Hello dear reader,
Each week, we cover startups solving geography-specific problems or those enabled by local context.
This week we, again, don’t have many news, but we are finally back on track next week!
India: Local Learning
India’s NumberOne Academy, an education startup helping entrepreneurs upskill, raised $0.4 million in a pre-seed round.
The Product
NumberOne Academy offers courses for entrepreneurs across four main areas: finance, sales, business, and technology. With over 60 courses taught by 25+ coaches, it also provides a subscription plan that grants access to all courses, discounts for events (both online and offline), community perks, and more.
While this setup isn’t groundbreaking on its own, what stands out is their focus on offering education in local languages, removing barriers to entrepreneurial learning. The company started with Tamil and Malayalam, two languages native to southern India, and it’s likely just the beginning.
Another noteworthy feature is their AI chatbot, NOA, launched last summer. Initially designed to answer GST (Goods and Services Tax) queries in 11 languages (including English), NOA hints at broader ambitions to handle diverse entrepreneurial questions in the future.
The Business Model
Pretty straightforward here. Courses range from $6 to $16, while the subscription costs $10 per month. Some courses are free, and the NOA chatbot is also free to use—but registration is required.
The Local Angle
Enormous Addressable Market: The Indian market is undeniably massive, but it can still be hard to grasp just how enormous. There are over 40 million micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in India—more than the population of all but 37 countries. Of these MSMEs, 97% are micro-enterprises, which seems like the exact audience NumberOne Academy is targeting.
The Country of Many Languages: India boasts 22 officially recognized languages and 720 dialects. Each recognized language has over a million speakers, and 14 have more than 10 million speakers—basically, that’s at least an Austria-worth of speakers for each.
Desire for Entrepreneurship: Indians have a strong entrepreneurial spirit. Case in point: 32% of Indian students are eager to start their own business. Part of this drive can be linked to a deep desire for independence and flexibility. In fact, 93% of Indian workers want flexible working hours, and 46% have left jobs due to insufficient flexibility. Compare that to 83% and 27% globally. Sure, some of this might reflect intention-action gaps or attribution bias, but the numbers still stand out. Adding to this is an overarching optimism: over 80% of Indians believe it’s easy to start a business and that now is a good time to do it—the highest percentage globally.
Business is Hard: Despite 82% believing they have the skills to start a business, 62% are held back by fear of failure—both figures are among the highest in the world. Plus, with India’s business landscape dominated by solopreneurs, owners often have to master everything from accounting to marketing just to stay afloat.
