BUSINESS
Edtech consortium's independent grievance body dismisses 'mis-selling' case against Byju's-owned Great Learning
The IGRB's order comes as a relief to Great Learning and Byju's group companies, which were under fire for mis-selling and mis-representation.
BUSINESS
Edtech unicorn Vedantu lays off another 100 employees
According to sources, permanent employees from sales and training teams were laid off over the last month.
BUSINESS
Account Aggregator ecosystem gets a boost as all PSU banks go live
The participation of major PSU banks is key to the success of AA’s framework as it will open a window for a huge pool of the banks’ customers to use the framework and allow easy access to financial services
BUSINESS
Notes from Kota: Meet the small businesses powering India’s $500-million coaching hub
The businesses that have come up in Kota over the past three decades provide direct and indirect livelihood to more than 200,000 people. The town is humming again after a temporary setback caused by COVID-19
BUSINESS
Avendus Future Leaders Fund buys part of Elevation Capital's stake in Xpressbees for Rs 195 crore
Avends Future Leaders, the investing arm of Avendus Group, has two funds and has invested in 11 companies to date including Xpressbees. The company had launched its first fund in 2019 and said that it has deployed it fully
BUSINESS
Exclusive | Unacademy suspends contracts of doubt-solving educators for 6 months in another cost-cutting move
Unacademy told the educators that it has made 'strategic changes' to its customised learning solutions and owing to the change, it will 'significantly' reduce doubt solving on its platform.
BUSINESS
Notes from Kota: Meet Nitin Vijay or NV sir, the real-life Jeetu Bhaiya of Kota
Jeetu Bhaiya, a character spun off by Netflix in its hit series on Kota, called Kota Factory, was inspired by Nitin Vijay. Vijay founded Motion Education, one of Kota’s most famous coaching centres, and he has a lot of advice and suggestions for IIT and medical aspirants.
BUSINESS
Notes from Kota | Teachers have last laugh, get fat hikes as poaching intensifies at India’s coaching capital
The total number of IIT aspirants this year is expected to top 22 lakh. But, with only 16,000 seats available across India’s 23 IITs, competition for every seat is intense. And since Kota churns out a large number of successful IIT aspirants every year, demand for the town’s classes and teachers has jumped post the pandemic.
BUSINESS
Notes from Kota | A day in the life of a teenage student in India's education capital
Rahul’s story is a microcosm of lakhs of students who flock to Kota every year, with dreams of cracking competitive examinations that will guarantee them a place in a leading engineering or medical institution.
BUSINESS
Notes from Kota: As edtechs slug it out, India’s coaching capital is the ultimate winner
In this special series, Moneycontrol goes to ground zero to find out how a small town in Rajasthan became one of India’s biggest education hubs.
BUSINESS
Exclusive | WestBridge Capital raises $1.5 billion in largest-ever commitment for Indian companies
Westbridge Capital joins a growing list of PE and venture capital (VC) firms to raise large funds for India-focused companies
MCMINIS
Why are PE/VC investors bullish at early stages?
BUSINESS
BigBasket's consumer arm's FY22 loss widens 4x as employee costs soar
The company's widening losses came at a time when BigBasket has made forays into the offline space with stores branded as 'Fresho' and has also invested in quick commerce and 10-minute grocery delivery offerings with BBNow.
BUSINESS
Byju’s-owned Great Learning under fire for 'mis-selling' IIT-Bombay course
A number of alumni of the Singapore-based edtech firm, acquired last year by Byju’s, allege that it mis-sold a course offered by IIT-Bombay as a postgraduate programme.
BUSINESS
Growth, not profit, is the lifeblood of a startup: Rocketship VC’s Venky Harinarayan
At a time when some of the world’s largest venture capital (VC) firms, including Sequoia Capital and Y Combinator, are sending out notes to their portfolio companies to prioritise profitability over growth, Rocketship VC’s Venky Harinarayan is advising portfolio startups to stay put on growth.
BUSINESS
Unacademy to exercise internal migration for redundant employees: Gaurav Munjal
The company has laid off over 750 employees or about 12 percent of its workforce including educators and contractual employees since the start of 2022.
BUSINESS
'I stay out of the VC ecosystem because I fundamentally don’t believe in it:’ Zoho’s Sridhar Vembu
Vembu’s comments come at a time when startups in India across sectors are cutting costs aggressively in a bid to survive in the near term with VC and private equity (PE) funding slowing down amid a correction in global financial markets.
BUSINESS
How offline became the new online for India’s ed tech unicorns
As the coronavirus pandemic ebbs, parents, students, investors, and startup founders seem to have found a common ground that suits all and offers the best of both worlds—hybrid coaching
BUSINESS
No free meals for employees, founders and management to take salary cuts: Unacademy's path to profitability
Employees, including CXOs (top management) will not be provided business class treatment for travel and anyone who wants an upgrade can pay from their own pocket
BUSINESS
Distressed healthcare startup MFine merges with LifeCell International's diagnostics arm
LifeCell’s diagnostics business and MFine will have a combined user base of more than six million. MFine, as a brand, will continue to exist as the consumer-facing platform, under the new entity LifeWell
BUSINESS
Matrix-backed agritech firm Vegrow raises $25 million in Series B funding led by Prosus
Co-founder Shobhit Jain said Vegrow is betting on the fruit market in India, which the company expects to be valued at $60 billion
BUSINESS
SoftBank-backed Unacademy increases ESOP pool by 20%
Unacademy's move to increase its ESOP pool comes at a time when the company laid off over 750 employees including educators, in a bid to cut costs amid a potential funding winter for India's startups.
BUSINESS
Fintech startup Innoviti raises $45 million led by Singapore's Panthera Growth Partners
Innoviti will use the funds to expand the company’s mid-market product lines in electronics, fashion, and grocery as well as build products on its UPI payment channels, the startup said
BUSINESS
Exclusive | SoftBank-backed Unacademy spent Rs 100 crore to poach 30 teachers in Kota
Kota holds significant importance for new-age edtech companies such as Unacademy, as it has been an offline education hub, especially for engineering and medical test preparations, for decades
