K12 A Stride Company

Case Studies

COVID Accelerates Stride’s Entry Into India

Stride, formerly known as K12, is an online education provider that sells everything involved with running a school online, including curricula, teachers, and learning management systems, and awards diplomas and credentials to those who complete programs. Internationally, Stride has always sold the pathway to its U.S. high school diploma, but are now selling career readiness training in addition to the K-12 curriculum.

The opportunity: India represented a fruitful market for educational providers.

India’s population includes some 500 million residents between the ages of 5–24 years, including the second-largest foreign market of students attending American universities who find a U.S. diploma helpful in admissions to those universities. The gap between demand and supply represented an opportunity for providers of high school diplomas, while younger ages could make use of classes to aid in early-childhood English language acquisition.

The solution: A VEDP trade mission to India led to fruitful partnerships in the country.

In the past, Stride’s international business had been based on informal relationships with in-country representatives rather than a strategic plan. During the trade mission to India in February 2020, Stride representatives met with 16 prospective partners and clients in Bangalore, Delhi, and Mumbai, with VEDP arranging the logistics of the trip and assisting with post-trip follow-up. As a result, the company arranged partnerships with Indian education consultancy Strategum Eduserve Pvt. Ltd. and U.S.-based educational technology company Bell Curve Labs, along with other partnerships forged with Stride subsidiary Galvanize Inc. These partnerships helped Stride more successfully target its educational offerings to the needs of Indian students.

The results: Trials of Stride technology in India.

Responding to increased interest in online education due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Strategum Eduserve fast-tracked a trial of Stride’s K-8 curriculum for 200 students and 40 teachers. Additionally, Stride’s relationship with Bell Curve Labs has led to students from 10 schools trialing the curriculum. Since engaging VEDP, Stride has expanded its sales offerings in India to include courses addressing specific subject matter and career readiness training available before and after high school graduation. Meetings arranged by VEDP connected Stride with partners with greater knowledge of the education industry in India. Stride is currently working to break into the Brazilian market through VEDP outreach and also operates in China, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico, along with pilot programs in Nigeria, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Participating in VEDP’s India Trade Mission in February 2020 introduced us to Strategum Eduserve. Once COVID hit, Strategum Eduserve proactively worked with us to trial our K-8 curriculum with 200 students and train 40 Indian teachers to teach the curriculum.

Lorna Bryant VP of Institutional, Private, and International Business, Stride

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