The app has seen 1.6 million users so far and another 6,000 users are getting added each day. The founders want to lift this number to 5 million in the next 12 months and 10 million in 1and a half years.

“What we have experienced at Entri is that when we provide quality content in their mother tongue they understand and grasp it far better than English for obvious reasons. This is the problem Entri is solving, and the platform has so far seen users consume more than 1 crore minutes of video lessons and 27 crore questions practiced in local languages,” Mohammed says.

Entri began by including a database of questions that have appeared in exams conducted by the government in Kerala for recruitments to various posts. That has now risen to over 300,000 questions in different languages and 1,000 videos. This covers in all five languages. They keep adding more content, like Spoken English and skills needed to work on the MS Office programmes. The management claims some 10,000 people have been able to get jobs in government after using the content in Entri.

In terms of funding, Entri recently closed a round of $1.4 million led by Good Capital. The round also saw participation from investors in the US and China. Entri is a part of Boston-based EdTech accelerator LearnLaunch. 

“Frankly, it’s ridiculous that economic opportunities suffer a bottleneck in India because of the medium of learning. Skills like Excel or project management shouldn’t require people to be proficient in English. Starting with the 100mn people who apply for government jobs every year, Entri is expanding the universe of employable candidates by skilling people in their own language – as it should be,” Arjun Malhotra,  Partner at Good Capital said in a statement.

Related Stories

No stories found.
The News Minute
www.thenewsminute.com