Indian teachers stranded as Saudi-based edtech Noon fails to honour promise to clear dues after multiple extensions

The Saudi Arabia-based edtech startup has failed to honour the promise of payments over 11 months after it began laying off staff last year across roles in India and eventually discontinued classes on November 16, 2022.

It seems an interminable wait for pending salaries for the Indian staff of Noon Academy. The Saudi Arabia-based edtech startup has failed to honour the promise of payments over 11 months after it began laying off staff last year across roles in India and eventually discontinued classes on November 16, 2022.

Noon Academy, which entered India in 2019, asked for an extension on March 14, for clearing the dues, citing a delay in closing an ongoing funding round, sources told Moneycontrol.

On March 15, Moneycontrol reported that the company said it planned to pay part of the dues by the end of the month and disburse the remaining amount by the end of May. In another official email earlier, the company had also promised a bonus amount to compensate for the delay.

Teachers received half of their dues on March 23, but the remaining amount, which was to be disbursed in May along with the promised bonuses, have not yet been credited.

Queries sent to Noon Academy did not elicit a response at the time of publishing.

Delay in fundraise

In an email on June 14, the company said that it is unable to process the payments. “We apologise to inform you that due to some unforeseen fundraising issues, we are not able to process the payment as of now. However, (we) want to assure you that we are working diligently to resolve this issue as soon as possible,” said the mail, a copy of which has been reviewed by Moneycontrol.

Moneycontrol earlier reported that the company had hoped to close the next round of funding by May as it had “strong commitments from our investors”, it said in an email to staff dated March 14.

Edtech startups, especially in the K-12 space, have been struggling to stay afloat with investor funding drying up and demand for online learning plunging. Since 2022, edtech firms, including biggies Byju’s and Unacademy, have laid off over 8,000 Indian employees.

Also Read: Layoffs, restructuring, slowdown: India’s edtech firms are struggling post-pandemic

In the latest email, the company also said that the Noon team will call teachers to “clear any questions you may have”. Noon Employees had not received any further communication at the time of publishing this story.

“At least earlier there was hope of a deadline of May by which payments should come in. In this mail, they have not even given a date by when we can expect it,” said an employee.

About Noon Academy

Founded in 2013 by Mohammed Aldhalaan and Aziz Alsaeed, Noon Academy started as a test preparation platform for students in Saudi Arabia. Now, the company calls itself a social learning platform and enables students to attend virtual classes, on-demand tutorials and live study group sessions.

The company has raised $21.6 million over three funding rounds, according to Crunchbase. Its backers include venture capital firm 500 Global, which has invested in Indian unicorn Cars 24 and other edtech companies such as Canada-based foreign education consultancy firm Applyboard, and the US-based coding platform for kids, Tynker.

After raising Series A funding of $8.6 million in June 2019, co-led by Central Asia-based venture capital firms Raed Ventures and STV, the company entered India to strengthen its products and build tech infrastructure to support it. According to its website, Noon Academy caters to over 12 million students globally.

India exit

Moneycontrol earlier reported that before it was made official, former employees of Noon had alleged the company was mulling an exit from India, shutting down its entire operations in the country.

To be sure, after sacking all educators last year, the company discontinued classes abruptly in November 2022.

While Noon Academy claims to be present in over eight countries including India, its website and application currently show it operates only in four — Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Iraq and Pakistan. Former educators confirmed that India was among the options earlier.

The company offered courses for standards 11 and 12, in addition, to test prep courses for competitive exams such as the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for admission to undergraduate medical courses. However, currently, Noon Academy does not have live courses on its platforms for Indian students.

Noon Academy’s India team, based in Bengaluru, had a strength of about 100 employees, according to Glassdoor and LinkedIn. However, it’s not clear if the figure includes contractual employees.

The company let go of its 40 contractual teachers in July 2022, months before their agreements were scheduled to lapse. Noon also eventually laid off the majority of its permanent staff by the end of February, Moneycontrol reported earlier in March.

While permanent employees, including those in the sales, tech and operations teams, are said to have been paid in full after being asked to leave, the company has held part of the payments due to its contractual teachers for about 11 months.