Funding from East Ventures boost online marketplace for private tutoring

Ruangguru.com, an online marketplace for private tutoring based in Indonesia announced in a press statement that the startup has received an undisclosed amount of seed funding from East Ventures, a an early stage fund focusing on consumer web and mobile startups in Indonesia and Singapore.

Ruangguru.com is East Ventures’ first education portfolio company in Southeast Asia. The funding will be used to further develop the online platform, achieve product/market fit, and scale up services in key cities in Indonesia.

Launched in April 2014, Ruangguru currently has over 1000 high-quality registered teachers, including science olympiad medallists, top performing musicians, and award-winning university students. Ruangguru takes a 20% cut on transaction value and minimizes back-door transactions for recurring transactions by using the number of hours registered through the platform as the main component of teacher rating system.

According to the founders Adamas Belva and Iman Usman, they are personally passionate about education and believe that technology can be a tool to push our education objectives forward. "We are continuously humbled and energized by the success of students and the many teachers who have earned additional income through our platform. Our ultimate aim is to be a platform that allows anyone to learn anything from anyone in Southeast Asia, capturing the high share of education-related expense in household budget in the region.”

In an interview, Willson Cuaca, Managing Partner of East Ventures emphasized on the huge potential of education market in Indonesia. "Based on the latest statistics by Indonesia President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, there are 50 million students, 3 million teachers and 200,000 schools in Indonesia today. Ruangguru.com rides on this potential and fill the gap that couldn’t be fulfilled by formal education. We are honored to be able to help them in this journey,” said Willson.