Zoho Corp launches e-learning business division

Sridhar Vembu-led Zoho Corp., the parent company of technology brands such as ManageEngine, Zoho, and Qntrl, has launched a business division in India called ‘TrainerCentral’, which offers a training platform built to serve the booming e-learning market. 

The business is headquartered in Chennai and will remain bootstrapped like the other divisions of Zoho Corp.

The e-learning platform offers a toolkit that includes a website builder, business administration console, dedicated learner portal, payments gateway, online conferencing, and analytics.

“TrainerCentral provides knowledge creators, solopreneurs, and experts from all fields a single platform to host live sessions as well as sell on-demand courses, evaluate students, build an engaged learner community, and manage their business,” the company said in a statement.

Aarthi Elizabeth, Chief Brand Evangelist, TrainerCentral

To make the technology more accessible, apart from English, the platform is available in Hindi and Tamil as well as international languages like French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Thai, and Malay. Moroever, as part of maintaining user privacy, TrainerCentral said it does not show ads or sell user data. Moreover, the data of its Indian users will be stored in data centres located within the country, the company said.

India’s edtech market is booming. It is poised to grow to $30 billion in 10 years from $700-800 million currently, according to a report by advisory firm RBSA Advisors.

"The rise of online learning, further fuelled by the pandemic-induced restrictions, has allowed thousands of knowledge creators like teachers, fitness instructors, and digital marketing professionals to monetize their expertise and connect digitally with millions of interested learners," said Aarthi Elizabeth, Chief Brand Evangelist, TrainerCentral.

However, most creators use disparate applications for different functions such as live online training, on-demand session hosting, ticketing, and website building, or end up using complex software like a Learning Management System (LMS) that is meant for large businesses, she pointed out. Zoho is attempting to address this gap with TrainerCentral, Elizabeth added.

TrainerCentral is Zoho Corp.'s vertical offering for the edtech market, catering to the needs of trainers, freelancers or any individual aspiring to impart their knowledge to learners. 

"While other brands of Zoho Corp. deal with a B2B model, TrainerCentral is a B2C offering, with a dedicated go-to-market strategy. It caters to the e-learning community. TrainerCentral, however, can be easily integrated with other offerings of its sister brands under Zoho Corp. and shares the company's work ethos and culture," said Elizabeth.