Indian edtech startups niche down into nursing, allied healthcare upskilling

Indian edtech companies, including PhysicsWallah and leaders like upGrad co-founder Mayank Kumar and former Unacademy chief operating officer (COO) Vivek Sinha, have turned their focus to skilling in nursing and allied healthcare services over the past year, targeting a promising niche within upskilling, which has remained a brighter spot amid the broader challenges in the edtech market.

upGrad's Kumar has shifted gear to focus on this emerging sector. Kumar, on 16 October, stepped back from his operational role to launch a new venture targeting blue-collar upskilling, with a particular emphasis on nursing and geriatric care professionals.

While Kumar has not zeroed in on the model for the company, named BorderPlus, it would revolve around placement of trained AHPs (allied health professionals) in Indian and international hospitals, he told Mint. “The demand for trained nurses and AHPs has existed for some time, but now that people have understood their core businesses, they are looking at adjacent areas which they can build for triggering interest in this segment," said Kumar.

Earlier this year, he also wrote an angel cheque for Emversity, a startup led by former Unacademy COO Vivek Sinha, which operates in the same space offering degrees in allied health like anaesthesia and operation theatre technology, medical laboratory technology, emergency and trauma care, dialysis technology and so on. These university-integrated courses are long duration, from three to four years, with guaranteed paid internships, the company’s website showed.

Also read | Upskilling 2.0: Edtechs partner with top universities for joint degrees amid sluggish hiring trends

On 19 April, the company announced its seed funding of $11 million from Matrix Partners India, Lightspeed, and angel investors like Oyo group CEO and founder Ritesh Agarwal and Unacademy CEO and co-founder Gaurav Munjal, apart from Kumar.

While the platform also plans to train and recruit candidates for blue-collar job roles in industries like education, construction, and hospitality, it started this year with a focus on nursing upskilling.

“This problem had been bothering me for some time. Every year, massive number of Indians waste their lives for government and other test-prep exams with exceptionally low acceptance rates," Sinha told Mint, adding that it is important to find alternative employment with better pay for them.

Meanwhile, other players like PhysicsWallah’s PW Skills have been increasing their presence in this segment. In January, the company launched a specialised nursing course, designed to provide guidance and support for aspiring nurses and healthcare professionals.

Later in August this year, the company doubled down on this segment with the launch of PW School of Healthcare across Noida, Indore, Lucknow, Patna and Delhi. The vertical offers job-assured, university-affiliated vocational degrees in medical lab technology and operation theatre technology.

The rising demand for allied health professionals and nurses, both domestically and internationally, is driving Indian edtech companies to focus on upskilling in this sector. As traditional edtech sectors slow, companies are pivoting to address this critical skills gap through targeted training and placement programs.

Edtech’s new gold rush

A Sattva Consulting report in 2021 showed that India is short of over 64 lakh AHPs, with only 8 doctors, 6 nurses and 8 AHPs per 10,000 Indians, falling considerably short of the WHO-recommended minimum of 44.5 professionals for a population of this size.

“Those who do exist also suffer from a poor quality of education, which prevented them from securing proper placements. As a result, hospitals are struggling to find qualified professionals in allied healthcare," said Shyam Menon, co-founder of Bharat Innovation Fund, an early-stage venture capital firm.

This is a massive gap that has been identified and is now being addressed through technology and underutilized university facilities, he added.

The rising interest in this sector also comes as growth in revenue for prominent edtech firms like upGrad and Unacademy has slowed from earlier high multiples in FY21 and FY22 to low double-digit percentages in FY23 and FY24, amid rising competition, slowing demand for online learning and reduced growth spending amid a shifting focus towards profitability.

Funding in Indian edtech companies saw a significant surge, from $599 million in 2019 to $4 billion in 2021, driven by the shift to home-based learning during the pandemic, according to Tracxn data. However, by September this year, investment in the sector had plummeted to just $325 million, as demand for online learning declined and skepticism grew, particularly following the downfall of Byju's, once the industry's most valued company.

Also read | Edtech funding crisis sucks in two-decade-old firm and its thousands of students

“The demand and supply gap in that (core edtech spaces) has now largely been met with the number of players in the market. The focus is shifting to where the next opportunities lie, which is in more niche applications. Today, you start with broad areas like test prep or healthcare. Over time, you move to specific verticals, and even within those, to more specialized skilling—for example, training for MRI or X-ray technicians," said Menon.

As the broader horizontal gaps are filled, the skilling market will become increasingly focused on specific capabilities within industries, he added.

Edtech companies like upGrad, Unacademy, PhysicsWallah, Simplilearn, and Great Learning, among others have started exploring avenues including B2B upskilling, study abroad, language learning, co-branded online degrees, and medical upskilling among other areas.

Earlier this month, Mint reported that Indian upskilling startups like PhysicsWallah’s PW Skills and Simplilearn are starting to offer co-branded online degrees with top institutions, focusing on STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), AI, data science, commerce, and arts.

In India, for the world

Now, companies are also starting to build for sectoral problems more specific to India, with no existing scaled-up global examples validating entry into the Indian market.

“India’s large population and potential market size made it worthwhile for investors to back multiple companies, even if only a few succeeded. However, in healthcare upskilling and training, no established global models exist outside of universities," said Gerald Jaideep, CEO of Apollo-backed Medvarsity.

Healthcare professionals are divided into three categories - doctors, nursing professionals and AHPs. Companies like Medvarsity and Manipal Global Education’s MedAce have been built with a focus on the first category. The newer startups are going further down the value chain, building courses and helping place nurses and AHPs.

According to Avantika Tomar, partner and education expert at EY-Parthenon India, healthcare in India has been curative rather than preventive, with people consulting doctors primarily for treatment rather than routine health checks.

Also read | Even Healthcare’s hospital push: Filling India’s secondary care gap

“This is beginning to change in urban areas as education levels, affluence, and awareness increase. More individuals are now investing in preventive healthcare, such as annual health check-ups, dietitians, and nutritionists, resulting in AHPs now being recognized as crucial to the healthcare ecosystem," Tomar added.

upGrad's Kumar agreed and said that in India, blue-collar workers with added skills historically did not receive any additional salary benefits. “With the changing landscape today, the ecosystem is now valuing skilled workers and offering them a slight premium. Once this premiumization of skilling takes hold, you begin to see people entering the market," he said.

Growing funding to hospitals has also triggered premiumization. Private equity investors are increasingly favoring Indian hospitals, which attracted $5.5 billion investment in India last year, according to consulting firm Bain & Company.

Meanwhile, within nursing, most of the demand comes from abroad, especially as India was positioned as a key supplier of skilled medical professionals to fill gaps in other countries' systems during the pandemic . “Indian nurses are in high demand internationally, particularly in regions like the Gulf, the America, and the Pacific, where local healthcare systems struggle to meet staffing needs," Tomar added.

Previously, the Philippines was the largest exporter of nurses to the world. However, in 2020, the country banned overseas employment for nurses and other healthcare workers as its own healthcare system began to struggle, creating more opportunities for India.