Edtech Pendidikan.id Startup Claims Breakthrough Profitability, Prepares for Series A Round

Startups EdTech Education.id, known for its products Kipin (Smart Kiosk), revealed that he was in the process of raising a series A to launch the company's expansion plan to schools in rural and 3T areas which are difficult to access the internet. With the B2B2C model and targeting schools as users, it is claimed that the company's finances have entered the profitability stage.

To DailySocial, CEO of Pendidikan.id Santoso Suratso explained that the company started Kipin to answer the needs of students in remote areas who have had difficulty getting internet access.

The position of the company is slightly different compared to the players EdTech others, mostly making website or application-based solutions, Kipin is in the form of a kiosk resembling an ATM in which there are materials that students can access without the need for an internet network.

"Kipin ATM answered and provided a solution to all of this, so for schools, the village hall is very happy because it really helped them," he said.

He continued, in the ranks of investors at Pendidikan.id there is Garden Impact, an investor from Singapore who focuses on investing in commercially sustainable businesses. They entered Education.id in 2016 for the initial stage of investment, then added twice, in 2018 and 2019.

The funds obtained are used for research and product development. Another investor, there is a local property company The Paradise Group (Indonesian Paradise Property). In the Garden Impact portfolio, there are also companies EdTech which focuses on finance, namely DanaDidik.

Kipin's Progress

The company places Kipin as a learning support infrastructure in the PJJ (Distance Learning) era so that schools have a learning method where students are still present in class, even though they are not physically present at school to access the content provided by Kipin. There are more than 2500 school textbooks, videos, practice questions try out based on UNBK, up to 350 comics.

All this content is already in the machine, so the operation of this machine does not use the internet, only electricity. Thus, both students and teachers can access and download all this content to their devices without credit or quota because there is already an 'eduSPOT' wifi network in the machine.

Every month Kipin ATM will beUpdate automatically, so users will always get the latest subject matter. Additional technologies found in ATMs include: backup power, including spare battery. If the electricity connection is suddenly lost, then Kipin ATM can still last a few hours.

“Kipin is free for all students because the school bought it (B2B2C), so children who are less well off can still use it. Even if the device does not have a SIM card, it can still run because there is eduSPOT technology in Kipin. One kiosk can serve one school with up to 500 students.”

Santoso continued, “We created this innovation ourselves based on Pak Jokowi's idea. These are all research results and Development yearly, already from seven years ago.”

Besides Kipin ATM, the company also has other products, namely Kipin PTO, a learning evaluation system and paperless exam without internet that is in accordance with the Minimum Competency Assessment (AKM). This AI-powered device helps teachers during PJJ because all exam questions are solved with a cellphone, tablet, or laptop and do not need to be connected to the internet.

Equipped with system upload questions with Ms.Word and Ms.Excel, exam results will appear shortly after completion, there is a time management system for starting and ending exams, and supports essay questions with weights determined by the teacher.

"With AI features, teachers can save time, there are" auto grading, and others. It's all digital, paperless, so it's cost-effective.”

Santoso even claims that in this PJJ era, Kipin adoption remains high because teachers who have used Kipin feel happy because there are no differences and already understand how work works.

Currently, the products made by Pendidikan.id have been used by schools in rural areas such as in Jambi, Banten, Bandung, Purwokerto, Semarang, Surabaya, Lombok, North Kalimantan, East Kalimantan, Gorontalo, Palu, Kupang, as well as in Greater Jakarta.

The total Education.id team is said to have reached 100 people. Team engineer in the company is divided into three divisions, namely for the development of educational content, hardware and design, and , web, and applications.