Ruangguru Acquisition of Vietnamese Edtech Platform "Mclass"

Startups EdTech Ruangguru announced the acquisition of Mclass, a platform live teaching Vietnamese origin. This is referred to as the company's strategic move to expand its reach and increase its capabilities in the region.

Ruangguru have already started expansion to Vietnam under the name Kien Guru in 2019. Vietnam became the first destination country for expansion Ruangguru because it is considered to have the same problems as those faced by Indonesia and several other developing countries in the field of education.

Co-Founder and CEO Ruangguru Belva Devara believes Mclass's reputation and expertise in online learning can further broaden offerings, enhance business and complement learning solutions Ruangguru in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.

Ruangguru also strengthened its position as one of the market leaders in Vietnam's growing edtech sector. "Our vision is to become the leading education technology company in Southeast Asia and we believe that this acquisition is a further step to achieve that goal," said Belva.

Founded by Nguyen Van Khai and Nguyen Minh Thang in 2019, Mclass works with the best teachers in the country to offer sessions live teaching in mathematics, science, literature, as well as college preparation subjects such as IELTS. In approximately four years, Mclass is said to have become a well-known online learning platform in Vietnam.

Mclass' innovative approach elicited a positive response and strong appeal among students and parents alike. This is demonstrated by the approximately 10 million followers on social media of teachers, sessions live teaching which succeeded in reaching 85 thousand student participants, and a total of 1 million replay for one learning session in 2022.

Kien Guru's K-12 online learning solutions have been used by more than 2,5 million students in Vietnam over the past four years, including learning video solutions (pre-recorded), live teaching, and special features to help students with homework questions.

This acquisition not only expands learning solutions for students, but will also provide an excellent opportunity for Mclass teachers to expand their reach and impact more students in Vietnam and beyond.

Edtech market in Vietnam

In 2019, Vietnam entered the top ten fastest growing online education markets globally and the annual growth rate was 44,3%. Currently, there are more than 200 edtech businesses in Vietnam with two million users nationwide. The Vietnamese government estimates the size of this market to be no less than $2 billion.

Reporting from local media Vietnam , market income e-learning Vietnam is expected to reach around $3 billion in 2023 with a compound annual growth rate of around 20,2% during 2019-2023 according to a Ken Research report.

Meanwhile, in the latest Do Ventures report, edtech is the third most invested field in Vietnam in the last eight years in the technology sector. Total VC investment into the edtech sector in Vietnam was $103 million, followed by payments ($462 million), and retail ($416 million). However, the field of edtech and digital transformation of education in Vietnam is still considered to be in its early stages.

One of the most active venture capital from Indonesia and also one of the first investors in Ruangguru, East Ventures, recently also invested in a language-focused online learning platform from Vietnam, Prep. This is the second Vietnamese startup this year to receive funding support from East Ventures

In a joint interview DailySocial.id, East Ventures Partner Melisa Irene said, as a country with the second largest population in the region, the digital economy growth there is quite fast. In addition, Vietnam is known as one of the suppliers of technical talent for the global digital ecosystem; which means fulfilling variables for the development of a strong local team.