Online Education

UpGrad’s CPTO Ankur Dhawan steps down amid Unacademy acquisition talks

Ankur Dhawan joined UpGrad in 2020 and was elevated to Chief Product and Technology Officer earlier this year.

Seekho raises $28 million funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners

Seekho, an edutainment video platform, plans to use the capital raised to build new interactive content formats and invest in AI-powered learning experiences.

Online to offline: Upskilling startups vie to launch new-age colleges in shift from edtech model

PhysicsWallah and Scaler are among the highly valued tech startups that have launched such ‘new-age’ colleges, taking on top tech institutions. Bootstrapped startup Masters’ Union introduced the idea of a modern college.

PhysicsWallah forays into undergraduate education with AI and computer science course

The four year-residential programme in Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence (AI) will begin in September this year in Bengaluru, with a batch of about 100 students, Vishwa Mohan, Chief Information Officer of PhysicsWallah and President of the institute, called PhysicsWallah Institute of Innovation told Moneycontrol in an interaction.

Byju’s seeks easier terms on $1.2-billion loan as it slips deeper into red

India's most valuable startup, valued at $22 billion, has appointed an adviser to discuss tweaks in covenants of the term loan B with creditors

Higher Education Reform: In a first, students can now pursue two degrees simultaneously

A candidate can also pursue two digital degrees simulteniously. The move also means, an eligible candidate can do a master's and a bachelor's degree together too.

Unacademy lays off about 10% of its workforce

This move comes amid murmurs among various stakeholders in the startup ecosystem on whether the euphoria is now slowing down in the country after an exuberant 2021, with deals taking longer to close and some late-stage deals coming under pressure from the funding slowdown.

Classplus raises $70 million led by Alpha Wave Global, Tiger Global

The financing round valued the Noida-based startup at close to $600 million, more than double its previous valuation when it had raised $65 million Series C funding in June 2021

Brokerage and wealth manager Cosmea Financial enters edtech

A product mix of skills and online certification will be the major driver of growth in next three years instead of K-12 sector, the company said. Target is to train 1 million students and professionals in three years.

Eruditus raises $350 million debt from CPPIB

Eruditus, which ties up with top universities such as Columbia, INSEAD and others to provide executive education and MBAs, plans to make acquisitions worth a billion dollars in the next year or so

Live tutoring startup Filo raises $23 million Series A funding led by Anthos Capital

Filo helps students connect to tutors for one-on-one live video sessions to clear concepts, solve problems, and prepare for examinations.

Union Budget 2022: How does education sector read initiatives announced by FM Sitharaman?

Budget 2022: While most of the reactions Moneycontrol received were positive, a few believe that key steps that are needed to enable these initiatives have been missed out

Online education to continue for students of classes 1 to 9 in Gujarat till February 5

The decision to continue online education in schools for classes 1 to 9 was taken by Gujarat Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel in a meeting of the core committee held in Gandhinagar, an official release said.

UGC warns against franchise model between edtech and universities to offer degrees, diplomas

The union education ministry is working to regulate the growing edtech sector to curb monopoly and unfair practices.

Byju's, Unacademy, Vedantu, others want to regulate themselves

This development comes amid growing concerns of misselling and alleged unfair practices by edtech firms in India and the likelihood of the government cracking down on the sector.

Moneycontrol Masterclass Ep 13 | Back to the classroom: Is India ready to reopen schools?

Schools in India, which have over 260 million students, have been shut since March 2020. A recent study by Azim Premji Foundation, based on an assessment of a sample of 16,607 children, showed that a majority of children have forgotten foundational abilities in mathematics and over 92 percent have forgotten foundational abilities in language, which they knew in March 2020. Online schooling is not only ineffective in most cases but also inaccessible to a majority of the population. As children now stare at the second straight year of online learning, is it finally time to reopen up schools? What kind of precautions will be needed? Will a hybrid model work? These are some of the questions we will be discussing with an ace panel comprising Prasanth Nair, IAS officer, Dr Zirak Marker, Senior Psychiatrist, Mpower, Mansoor Ali Khan, Board Member, Delhi Public School, and Sumeet Mehta, Co-Founder and CEO, LEAD.

How schoolchildren will cope with another year behind screens

Studying online can be stressful for children, teachers and parents. Some say there’s no alternative during a pandemic, while others insist that all will be well.

Elon Musk donates $5 million to Khan Academy through non-profit arm Musk Foundation

Prior to Khan Academy, Musk Foundation donated $480,000 in grants for water filtration in Flint, Michigan, and $424,000 to supply laptop computers to Flint middle-schools.

3 Point Analysis | Unacademy's fresh fundraise values it at $2 billion; what makes the education sector exciting?

If there’s one sector that continues to see extraordinary growth during these unprecedented times, it is education. Adding on to the list of phenomenal edtech fundraises this year Unacademy has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from Tiger Global Management and Dragoneer Investment Group.

The story of Eruditus: How a Harvard alumnus saw a business opportunity where universities fell short