Coursera sees high growth from tier 2, tier 3 cities across Maharashtra, UP, Karnataka

Online education company Coursera is seeing strong growth from tier 2 and tier 2.

The edtech firm, which was founded in 2012 by Stanford University computer science professors Andrew Ng and Daphne Koller, recently crossed 10 crore learners on its platform.

It has 1.6 crore learners in India, its largest market outside the US, and is seeing strong growth from non-urban locations.

“We have been witnessing high growth from tier 2 and tier 3 cities. The five states where we’re seeing the highest growth are Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi NCR, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu,” said Raghav Gupta, managing director, India and APAC, Coursera.

The state-level growth in Manipur by number of learners has been about 500%, 380% in Bihar, 375% in Andaman & Nicobar, 320% in Kerala, and 300% in Himachal Pradesh and Arunachal Pradesh, Gupta said.

While the global median age on the platform is 32 years, in India it is 28 years. In some of these states the median age is even younger - approximately 25 years.

“This means that younger learners from non-urban locations are coming on to the platform to learn some of the skills that can help ready them for jobs of the future,” Gupta told ET.

The top courses taken by learners in non-urban locations include Machine Learning from Stanford University, and Programming For Everybody (Getting Started With Python) from University of Michigan. Other courses being opted for include English for Career Development and Learning How To Learn.

The edtech platform is also making it easier for learners to continue learning on mobile devices.

“61% of the learning that happens in India is on mobile devices - compared to the global average of 49% - so we have made it easier for people to access the content. 95% of our content is now available on mobile devices, and we have rolled out offline features as well - like downloading content on WiFi, downloading videos in lower resolution,” said Gupta.

The edtech firm is looking to build more partnerships with Indian universities and companies over the next 6-12 months, said Gupta.

The learning catalogue consists of 5,000+ courses, 625+ specialisations, 2,500+ projects, 75+ certificates (18 entry-level), and 35+ degrees. Of these, 25+ courses, 20 certificates, 5 degrees and 3 postgraduate programmes have been developed by Indian partners.