Podcast · ~45 min

Pratik Poddar, Nexus VP on the Growth & Monetization of EdTech Startups in India

Siddhartha Ahluwalia (host), with Pratik Poddar (Nexus Venture Partners) · The Neon Show Free Intermediate India

An Indian investor who has watched dozens of consumer businesses talks plainly about when Indian users actually start paying and why so many don't yet. The edtech lens is useful precisely because it is a category where free usage is huge but paid penetration stays low, which is the gap you are staring at. Use it as one operator's read on latent demand and pricing, not a formula for your specific product.

• Willingness to pay in India is often about a clear, observable outcome the buyer cares about, not the product being free or cheap.
• Poddar frames many consumer categories as still "day zero" with low paid penetration, so a free-heavy user base can coexist with a real but not yet activated paying segment.
• Payment rails and habit (UPI, aspirational spend like school fees) shift what people will pay for over time, so today's low conversion is not a fixed ceiling.