Indonesian edtech startup Ruangguru has entered the Vietnamese market by launching a platform called Kien Guru yesterday, according to an Instagram post made by company co-founder Iman Usman.
Usman said that Kien Guru already has a local team operating in the country. This move marks Ruangguru’s first regional expansion. The company chose to take its services to Vietnam because its education sector has similar problems to that of Indonesia, such as an uneven distribution of teachers, a large gap in educational facilities between large and small cities, as well as a lack of access to high-quality educational content.
Kien Guru is expected to provide Vietnamese students with educational materials at affordable prices, Usman explained on his Instagram post.
According to its official website, Kien Guru currently has more than 2,000 video lectures and tutorials, and over 15,000 pieces of supplementary learning materials including question banks, practice exercises, infographics, and more. All lesson plans and materials are prepared by professional teachers from various educational and research institutes in Vietnam. The startup is based in Ho Chi Minh City.
Ruangguru has yet to respond to KrASIA‘s request for comment.
Ruangguru was founded five years ago as an online tutoring platform. It has grown to be the most diversified edtech startup in Indonesia. It claims to have over six million users and works with more than 150,000 teachers who offer online courses in 100 learning areas.
In August, Indonesia’s coordinating minister for maritime affairs Luhut Pandjaitan told local press that Japanese tech giant Softbank will invest in Ruangguru, following Softbank CEO Masayoshi Son’s visit to Indonesia in late July.
Ruangguru refused to comment on Pandjaitan’s claim and other market speculation, but its CEO Belva Devara once expressed his confidence for the startup’s fundraising prospects and said that Ruangguru was about to raise a “big” investment this year. Ruangguru is also touted as a startup that may be Indonesia’s next “unicorn.”
