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With students wanting to move out of Kota’s pressure-cooker model, the test-prep giant finds itself being one, at least for its 4,000-strong staff
Unacademy changes its own DNA for its offline centres to do well to survive the edtech downturn
From bean counting, the new finance leaders are now forming company strategies and driving major decisions. But at the cost of innovation
A spate of student suicides is not the only reason
Restrictions on personal social-media accounts haven’t gone down well with Unacademy educators, several of whom have chosen to break away rather than give in
Allen is taking the fight to Unacademy and Physics Wallah’s turf. Flush with funds, the coaching giant is assembling top talent from big companies to lead different teams
India’s overfunded and overvalued startups were built on the top of overvalued talent. Today, most startups have accepted drastically lower valuations, to avoid becoming “uninvestible”. But many professionals haven’t. They risk becoming the “unhireables”
It's risking the business it has built for the one that it wants to build
Classplus is betting on Abhinay Sharma—a popular YouTube-Unacademy teacher—despite fierce competition in the government test-prep market. And replicating success stories like Physicswallah's Alakh Pandey may prove to be a daunting challenge
Amid edtech struggles, GUVI and Vidyakul have attracted investors with courses in local languages. But even with government initiatives working in their favour, they have to contend with slim margins
Though younger startups are set to gain from Tiger Global’s smaller cheques and early-stage bets in India, they are wary of working with the investment giant
With slowing growth and a funding crunch, edtechs like Unacademy and Vedantu have made tutors their new sales force. But the pressure to create viral videos and the fear of not meeting targets are too much to handle for many
With the Common University Entrance Test presenting new opportunities for Byju’s, Unacademy and their offline peers, some schools are facing an existential crisis of sorts. Amid the chaos, students are paying a high price
After multiple acquisitions and business models, edtech giant Unacademy has ventured into SaaS. This experiment leads to more questions than customers, and it will be difficult for Unacademy to pass this test
The US$300 million acquisition of WhiteHat Jr in 2020 was supposed to be Byju’s’ international expansion engine. Nearly two years later, the coding-for-kids platform, which added a maths division in 2021, is a shadow of its former self
Physics Wallah, or PW, has been a disruptive force in India’s test-prep market, thanks to its record-low prices and quality teaching. At the cusp of unicorn-dom and raising its first-ever venture round, PW’s brand is at an inflexion point—and in desperate need of cleaving the “cult” from the business
Quizizz grew from an idea to over 75 million users in six years, zero marketing spend and with only 20 engineers. After taking the US by storm despite no paid advertising, the Bengaluru-based startup is now turning its gaze to emerging economies. But its homeland, India, could be its biggest challenge yet
Amazon Academy has been discreetly building a foundation in India’s online test prep market since last January, with over one million registered users already. But even after onboarding reputed teachers and partnering with traditional coaching institutes, the venture seems to be missing some key ingredients
Since acquiring Embibe in 2018, Reliance has spent nearly $80 million revamping the AI-based edtech. With a mega relaunch lined up for January 2022, Embibe is looking to take the quickest route to scale—schools
Medical test-prep platform PrepLadder finds itself in court after two Sri Lankan entrepreneurs accused it of plagiarising. They allege that PrepLadder created a whole new product, All Things Clinical, by copying the content and UI of their app, Prognosis
When Freshworks goes public in the US later this month, it’ll be the first Indian SaaS company to do so. Girish Mathrubootham set sail on this decade-long journey by “dreaming in instalments”, and in doing so, shaped India’s SaaS ecosystem
Newly crowned India’s most-valuable startup, Byju’s has scooped up nine companies in its 10-year run. There’s three more in the works. Despite slim share pickings, the Byju’s umbrella is looking more and more appealing for edtech founders
The playbook behind Tiger Global’s recent spate of investments is both familiar and different from its initial foray in India when it backed now-iconic companies such as Flipkart and Freshworks. But where it pioneered a change in India's VC landscape last time, it is evoking fear, panic and greed in the startup ecosystem this time around.
India's edtechs had a breakout year in 2020. Byju's now boasts over 70 million users, while Unacademy entered unicorn territory. What these edtech behemoths haven't done, though, is go beyond India's privileged students or prove their efficacy. Now, a patchwork of non-profits is working with state governments to take e-learning to the masses, while also proving their methods work
With a million views a month, Unacademy’s co-founders thought they could create a ‘YouTube for education’. Now, with a billion-dollar valuation, a successful subscription model, and a revenue rate of $100 million in the bag, Munjal wants to go bigger. As big as $100 billion
Besides birthing a new edtech unicorn, the pandemic has thrown open thousands of full-time and part-time online teaching jobs—June 2020 alone saw 12,000 open full-time positions. But between pressure on teachers to bring in paid users and the need for edtechs to keep costs low, teaching online is no longer as simple as switching on the camera
SoftBank’s investment in Unacademy is novel for multiple reasons. It marks the firm’s first bet on an Indian edtech, a break from its preference for market leaders, and could finally create genuine competition for the Byju’s juggernaut
Chinese VCs and tech companies like Shunwei, Fosun, Tencent and ByteDance want a piece of India’s rapidly growing edtech market. And they’re offering not just money but also strategic inputs and insights from their home market
Niche and medium-sized edtech businesses have a tidal wave of new users and in the offing is a combination of new products and business model pivots. But the threats of big edtech and an unstable investor market are always around the corner
Unacademy Plus, with its Netflix-like offer of unlimited choice and content, has nearly 100,000 subscribers. But for its next growth spurt, it might just have to change its whole DNA
From Educomp at the turn of the decade to Byju’s today, India’s edtech scene has changed tracks. As companies target every level of learning, even offline players are waking up to the digital wave engulfing them
Aakash, the brick-and-mortar coaching behemoth that controls 5% of the $6.6 billion offline coaching market, wants almost 25% of its business to be digital by 2023. How it deals with building this new tech empire—through talent, tech and content—will determine its legacy
Unlike full-stack edtech players like Byju’s, platforms like Doubtnut and Brainly are hoping to turn doubt solving into a standalone business. With millions of users and millions in funding, can they succeed where platforms like Hashlearn and Toppr stumbled
Every industry is going offline to online; surely, India's coveted engineering coaching centres can't be left behind. Online players Vedantu and Unacademy have the tech, quality control, affordable pricing and enough room in a class to take on institutes like FIITJEE and Aakash. Are the good old offline players feeling the heat?
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