The World's 50 Most Innovative Companies – Education

Adamas Belva Syah Devara – Cofounder and CEO of Ruangguru

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01 Outschool 50

Outschool, founded in 2015, is a marketplace for virtual extracurriculars, such as ukulele lessons and food science experiments, for students ages 3 to 18. For working parents, those activities have become a pandemic lifeline: Outschool sign-ups went from 80,000 to 1.6 million between March and October; lessons cost as little as $5, from one-offs to weekly sessions.

02 Ruangguru

Last March, less than a week after Indonesia closed schools for its 50 million–plus students, Jakarta based edtech startup Ruangguru launched a free 18-channel, livestreamed online school. It rocketed to the top of the app store charts, thanks to the company’s well-honed approach to engaging kids: teachers with on-screen expertise, fun animations, careful storyboarding, and interactive polls. Indonesian student achievement has lagged compared to its Asian neighbors, but Ruangguru aims to prevent the pandemic from widening those gaps. “It’s our responsibility to always innovate,” says cofounder and CEO Adamas Belva Syah Devara.

03 Skillshare