Starting out as one of the most popular names in computer education, Aptech has had to battle myriad new developments in an immensely competitive education sector. And with more than 30 years of business under its belt, the brand reports that it has managed to firmly hold its fort, even with the boom in ed-tech start-ups. It has already adopted a ‘digital only’ approach for its Online Varsity.

Ninad Karpe, MD and CEO of Aptech Ltd, discussed with BusinessLine various other ways transformation was effected in the company and its engagements in overseas markets. Excerpts:

How is Aptech’s business structured?

We started off as a computer education company, but today only 9 per cent of our India business is in computer education. Broadly, 80 per cent of our business is in retail and 20 per cent in the enterprise segment. Already more than 40 per cent of our retail business comes from overseas and our target is to turn that into 50 per cent. Seven years ago, only about 17–18 per cent of our retail business came from international markets.

Which of your training segments is proving to be the cash cow?

Other than computer education, we’ve got Arena Multimedia and MAAC, which is easily 2.5 times our computer education business in India. Our computer education business is still called Aptech Computer Education. With Arena Multimedia and MAAC (which we had acquired), our market share in the animation training market is currently 80 per cent.

MAAC was at No. 2 in the multimedia and animation space, but since acquiring them we’re keeping it separate from Arena Multimedia. Their sales teams are separate, and we allow them to compete in the market… it’s something like the ‘Coke and Thums Up’ strategy.

And you’ve not stopped at tech training…

Yes, we’ve moved into career training. We’re now also in aviation, hospitality and beauty. Our courses for the organised retail segment have us partnering with brands like Shoppers Stop and Lakme. And although it’s in an embryonic stage, we’ve entered banking and finance as well.

The contribution of non-tech courses stands at 10 per cent of the overall business right now, but we will aim to get that to 50 per cent by 2018. At any point, we have an average of 110,000–120,000 people undergoing training in India and other markets. Courses in beauty and aviation are in big demand.

What’s the international footprint of the brand at the moment?

Other than China, where we have a joint-venture with us holding 22 per cent stake and where we had invested 10 years ago, we’re in 42 countries.

In some of those countries, we’ve actually invested capital and formed joint ventures, and in others, we have direct franchises. But, we have Aptech Computer Education in all our markets.

What are the challenges faced during operating in all those distinct geographies?

We’re targeting emerging countries in our retail mode. The student attends our courses and gets training and certification, while the local partner takes care of the infrastructure in some of those countries. It’s never easy being in so many countries, but we’ve been pushing it. In countries like Russia and Vietnam, we have faced some difficulties with localising content.

We also need to understand local rules and regulations. That’s why it’s important to go with a good partner in these markets while also building our own brand.

In the enterprise segment, what has been proving lucrative?

Close to 80 per cent of our enterprise business is from testing. We completed close to 2 million tests last year. In our estimate, about 600 million tests are taken in India, including the most popular entrance tests. Only around 40 million of these are online, in our assessment. So, there’s opportunity with many government exams going online too.

Will we see Aptech go on to serve a completely different set of end customers?

We’re looking at starting schools. We decided to start in Kabul and some other markets, before we enter India with our CBSE schools under the brand name Aptech.

Meanwhile, we already have a language training business called Aptech English and that operates in India and some other markets.

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