<div><em>Online higher education could be worth Rs 6000 crore domestically if startups can scale up their customer acquisition programmes, writes <strong>Vishal Krishna</strong></em><br><br>After three years of setting up processes and courses to train executives in data analytics Jigsaw Academy, a tech-enabled education startup, has signed term sheets with a couple of investors to raise $3.5 million. If the deal comes through in 3 months then we will see other tech focused education companies, like Simplilearn, either raising more money or buying online voice and video education platforms.<br><br>Jigsaw Academy was founded by data scientists Gaurav Vohra and Sarita Digumarti. The company has in three years hit a turnover of Rs 12 crore per year and employs over 70 people. It focuses on making executives use data more efficiently rather than just collating data. The company declined to comment on the fund raising. But mentioned that it's course work was becoming popular in the USA, India and South East Asia.</div><div> </div><div>"We are not a course aggregator. Our courses are built in house by a team of data scientists and focuses on subject understanding," says Gaurav Vohra, founder of Jigsaw Academy.</div><div> </div><div>According to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation, the online education industry can be worth $40 billion by 2017. This includes all forms of education. However, online higher education could be worth Rs 6000 crore domestically if startups can scale up their customer acquisition programmes. There is a need to skill 300 million Indians by 2015 and companies like Jigsaw fall in the middle of enabling this growth. </div>