After finishing his education in the US, Arshan Vakil returned to India and was quick to spot the fact that jobs were opening up in multiple sectors but the lack of English language skills was holding people back. He founded Kings Learning, an online platform for people to learn spoken English and communication skills, in 2014. The company provides packages, and students can schedule classes as per their convenience.
Its mobile-based app, Enguru, allows users to self-learn general spoken English and job-focused conversational English. It recently raised $2.5 million from the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation, Village Capital and other investors. Vakil talks about his experience of trying to raise funding...
“Every VC asks about ‘competitive advantage’ and it’s important to have a clear answer. One investor told us that a large player like Google or Microsoft could easily replicate our product and make us obsolete. That is partly true, but our competitive advantage lies in the fact that our approach is specific to the unique need for English in India. The content in the Enguru app is tailored to this, and we offer the option to work completely offline. Even if a large company wanted to replicate this, it would not fit into their strategy so why would they? Many investors could not understand this. In such a situation, you keep looking for investors whose vision aligns with yours. That alignment is as important as the capital they provide. Fortunately, a few months later, we found a group of investors who are completely aligned to our work and help us in numerous ways, apart from providing capital.”
ARSHAN VAKIL | Founder & CEO, Kings Learning
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