English fever: How startups are unlocking smalltown India’s big-city aspirations

The idea for SpeakX had germinated from Yellow Class, which provided after-school activities for children studying from home during the covid-19 pandemic. As kids returned to school campuses post the pandemic, Yellow Class had to shut shop in 2023. But its English modules were so popular that Mittal decided to build a new business around those.

SpeakX, which charges users ₹300 per month, teaches English to those fluent in Hindi, with many of its users coming from Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar. The company realised that while many of its users were able to read and write in English, communication posed a main hurdle—crimping prospects for high-paying jobs.

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Government think-tank NITI Aayog pointed out this issue in a December report. It noted that the talent and resources employed in several states were originally from other parts of India, and that a “significant contributing factor to this trend is the inadequate English language proficiency among local youth”.

The average Indian’s quest to learn to master fluency in English is reflected in the surge in SpeakX’s user base—from 10,000 in September to about 108,000 now. “We have a retention rate of 30% and are adding close to 20% new users every month,” Mittal said.

The company plans to expand its services to other regional languages as well, beginning with Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada.

SpeakX generates about ₹3 crore in monthly revenue and profit of ₹75 lakh per month, according to Mittal, who had previously founded property search platform Roofpik and edtech startup Edcited.

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An aspirational language

Another edtech startup seeing a surge in users from India’s small towns for its modules is PlanetSpark, which is backed by Flipkart co-founder Binny Bansal.

The company, which offers a host of courses ranging from public speaking to debating, earns about 44% of its revenue from India’s tier 2 cities and beyond. Most of the Gurugram-headquartered company’s revenue comes from India’s southern states, followed by the northern, western and eastern markets.

“The userbase in tier 2 towns has been growing at 65-70% year-on-year in the past five years,” said co-founder and chief executive Kunal Malik.

PlanetSpark noticed that while children from small towns were on par with their big city peers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) subjects, they fell behind on English language fluency. “Unfortunately, that gets associated with intelligence. So parents really want to invest in these skills, because they know there is an upward mobility link to them,” Malik said.

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In 2023-24, PlanetSpark slashed its losses by 64% while growing its revenue by around 50%. “That momentum continues and we have significantly improved our performance in FY25. Sometime in FY26, we will turn Ebitda positive as well,” Malik said.

PlanetSpark plans to go public in two years and has set itself two targets in the run-up to that: a full year of profitability, and $50 million in annual recurring revenue.

English Quest, a UK-based startup that generates about 75% of its revenue from India, sees a lot of demand for its services from low-cost private schools.

The company partners mostly with schools chiefly in satellite towns and cities close to metros like Mumbai and Hyderabad, providing school teachers lesson plans that include pronunciation guides and workbooks for students.

“The parents are putting pressure on schools to seek English fluency, so the schools are buying our products,” said co-founder and chief executive Jamie Martin.

Zamit, a London-based startup that has partnered with schools in tier 2 cities in the National Capital Region, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Nepal for teacher development, especially for English language proficiency, too sees huge demand from students.

“They are the largest segment we see, which is very aspirational and wants to improve their life,” said Alka Verma, resident director of Zamit.

Zamit and English Quest expect to be profitable by the end of 2025.

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The global opportunity in regional plays

Edtech startups like SpeakX and Zamit that have a strong regional presence in the country stand to benefit from the ongoing wave of multinational companies opening global capability centers (GCC) in India’s small cities and towns, say experts.

Global capability centers are offshore units that handle various remote functions, including software development and maintenance, for their international entities. While GCCs open up opportunities for hundreds of thousands of Indians beyond the software and startup giants, proficiency in English offers a faster route up the hierarchy.

“The reason companies are going to tier 2 and tier 3 cities is because they want local talent at a lower cost. For the local population to get access to these GCCs, English is the most important element,” said Amarjeet Singh Makhija, partner and startups leader at PwC India.

India’s GCC market has expanded at a 11% compound annual growth rate between 2015 and 2021, according to consulting firm EY, which expects more than 500 GCCs to enter the country by 2026.

This, in turn, is expected to spur demand for English skills, both from employers and potential employees. “Anybody who can provide this service at a lower cost, with greater traction with children or adult learners, will succeed. There’s definitely a play there,” Makhija said.

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But scaling up could prove a challenge for small edtech startups, as expanding nationwide would require greater access to capital. Besides, several investors remain wary of the edtech sector because of the collapse of Byju’s, which not too long ago was India’s most valuable startup.

SpeakX last secured $6 million in a Series A fundraising round in 2021. PlanetSpark raised $17 million in a Series C round just over a year ago. English Quest isn’t looking to expand right now, and Zamit’s focus this year is solely on building out its Punjab business.

So where do these companies go from here?

One option is to hit the public markets, which PlanetSpark intends to do. The other option is to get acquired. “I would say that these smaller players can become a target for larger companies at some point because they are much more nimble regionally,” Makhija said. “For a national player to create that kind of footprint is going to be much more expensive.”