<div><strong>Simar Singh</strong><br><br>A report put out by Assocham has estimated that the value of the coaching industry in India was set to touch $40 billion this year, growing at an incredible rate of 35 per cent annually. For an Indian between the ages of 15 to 25, attending some sort of test prep centre is almost a rite of passage, a must to even fathom attempting one of the highly intimidating and highly competitive selection of exams.</div><div> </div><div>According to Anil Nagar, co-founder and CEO of Career Power, the permeation of test prep in India is almost absolute, in all but one space, non-UPSC government job exams and this is where he decided to foray to make his bucks.</div><div> </div><div>The company runs both offline and online coaching options with their popular sites bankadda.com and sscadda.com.</div><div> </div><div>The IIT alumnus’ idea is rooted in his own personal experiences. “Coming from a rural area, I personally know how getting quality coaching can be a struggle. In these areas and small towns there is a particular aspiration to secure government jobs. Unfortunately, coaching for the same is either not available or of negligible value. We thought this was a unique space that needed to be filled,” says Nagar.</div><div> </div><div>“There are a stream of young people graduating every year across the country and hardly 10 per cent of them are absorbed by the private sector,” he says, “And those who do find employment find themselves stuck in dead-end jobs. So a lot of people between the ages of 18 to 20 consider government jobs. The opportunity is huge.”</div><div> </div><div>And Nagar is right, despite the growing sheen of the private sector, the allure of government jobs remains for many Indians. </div><div> </div><div>Career Power started small in 2010 with a single classroom and Nagar says that it has been profitable from the first year itself.</div><div> </div><div>“At the time investors were pessimistic about putting in money in this sector and largely steered clear, now the confidence is beginning to grow and there has been a complete reversal in the sense that investment options are flourishing,” says Nagar. Career Power is currently in talks for its Series A round of funding which is being handled by Ernst and Young and should be closed by January or February 2016.</div><div> </div><div>This year, the company estimates that it will have coached around a lakh students. Nagar says the company reported a revenue of Rs. 11 crore in the previous year and speculates that it will be around Rs. 30 crore for FY16. “In the next two years we are hopeful that this figure will grow to Rs 100 crore,” he says.</div>
