Zenius, a Jakarta-based EdTech startup, has acquired Primagama, one of the biggest offline tutoring service providers in Indonesia, as part of its strategy to build a hybrid learning platform.
While the company did not disclose the financial details of the deal, according to sources, the acquisition includes all offline branches of Primagama in the country. As per the company’s website, Primagama currently operates more than 500 branches spread across all provinces in Indonesia, providing tutoring services to four million students. The company continues to expand its branches using the franchise model.
The collaboration between the two organizations will allow the integration of online-to-offline learning models or blended learning, utilizing their infrastructure and capabilities.
Founded in March 1982, Primagama is an out-of-school education service company engaged in tutoring, with the aim of improving academic achievement in schools, national exams, and success in the entrance exams of state or favorite universities and official schools. In the early 2010s, the company has developed an online service called PrimagamaPlus. However, due to a premature market, the service did not manage to gain traction as offline tutoring remained the preferred choice of the time.
Zenius, founded in 2004 by Sabda PS and Medy Suharta, is one of the pioneers of online tutoring services in Indonesia. The startup debuted with offline tutoring and packaged material on CD and DVD before becoming a fully online service. Zenius currently has several products with the best-selling being its online tutoring service.
Throughout the 2019/20 school year, the company claimed, its tutoring application was accessed by more than 20 million users. It contains around 100,000 learning videos and practice questions that are accessible for free. Additionally, Zenius also provides Live class services for direct guidance with selected teachers. There is also a written national exam simulation besides several other learning products.
Zenius has raised an undisclosed amount in its Pre-Series B funding round in early 2021 from a number of investors, including Alpha JWC Ventures, Openspace Ventures, Northstar, Kinesys, and BeeNext. Prior to that, the company had raised $20 million in its Series A round in January 2020.