Online learning platform Coursera will set up an operational centre in India to cater to global customers on the back of increasing demand and access to talent, chief executive officer Jeff Maggioncalda said on September 8.
“We are building out an operation centre that serves the whole APAC (Asia-Pacific) region, and probably many time zones that are near and not even in the APAC region,” Maggioncalda said at a virtual press conference.
This move comes at the back of the fastest growth the company saw in India over the last 18 months. With 12.5 million registered users, India is the second-largest in terms of the user base for Coursera after the US at 16.6 million. India grew 49 percent over the last 12 months, the highest growth across the world.
The company has added 7.5 million users in India since January 2020. Popular courses on the platform include programming, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, and data science.
This growing user base, in addition to the access to talent, was one of the key reasons for the company to elevate its India operations to become the hub for the entire APAC region.
India as APAC headquarters
Shravan Goli, chief product officer, Coursera, said, “India and Asia Pacific (APAC) are a very important part of how we think about the future for Coursera. So we're making a big investment in India to be present in India, and also deliver a number of services based out of India through the operation center that we were talking about.”
While the company would expand and grow in other regions as well, Goli said Coursera would continue to build partnerships and relationships in the country to deliver locally.
“We are going to continue to expand our resources to engage and work with these partners,” he added.
Raghav Gupta, Managing Director, India and APAC, said, “What that means is that, unlike many other technology companies, India is actually the headquarters to work with Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and also with Central Asia. Remote work allows us to have people in many different locations. So they will be located across Asia-Pacific, but with headquarters in a sense out of India as well.”
Expanding workforce, partnerships
The company has partnered with over 1,100 campuses, 90 businesses and 8 state government agencies in India. While the demand is increasing the company did not share the completion rate for the sources.
According to reports, completion rate for online courses is 15 percent.
This would mean increasing the workforce and partnerships. According to reports, Coursera globally has about 1,000 employees. In India, the company employs 101 and the number would increase to 150 by December 2021.
The team in India worked with the company’s partners to create content and it onto our platform, Gupta said. The team worked with customers in helping deliver the content to them.
“So we will be expanding our content production team in the market (India) and also our team who are able to take that content and help institutions deliver that to their learners,” Gupta said.
These roles include customer success and skills transformation, he added. However, it is not clear if India will be the second-largest centre for the company after the US.
In terms of partnerships, Coursera added four new higher education institutions in India, taking the total number of university partners to 10 in the country. New partners include IIT-Bombay, IIT-Guwahati, Indian Statistical Institute, and Ashoka University. New enterprise customers include Larsen & Toubro, Wipro GE Healthcare, Usha, ITC Infotech, Welspun India, StarTek and Vardhman Group.
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