Nesianetwork.id - The approximate news comes from the world of Startup Edutech, Zenius, which has been established since 2004, announced the temporary suspension of its operations in an official statement circulating on social media X aka Twitter.
After 20 years of existence accompanying thousands of students in studying at elementary, middle school, high school, UTBK, independent exams and preparation for entering college, in fact they had to give up because of the conditions.
The fall of Zenius as an edutech startup adds to the long list of collapses of several similar startups after the previous startups Pahamify and Refocus.
Analysis of several reasons why Edutech startup Zenius went bankrupt
Now let me try to analyze why Zenius, which has been around for 20 years, finally collapsed.
1. Large operational expenses
As stated in its statement, Zenius stated that it was experiencing operational challenges. This can be caused by an imbalance between the income coming in and the operations that have to be spent.
It could be because of the large costs for employee salaries since entering a technology-based company or startup which has become an open secret requiring large salaries and a large number of employees.
2. Many personal course competitors
In an era with the convenience of technology and the development of social media, almost everyone has the same opportunity to express creativity, including sharing knowledge.
The presence of personal trainers or experts who share knowledge via various platforms such as YouTube, TikTok, Instagram can also be a competitor.
The choice is not only to go through an edu tech startup but you can increase your skills through webinars, boothcamps or training held by personal trainers.
3. Tech winter
Tech winter is a term that describes a period of significant decline in the technology industry.
Whether we admit it or not, Tech Winter also plays a role in the collapse of many startups, including those operating in the edu tech field. Venture Capital and investors are no longer too busy providing funding because the world economic situation is sluggish and tends to lead to a recession.
If previously startups easily obtained various series of funding for growth, now VCs are more selective and profit-oriented. When startups run out of capital for operations while profits are not enough, what happens is just waiting for the time to run out of capital is like a vehicle waiting to break down when the fuel runs out.
4. The trend of pursuing growth
In the heyday of startups, most were oriented towards growth or growth to increase valuation. Hoping that in this way they can make a profit or exit by increasing the company's valuation and IPO on the stock market.
Unfortunately, before they succeed in getting listed on the stock exchange, the majority of startups that go bankrupt run out of funding because of a mindset that can be said to be wrong, namely only pursuing growth without pursuing profits.
5. Money burning trend
Readers certainly still remember how startups offered discounts and various promotions that sometimes didn't make sense. We once enjoyed it when motorbike taxi and food applications were at their peak.
Just so you know, the promos and discounts they provide are not free because they use money from investors. The term is burning money for customer acquisition or increasing the number of users.
Before the investment funds run out, you should start looking for profits as Gojek, Tokopedia and Shopee have done for example, so don't be surprised if now there are rarely big promotions, postage is expensive and there are even service fees.
Most startups that fail, before they reach the stage of making a profit, have burned all their capital for promotions.
6. Online learning trends after the pandemic
During the pandemic where schools and campuses conducted online learning, edu tech-based startups found momentum to experience significant growth because they were very relevant and needed by many groups.
Readers will still remember how massively they carried out promotions, making big shows on national TV stations during primetime broadcast times which must have been very expensive, even voting for dangdut competition events via edutech applications because they wanted to catch up with user growth.
In 2020 and 2021, in the midst of a pandemic, many startups were blessed with funding and an increase in the number of users. At that time, they thought that after the pandemic, the habit of accessing online learning would continue to increase or at least be the same.
Unfortunately, as we know, after the pandemic, this habit did not last, learning was carried out offline again and this definitely had an impact on the decline in users of edu tech startup applications and services.
Investors had already spent a lot of money during the pandemic for promotions, in fact the results did not match predictions, so layoffs became the solution until bankruptcy occurred as we have often read recently.
The History of Zenius Startup
Quoting the page id.wikipedia.org, PT Zona Edukasi Nusantara (Zenius Education) is a technology-based education company from Indonesia. Zenius provides educational access services in Indonesian language video format which is presented online via the website (zenius.net) and mobile phone applications. As of December 2020, Zenius had more than 16 million users.
Zenius is present as a form of educational revolution in Indonesia by prioritizing critical, logical, rational thinking and integrated scientific knowledge for all Indonesian students. Zenius aspires to produce a generation of Indonesians who understand science and love learning, rather than being a generation of memorizers.
Zenius was founded in 2004 by Sabda PS, Wisnu Subekti, and Medy Suharta. Initially, Zenius was established as an offline study guide. In 2005, Zenius began launching learning materials in CD form. The learning material is focused on high school students as preparation for entering SPMB.
In 2007, Zenius Education was officially established and incorporated as a limited liability company. Then in 2010, Zenius launched the first learning site in Indonesia through Zenius.net.
In July 2019, all Zenius learning materials and features can be accessed via the Zenius App which is available on the Play Store and App Store.
In order to assist the Indonesian government in realizing non-face-to-face contact in the midst of the pandemic, in December 2019, Zenius made more than 80,000 videos of its learning materials free. Until now, Zenius still offers more than 100,000 learning material content that can be accessed for free.
In February 2020, Zenius received series-A funding from Northstar Group, Kinesys Group, and BeeNext. Apart from that, there was also a change in CEO, previously filled by Sabda PS, then continued by Rohan Monga, ex COO Gojek.
At the beginning of 2021, Zenius again received pre-series B funding from Alpha JWC Ventures, OpenSpace Ventures, and investors who had previously joined in series-A funding.
In March 2022, Zenius received funding from MDI Ventures, a venture capital company which is a subsidiary of Telkom Indonesia. Previous investors, namely Northstar Group, Alpha JWC, Openspace Ventures, and new investors, Beacon Venture Capital, a venture company from Kasikorn Bank, also joined in this funding round.
In July 2020, Zenius rebranded by changing their logo, visuals and tagline to mark Zenius' evolution in an effort to bring the future of education to every individual in Indonesia. After that, Zenius' revenue grew more than 70% in the second semester of 2020 compared to the same period in the previous year.
Zenius adopts artificial intelligence technology to provide adaptive learning features. The AI technology that has been developed by Zenius is placed in two features, namely:
1. ZenCore
Zencore is a feature that provides adaptive learning and training materials to develop fundamental skills, namely mathematics, verbal logic, and English. Adaptive learning is a method specifically designed according to students' abilities so that it is more relevant to students' weaknesses and strengths. Through the ZenCore feature, Zenius provides more than 135 thousand quizzes up to level 100.
2. ZenBot
Just by uploading a photo of the question, ZenBot can provide answers accompanied by videos of the appropriate study material. With the help of AI, discussing questions becomes easier and more in-depth, so it can help students improve their abilities. ZenBot can be accessed via the Zenius application or WhatsApp for 24 hours.
Zenius officially acquired Primagama through the signing of an agreement in early 2022. The Primagama brand has now changed to "New Primagama Powered by Zenius" which was announced to coincide with Primagama's 40th anniversary. This acquisition aims to strengthen Zenius' learning ecosystem in providing a greater technological impact in education through a hybrid learning model, with the help of Primagama's experience and offline reach.
Zenius officially collaborates with Disney to present ZeniusLand which offers a digital playground and learning concept for children to explore new knowledge interactively. Zenius is an application designed for students at elementary school level. ZeniusLand also introduced the animated characters Tiga Sekawan, each character representing the values of children's abilities; Gika for logical abilities, Imaji for imagination, and Aksa for literacy.
Zenius expands its reach with the launch of ZenPro, a training and empowerment platform for people who want to sharpen their skills or learn new skills outside the formal education system. Training classes at ZenPro are divided into several areas, namely: Business, Analytics, Entrepreneurship, Finance, English, Digital Marketing, Technology, Content Creation, Personal Development, Communication Skills, Management Skills, and Customer Service. All training material on ZenPro is delivered by competent Zenius master tutors and experts in their respective fields.
Zenius for Teachers or ZenRu is a community for more than 250 thousand teachers throughout Indonesia. Of this number, almost 200 thousand of them use the ZenRu platform. One of ZenRu's features is an LMS that can be integrated with Google Classroom. In this LMS, teachers can create classes, provide practice questions for students and carry out assessments.
Awards that Zenius has won:
1. In 2017 Startupranking.com Top 10 Startups in Indonesia
2. In 2021 South Sulawesi Education Service
3. In 2022 Popular Vote Global Edtech Startup Awards (GESAwards)
Ok that's our post this time, this disclaimer is a personal opinion, it may be true, but it doesn't rule out the possibility that it is wrong. If I may give advice, with the many cases of bankruptcy and the collapse of various startups specifically in the field of edu tech, it is best not to rush into accepting large investments in the style of venture capital, growing organically from the profits obtained is much healthier for a business than just joining in. the trend of pursuing growth by burning investor money. Hopefully it's useful see you.
Writer by:
Achmad Munandar
Source:
https://id.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zenius_Education
This article also appeared on Campusnesia.co.id
