How Deeksha helps students excel in tests

Edtech start-up Vedantu-backed Deeksha, a test preparation platform for boards and competitive exams like JEE, NEET and CET, by Bengaluru-based Ace Creative Learning Pvt Ltd, has drawn up an ambitious plan to take its pioneered learning model, which specialises in competitive exam preparation, in tandem with board exam preparation, for students in grades 11 and 12, pan India. Deeksha, which is primarily focussed on offline brick and mortar model to impart its coaching across its 40 centres in Karnataka, AP and Telangana, is all geared up to also make its mark in the northern part of India. 

In November last year, Tiger Global-backed ed-tech Vedantu acquired a majority stake in Deeksha at a deal size of $40 million. The deal also provided exit route to PE firms – Accel, Catamaran and Kaizenvest – which together invested in Deeksha in 2010 and 2012 across two funding rounds. 

The education services company, which started its journey way back in 1998 from single classroom in Bengaluru, has created a scalable hybrid model, Deeksha Vedantu Learning Centre (DVLC), by integrating its offline centres with Vedantu’s patented online delivery platform. This hybrid platform will enable Deeksha to make its high-quality coaching for competitive exams, accessible to students in smaller towns (Tier II & Tier III cities) and rural areas of India, at a much affordable price. All these years, Deeksha has primarily been focussing on bigger cities in three southern states. All its 40 existing coaching centres are located in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. 

 Hybrid model

The test preparation platform, which is also planning its IPO in coming years, is looking to set up over 70 DVLC hybrid campuses (enrolling 15,000 students, spread across south and north India) in the next 3-4 years. Of these hybrid centres, 10 centres with a total student capacity of over 1,000, will be operation by June this year. Currently, all these centres are located in Karnataka, across smaller towns like Kolar, Hassan, Bellary, Udupi and Chitradurga. 

“We always wanted to serve this large portion of under-served students with our high-quality coaching,” says Sridhar G, founder, Deeksha. “And, now, with our new hybrid model, we will be able to do so at a much affordable cost. The time-tested Deeksha methodology will now become more accessible through this collaboration with Vedantu. The best of both worlds – offline & online – is being combined to create a new hybrid model, which has the potential to reach millions of students. The experienced teachers of Deeksha will leverage the patented WAVE platform of Vedantu to deliver the same academic pedagogy and learning experience to a much larger population of students”.

Graduated from IIT Kharagpur in 1989 with a B Tech in mechanical engineering, Sridhar went on to complete his PhD in fluid mechanics at Johns Hopkins University in the US. A strong desire to do something for the country prompted him to return to India in 1998 after a three-year stint as research scientist at American Standard. Armed with a vision of providing an academic environment that nurtured original thinking and created confident individuals with a sense of responsibility towards society, he, along with his wife Lalita, founded Deeksha. Together, they pioneered integrated coaching in Karnataka. A visionary and a thought leader in education, he is amongst the most respected and value-oriented educationists in the country. 

While Deeksha is enlarging its network with hybrid model, it will also expand its offline coaching campuses within its existing geographies of Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam. In the next 3-4 years, it will add 20 more such campuses. Its existing 40 campuses has enrolment of around 13,000 students, while all these years over 75,000 students have benefitted from Deeksha’s quality coaching.

Last year, Deeksha partnered with four CBSE schools in Bengaluru and started as many Deeksha STEM Schools (enrolment: 2,000 students). The STEM schools are a learning environment centred on science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM). These are project-based schools where students learn how the sciences work together and blend with reading, writing and the arts to bring success to collaborative projects. Going forward, Deeksha is planning to set up a large number of STEM schools in collaboration with existing schools.