Ruangguru is One of the 50 Innovative Companies in the World

Indonesian startup Ruangguru is included in the list of the 50 most innovative companies in the world according to the media from the United States (US), Fast Company. Tech giants like Microsoft, SpaceX, and Netflix are on this list. Ruangguru is ranked 25th on the list. For the education category, Ruangguru ranks second behind the US company Outschool.

This startup in the education sector is also the only company from Southeast Asia. “This is the first time a native Indonesian company has entered the annual list,” said Ruangguru founder and president director Belva Devara as quoted from the official Instagram account @belvadevara, Wednesday (10/3).

Quoted from the official website of Fast Company, Ruangguru was included in the list of the most innovative companies due to various initiatives in supporting teaching and learning activities during the Covid-19 pandemic. One of them is the free online school which was launched in March 2020.

Ruangguru relies on 18 channels every day to run the free online school. This initiative is utilized by more than 10 million students in Indonesia. Based on a report entitled ‘The Impact of Ruangguru in 2020’, as many as 9 out of 10 students who take advantage of the initiative claim to better understand the material.

Belva said innovation is part of the company’s way of improving access and quality of education in Indonesia, especially during the corona pandemic. “We are committed to continuing to create new innovations in facilitating access to education,” he said in a press release, Wednesday (10/3).

Been on the List of 50 Most Innovative Startups Last Year

Global Silicon Valley or GSV also listed this company as one of the most transformative education companies in the world last year. It was the only representative from Southeast Asia. They examined fifty edtech that were judged to be the most transformative based on four core factors, namely impact, participant base, business scale, and outreach.

Apart from Ruangguru, there are 17 companies from the US, 16 China and six India on the list. This year, the startup plans to target users in the Frontier, Remote and Disadvantaged (3T) areas. “Students and teachers in the 3T region have difficulty accessing online learning services. This is because there is no signal,” said Belva last February (3/2).

This startup put all learning materials into USB to target users in the 3T area in 2020. It’s then connected to the student device. “The content will be connected even if you don’t use the internet. The material can still be accessed,” he said.

Will Collaborate with More Local Governments in 3T Areas

Ruangguru also optimizes bandwidth capacity so that it can be accessed even though the internet signal is weak. “Users in the 3T region can download the video first with a light capacity. Then the video can be watched offline,” said Belva.

The company plans to partner with more local governments in 3T areas. “We have learned a lot. Teacher training must be more effective, increase the number of scholarships, and so on,” he said.

Apart from targeting remote areas, Ruangguru plans to launch a number of new features this year. However, Belva did not specify what ‘tools’ will be launched. Ruangguru’s founder and director of products and cooperation, Iman Usman, added that the company sees technology starting to become a trend in the country this year, one of which is artificial intelligence (AI).

“The use of AI will become an important topic in the world of education,” he said. He gave an example, the use of AI to make recommendations for answers to questions. Users only need to upload a photo of the question, then a discussion of the concept will appear on the platform. The content that appears is also adjusted to user habits.