These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2015, Peru-headquartered Crehana is an online education platform that aims to provide over 800 courses in 16 categories. It caters to companies and individuals looking to close the reskilling and upskilling gap in Latin America. The platform consists of more than 400 Spanish-speaking professionals and instructors who help users develop and refine digital and creative skills. 

Crehana has managed to cover the entire value chain from discovering and analyzing the skill gap, to offering courses to help upskill individuals as well as providing the feature to track their progress. As a result, users on the platform are able to master new tools of the trade as well as stay updated with the constantly changing industry demands. 

The company’s latest funding was in October 2021, where it raised $70M in a Series B funding round led by General Atlantic. This was by far the largest Series B funding round in Latin America for an edtech company. It experienced triple-digit growth in 2020 and is supported by marquee investors like General Atlantic, Mountain Nazca, Salesforce Ventures, Rethink Education, ALIVE Ventures, IFC, and Dila Capital, among others.

On the Web: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

Crehana offers project-based courses in Spanish in the following categories:

• Digital Marketing 

• Digital Illustration

• Leadership

• Soft Skills

• Graphic Design 

• Drawing and Painting

• Digital Transformation and Innovation

• Data and Analytics 

• Sales

• Design of Products 

• Photography

• Video

• Productivity and Software 

• Entrepreneurship and Business

• Lifestyle

• Crafts and Cooking

• Web Development and Technology 

• 3D Modeling and Animation

• 2D Animation

• Administration and Finance

• Service and Customer Service

• Digital Architecture 

While the company’s headquarters are in Lima, Crehana has footprints in Latin American locations like Mexico, Argentina, Colombia and Spain.

How It Works

As an education platform, Crehana provides highly curated Spanish online courses to individuals and companies with an aim to revolutionize education for creatives. Companies use this platform to develop their enterprise’s talent by upskilling them and in the long run, increasing the performance of their teams. 

It offers project-based courses that are spread across 16 categories like digital marketing, graphic design, animation, leadership and craft courses. These courses are between 3-8 hours so that students find it easier. The short video classes are proven to generate 22% greater recall as compared to traditional education methods. Users are also provided reports measuring their progress so they can plan their study sessions accordingly.   

Users that sign up for Crehana’s premium membership get access to a personalized and specialized mentor who accompanies them throughout the course. Moreover, users can also schedule personalized sessions with mentors to resolve any academic queries that they may have about their project. For urgent questions, they have access to a chatbox from Monday to Friday where these instructors are available to communicate with them. 

At the end of each course, students are assigned personalized projects to ensure they have successfully mastered the skill they were taught. After the mentors review projects, they provide feedback to users on whether or not additional skill development is needed. 

Once the course is complete, users receive certificates signed by educational partners of the platform. These certificates can be shared on social media platforms or uploaded on the Crehana website to validate the user’s course completion journey. 

Instructors and professionals share their knowledge by teaching online courses while Crehana handles their fees payment and marketing expenses. The platform also has a profile page for each teacher, so before selecting a course, students have the option to review the profile page of their teachers and evaluate their portfolio, degree, and work experience. 

Crehana Careers is launched for digital professionals who are looking to either enhance their skills or increase their employment opportunities. These new courses are aimed at developing in-demand creative skills and focus on topics like digital illustration, 3D modeling, motion graphics and more. 

To simplify the learning process, these courses are designed in a way that students can finish them quickly. Each career has five modules with 2-3 courses of 3 hours duration. If a user spends 8 hours per week for four months on Crehana, they are able to learn skills that help them score better jobs. 

Business Model & Pricing

Crehana has a B2B2C model where it caters to both individuals and businesses through its online education platform. In order to target business owners, the company launched Crehana for Business which provides a cloud-based learning ecosystem along with numerous learning modules that can be priced and adjusted according to the needs of users. 

The platform has a subscription-based model where users that buy the premium model get special privileges like exclusive online specializations, access to all courses, mentoring services, academic advising, personalized chat support, access for multiple users, exclusive call support, etc. Individuals can get a subscription for $69/ per annum, whereas duos or families have to pay a higher price of over $100. 

Crehana earns revenue from the subscription fee it charges customers that sign up for a premium membership. The company claims that 50% of its revenue comes from Crehana for Business, which targets businesses looking to upskill their staff. 

Traction

Crehana experienced triple digit growth in 2020 as the world went online due to the pandemic. It also claimed 4x year over year growth during 2019 and 2020. Amidst so many businesses shutting down, people moved towards online education platforms where they could learn new skills that open up employment opportunities for them. This is why the company experienced massive growth during the coronavirus lockdown. 

Crehana prides itself on helping learners double their income after taking courses on the platform. According to a recent analysis, 60% of professionals who spend 3-4 hours/week on the platform are able to quickly find new jobs either permanent or freelance. Whereas 80% of active users get twice the amount of offers every month. 

According to statistics on the website:

• The company has more than 400 experts on board

• It offers more than 800 courses in 22 categories

• These courses teach 100,000+ techniques and competencies

The company was reported to have 5 million users in 2020 and the app was downloaded more than 500,000 times. 

Founder(s)

Diego Olcese Diaz: Ceo and Co-founder of Crehana. Previously co-founded Flikn, an online education marketplace that enables users to learn and share skills

Rodolfo Dañino Ruiz: COO and Co-founder of Crehana. Previously co-founded Flikn, an online education marketplace, and served as a cohort member at Emerge Education, a leading ed-tech seed-stage investor. 

History & Evolution

• In 2013, Diego Olcese, a young graduate became infatuated with the idea of technology changing workplaces after visiting corporations like Google and Coursera. That combined with his fascination for the internet facilitating access to education, motivated Diego to create a virtual space where users could find helpful content to improve their career trajectory. 

• In 2015, Diego and Rodolfo Dañino founded Crehana, an educational platform that provides short courses to help customers develop technical skills. These are for particular projects like how to use social media to boost business, graphic design for advertising, interpret sales projection data and more. 

• In 2018, the company launched its IOS and Android apps in a bid to make its platform more accessible to students. Courtesy of the app, users can learn both online and offline wherever and whenever they want. They can also download videos and material for times when they do not have access to the internet.  

• That year the company also launched career courses to educate students in creative skills. The aim was to help learners who wanted to enhance their digital skills or increase employment opportunities by engaging them in short practical courses. 

• Along with the launch of new courses and apps, the company also expanded to Spain to maximize its reach globally. 

• The company experienced tremendous growth during the coronavirus pandemic with a 48% increase in browsing time with tablets and a 36% increase in mobile phone traffic. Crehana partnered with Peru’s University of Engineering and Technology (UTEC) to offer specialist courses to its users to meet their ever-growing demand. As a result, the platform exceeded 3.5 million users in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. 

• In 2021, with Crehana’s recent Series B funding, it planned to use the funds to launch operations in Brazil. 

From archive.org 

Market Snapshot

The edtech market in Latin America is the 4th largest edtech market in the world. By 2023, it is estimated to earn a revenue of more than $3B growing at a CAGR of more than 4% from 2018 to 2023.

The largest users of self-paced learning in the Latin American market are countries such as the Dominican Republic, Honduras, El Salvador, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Colombia, Brazil, and Chile. Brazil is the largest player in the edtech market of Latin America.

Additional Learnings

• Crehana has experts like Dore Hernandez, the Head of Small Business Sales at Google, Francis Serbia, Senior Product Manager at Amazon, Michael Castuera, Coach and HR Executive at Uber, Melissa Lucero, Head of Ecommerce and CRM at Loreal on board so that students on the platform can directly learn from industry experts. 

• Marcus Dantus, businessman and investor shark of the Sony Channel program Shark Tank Mexico partnered with Crehana to introduce a new course called ‘Attract and convince investors with Marcu Dantus’ with an aim to develop skills of entrepreneurs so they can synthesize and pitch an idea to investors in a company.  

• The majority of the students are from Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Spain and Argentina. 

Suggested starting points to dive deeper

• Latin Entrepreneurs: Diego Olcese, founder of Crehana (The Latin Way, January ‘22)

• As edtech evolves, LatAm reskilling platforms raise millions to bring outcomes into the mix | TechCrunch (Natasha Mascarenhas, TeChcrunch, August‘ 21)

• Can you be taught how to be creative? This Peru startup thinks so (Sam Brake Guia, Peru Reports, May‘18)

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2019, Bengaluru-headquartered Apna.co is India’s leading professional networking and job opportunities platform for blue and grey collar employees. The platform helps first-time internet users access professional opportunities, gain new skills, collaborate with others, and create communities that can help motivate them.

Apna.co is used by more than 200,000 leading companies like Zomato, Flipkart, Unacademy, Licious, Burger King, Bharti-AXA, Byju’s Delhivery, G4S Global, Shadowfax, Dunzo, Teamlease, and more. It has also collaborated with governmental and private institutions like UNICEF YuWaah, The National Skill Development Corporation, and the Ministry of Minority Affairs to help applicants gain new skills. 

In just 21 months, the platform became one of India’s fastest unicorns with Tiger Global’s $100M investment and is now valued at $1.1B.  With marquee investors like Insight Partners, Tiger Global, LightspeedIndia, Sequoia Capital India, Rocketship.VC and Greenoaks Capital, the company has managed to raise $193.5M in funds until now. 

On the Web: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

At the moment, Apna.co has three areas of focus. There is a marketplace for jobs, a professional social networking platform, and an upskilling business. The company offers the following services: 

• Hiring: Employers can browse through hundreds of candidates to find the right one for their required job.

• Job Board: Jobseeker can create a profile online, search for local job openings in the city, apply for jobs, schedule interviews and keep track of job applications.

• Learning new skills: A platform to learn English, improve and gain new skills, and prepare for interviews. 

• Business group: A group for entrepreneurs, where they share information on government grants, loans, and benefits available for businesses and how to apply for them. 

• Government Exam Preparation: A group for government exam aspirants, where they share, practice, & solve questions and test papers for various government exams to prepare for government jobs.

The company operates in 28 cities and is accessible in 11 languages. It has plans of expanding to the US, Middle East, Southeast Asia, and Africa in 2022. 

How It Works

Apna.co aims to connect people with opportunities and workers with employees. The company’s app which is accessible in 11 languages has over 70 communities for specialized professions like carpenters, beauticians, field sales representatives, painters, etc. 

On the app, workers looking for jobs enter their personal information like talents, education, and experience, which is then automatically converted into virtual business cards. These cards are passed on to potential employers based on the workers’ skill sets and preferences. After finding an opportunity they like, job seekers phone the company directly, schedule an interview, and get hired. The company claims that the hiring process only takes 48 hours.

As soon as the applicant applies for a job, the platform makes him take a basic test, after which the recruiter snaps up the applicant in a few hours. However, if the applicant fails the interview, the platform prompts him to learn new skills that will make him eligible for the job. Within 24 hours, the applicant is upskilled, ready to apply for the job again. The app provides courses such as conversational English and acing a job interview and has categorized 4,000 skills, which are either taught by partners or developed in-house. 

The app is also used by applicants to connect with other job seekers, sharing leads and suggestions with them to make their job hunt easier. Often just interacting with other users and listening to their tips and tricks helps an applicant land a job.

Recruiters use the app to reach out to applicants all around the world. They then advertise job openings, interact with prospects, arrange interviews, and recruit employees. A quick look at the candidate’s digital persona tells the recruiter whether the candidate has the necessary abilities for the position as well as whether he’ll be able to fit in or not. 

Business Model & Pricing

Apna.co has a B2B2C business model where it connects candidates on a hunt for jobs to employers looking to recruit employees. The app is completely free for applicants looking to get hired and that is one of the main reasons why it’s so popular amongst the masses. Currently, the company is focused on creating value and is not capitalizing on its educational products like courses that help upskills candidates, prepare them for job interviews and as a result, increase their chances of getting a job. However, it does charge recruiters for the technical services provided to them which makes up for their entire revenue. 

In the future, the premium version of the app would only charge job seekers that need extra help to gain new skills. However, the company has no plans to pollute the app with advertisements, missing out on a major revenue stream. 

Traction

Apna.co is India’s largest professional networking platform as well as the country’s fastest unicorn. Even though it’s still in its pre-revenue stage, it has managed to earn $2.2M operating revenue in 2021 which is a 3.24x increase from its $690K revenue in 2020. The company has grown north of 125x over the last year and the rate is only increasing every month. Apna.co claims to have a presence in over 50 cities, including major ones like Mumbai, Delhi, Pune, etc and has over 5 million active jobs on its platform. In 2022 the platform claimed to have served over 200,000 employers by conducting more than 170 million interviews as well as enabling 200 million peer-to-peer conversations. 

The company is reported to have over 22 million users and has a 95 percent retention rate on its platform. Moreover, during the pandemic, it saw a 430% increase in its female users, with a 12x increase in women interviewing on the platform in 2021 as compared to 2020. According to The State of Mobile 2022 report, Apna.co is the most downloaded app globally in the business category after Whatsapp Business. 

In 2022, it plans to cover all of India and expand its footprints to the US, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Africa. It also plans on developing Master-class style skilling courses, result or job-based skilling, and peer-to-peer learning. It also includes career counseling and a resume-building function to its platform.

Founder & Team

Nirmit Parikh: CEO and Co-Founder at Apna.co.co. Nirmit, a Stanford graduate previously founded Cruxbot and Incone Technologies. He also worked as Product and Strategy Officer at Apple and as Director of New Products / Data Analytics at Intel Corporation. 

History & Evolution

In his early 20s, Nirmit Parikh founded his first startup, Incone Technologies, an automatic dam control system. A few years later he merged the startup with his family business and focused on solving the problems of floods, using artificial Intelligence-based control systems.

After three years, Nirmit founded Cruxbot – a platform that summarized websites – which was acquired by Kno and then Intel. He then moved to Silicon Valley and started working at Apple. During this time, he frequently visited India to look after his family’s business. It was during one of these trips while hiring workers for the business he realized how inefficient the hiring system was and the extent of unemployment in India. To get a deeper understanding of the problem, Nirmit went undercover as a blue-collar worker as an electrician, foreman, and shop floor guy. This experience helped him realize that while most workers had the skills to obtain a good job, they did not have a platform where they could connect with an employer looking for that exact skill set. Around that same time, Nirmit watched the Bollywood film ‘Gully Boy’ and it inspired him thoroughly, all of this lead to him starting his venture called Apna.co, inspired by the film’s song “Apna Time Ayega”.

In 2019, Apna.co – a professional networking and job opportunities platform – was founded. Initially, Nimrit used to visit slums and personally converse with blue-collar workers, trying to gain their insights to make the platform better. In that same year, they raised $3M in a Seed funding round.

In 2021, Apna.co raised $100M in a Series C funding round and became the fastest unicorn of India. During the coronavirus pandemic, Apna.co amplified its efforts to provide hospitals, e-pharmacies, and delivery companies’ workforce with critical and essential roles. It catered to over 2500 organizations directly or indirectly allied to healthcare. It also offered over 50,000 openings for the roles that ranged from nurses (General), nurses (COVID-19 Duty), ward boys, medical staff, lab technicians, pharmacists, blood bank technicians, patient caretakers among others. 

From archive.org 

Additional Learnings

In 2022, Apna.co signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)  with the Tourism & Hospitality Skill Council in an attempt to connect aspiring youths with the numerous job opportunities available in the tourism and hospitality sector. The collaboration will provide easy access to local opportunities, upskilling courses, training sessions, and re-skilling courses to the workers in this sector. 

Market Snapshot

Online recruitment in India grew 8% in 2021 as compared to 2020, according to data extracted from the Monster Employment Index.

Moreover, In 2021, the industry witnessed an overall monthly growth of 4% in hiring. Industries that witnessed significant growth in hiring include Telecom/ISP, IT-Hardware, Software and Logistics, Courier/Freight Transportation.

Suggested Next Reads

• Nirmit Parikh, Founder & CEO - Apna.co on Building the Future of India's Rising Working Class (Indian Silicon Valley, Oct ‘21)

• How Apna.co Became One Of India's Fastest Unicorns With Almost Zero Annual Revenue (Manu Balachandran, Forbes India, Sep ‘21)

• Apna.co. co sees a 40% jump in female users in Q2 2021 (Prachi Verma, The Economic Times, Aug ‘21)

• ASDC, Apna.co.co to provide career counseling and job opportunities for the automobile sector (Autocar Pro News, June ‘21)

• Apna.co Time Ayega! Know-How This Entrepreneur Is Building Job Network For Blue-Collar Labor (Debarghya Sil, Entrepreneur Europe, April ‘21)

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2010, California-headquartered Toptal is an online talent marketplace that connects companies with highly vetted freelance talent like software developers, finance experts, designers, and project and product managers. The company has been profitable since its inception but only raised funding once in a seed financing round of $1.4M led by Andreessen Horowitz, and angels like Quora’s Adam D’Angelo and Adam Rockefeller. 

Toptal has served 16,000 clients and currently has a global network of talent numbering over 10,000 people in more than 100 countries. The platform is used by leading brands like Airbnb, Bridgestone, Duolingo, Shopify, USC, Cleveland Cavaliers etc to hire freelancers for important projects.

On the Web: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

Toptal allows companies to hire expert freelancers belonging to the following categories: 

• Developers

• Designers

• Finance Experts

• Project Managers

• Product Managers

It operates across 98 countries without any physical office or headquarters. Their talent network consists of freelancers belonging to 158 countries. 

How It Works

Toptal is an online global network consisting of expert freelancers like designers, developers, finance experts, product and project managers that are connected with clients to work on freelance projects. The platform helps companies tap into the expertise of top tech talent around the world, while at the same time, freelancers registered on the platform find high-quality jobs and guidance from Toptal’s expert team. 

The company prides itself on only offering the top 3% freelancers of the market, with the help of their extensive screening and selection process. The screening involves an evaluation of skills, English language mastery, personality test, and a rigorous, real-world test project that takes 1-3 weeks to complete. This process ensures that clients work with only high-caliber and highly skilled freelancers. The platform takes job requirements from companies looking for a freelancer, negotiates a budget, and vets them as well. 

Recruiters can sign up on the platform for free. pon registration, an introductory call is set up with them to understand their hiring needs. Rather than making them sort through dozens of resumes, Toptal sends them on average 1.7 choices of freelancers before the client signs a contract. The company can connect a recruiter with a freelancer within 24 hours, and 90% of the time, the recruiter hires the first freelancer they are introduced to. 

Toptal offers a two-week trial period for clients to evaluate their chosen freelancers’ performance. If the client is not satisfied, their $500 deposit is refunded without being charged for any work the freelancer has submitted in those two weeks.

The company does not charge clients to hire a freelancer, instead, it charges a commission on the earnings of freelancers. The freelancer’s hourly rate is based on their expertise, qualifications, and location. Hourly rates on the platform mostly start around $60/hour and customers are provided invoicing services and payment options, including transferring funds into bank accounts through a partnership with their cross-border payments company Payoneer.

Business Model & Pricing

Toptal is an online talent marketplace where expert developers, designers, consultants, and managers are connected to innovative companies and startups looking to expand their teams. The company has a permanent work from home policy, which helps its operations maintain a low overhead. However, it prides itself on offering the top 3% of freelancers of the market with its extensive screening process which is why their charges are higher than other freelancing platforms. 

Toptal does not charge clients to hire a freelancer, instead, it earns money by charging a markup fee over the hourly rate of every freelancer in its exclusive network. The company directly invoices a client for the hourly work done on a project and then deducts its commission before paying the freelancer. This rate is predetermined and approximately half of what Toptal collects from the client. 

Traction

Topal witnessed tremendous growth in 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic, as the volume of applicants to join its on-demand network increased by 55% to more than 200,000 people. Business-client demand also rose over 20% in North America, Asia-Pacific, European Union, and 40% in the UK. That year the company reported revenue of over $200M in 2020 and a year-over-year growth rate of 40% in 2021.

By May 2021, it had received 1,200,000 talent applications and served 16,000 clients. The company has more than 4,200 active professionals working with more than 700 leading companies. 

Founder(s)

Taso Du Val: CEO and Co-Founder at Toptal. Taso, previously was the Founding Team Member and Advisor at Artsy, a platform to discover, buy and sell art by the world’s leading artists. He also worked as Lead Data Admin/ Architect at Slide. 

Breanden Beneschott: Co-Founder at Toptal. Breanden, a Princeton graduate, co-founded smsPREP, Bold.org, and Mechanism Ventures. He also worked as Director of Technology at Snafu. 

History & Evolution

In 2010, Taso was working as a lead database architect at Slide, an app house, and helping friends at Artsy with coding in his free time. It was during these coding sessions that he noticed how difficult it was to find expert freelance engineers on oDesk and Elance. To fill this gap, Taso came up with the idea of Toptal, an online talent marketplace. As a result, the domain name, Toptal.com was officially registered and it became Toptal LLC in November. In 2011, Toptal Platform was introduced, a proprietary piece of technology created to run all operations.

In 2015, the company reported year to year growth of 2,861% and ranked 33rd on Deloitte’s 2015 Technology Fast 500 list. The company also expanded its talent network to include designers and launched a scholarship program for female developers. 

In 2016, Toptal acquired Skillbridge, a freelance marketplace for accountants, market research consultants, financial modelers, and statisticians. That year it also launched Top Tracker, the first of its kind free time-tracking tool tethered to a specific freelance marketplace; Toptal Enterprise, a platform to meet the growing demand for enterprise-grade freelance talent solutions; and Toptal Projects, a service to help clients solve urgent business needs by assembling and managing a team of experts. 

In 2017, Toptal expanded its talent network to include on-demand finance experts that had the experience and skills set to meet the demands of Fortune 500 companies. 

In 2018, the company partnered with Payoneer to allow free payments between companies and freelancers around the world who used their platform. It also launched TopVolunteer, a platform connecting NGOs, charities, and other nonprofit organizations with talent in the network. 

In 2019, Toptal launched Staffing.com, a platform to foster conversations about the expansion of the freelance economy, the rise of remote work, and the future of procurement and staffing at large enterprises. It also expanded its talent network again by including on-demand product and project managers. 

In 2020, Toptal launched The Suddenly Remote Playbook, a comprehensive guide to help companies and employees manage to work remotely. It also launched Remote Work Solutions that offers customized solutions to help companies build and sustain a robust remote work environment.

In 2021, Toptal ranked as Market Leader in Ardent Partners' list of 2021 Digital Staffing Marketplaces Technology Advisor report. 

Additional Learnings

Toptal’s competitive edge is its extensive selection process that results in only 3% of highly skilled applicants getting approved. While other platforms are open for all freelancers to sign-up, Toptal has a rigorous selection process that includes online exercises and interviews. As a result, out of the hundreds of talent applications they receive every day, only 3% are approved to be listed on the platform. This strategy helps the company to capture the high-end segment of the online staffing market, specifically companies that are looking to hire expert freelancers.   

In 2021, Toptal filed a lawsuit against Andela and its ex-employees for the alleged theft of trade secrets. According to the complaint, the ex-employees of Toptal not only failed to honor the confidentiality, non-solicitation, and non-compete agreements with Toptal but also indulged in misappropriation of trade secrets. 

Market Snapshot

• India’s freelance industry is estimated to grow to around $20-30B by 2025.
  With an estimated 15M freelancers, India is the world’s second-fastest-growing freelance industry, though freelancers in India are paid less than their counterparts in other countries.

Suggested starting points to dive deeper

• ‎The Talent Economy Podcast: Putting a Dent in the Universe: Introducing Toptal Chief Economist Erik Stettler on Apple Podcasts (The Talent Economy Podcast, ‘21)

• Toptal Sees Applications Surge over 50% as COVID-19 Disruption Accelerates Shift to Remote Working (Cision PR Newswire, Oct ‘21)

• Toptal Ranks As Market Leader In Ardent Partners' List Of Leading Digital Staffing Marketplaces And Solutions (Yahoo Finance, Sep ‘21)

• Best of Bootstrapping: Toptal CEO Bootstraps a Virtual Company to Scale (One Million Blog, Feb ‘21)

• Toptal : A No-office Startup for the Freelancer Community (Annasha, Your Tech Story, Oct ‘19)

• As Toptal employees and investors demand equity, founder points to the fine print (Conor Grant, The Hustle, Aug ‘16)

• How Community Became Toptal's Competitive Advantage (Carrie Melissa Jones, CMX Hub, March ‘16)

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2016, California-headquartered Pilot provides financial back-office services like bookkeeping, controller, and CFO to small businesses. It does this by integrating advanced custom software with financial experts. SMEs are provided these services by financial experts who use advanced custom software to ensure accuracy and consistency. 

In 2021, the company became a unicorn after raising $100M in a Series C funding round led by Jeff Bezos’s venture capital firm Bezos Expeditions and hedge fund Whale Rock Capital, with participation from Sequoia and Index Ventures. The company is now valued at $1.2B.

Pilot is backed by notable investors like Sequoia, Index Ventures, Bezos Expeditions, Whale Rock Capital, and Stripe. 

On the Web: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

Pilot operates across the US and provides the following financial products to businesses: 

• Bookkeeping

• CFO services

• Tax

• R&D Credit

• Pricing

How It Works

Pilot provides financial back-office services to small businesses and startups by combining intelligent software with world-class accountants. It mostly employs former accountants who are assigned to work directly with small businesses for administrative tasks such as bills, bookkeeping, payroll, and taxes. These employees interact with companies to collect their data, use internal tech tools to organize it, and then structure it to produce a set of accurate books. 

Upon signing up with Pilot, businesses are appointed financial experts to manage their books with the help of advanced software. This software automates detailed, error-prone manual tasks making it easier for experts to analyze them and make decisions accordingly. Initially, the expert will interview business owners to learn everything about their company, its operations, objectives, and special issues that one needs to be mindful of for accurate bookkeeping. The collected information is used to build a unique checklist for closing the company’s book which is easily accessible in their systems and always up to date. 

Each month, the business’s books are checked through a rigorous 14-step checklist, which includes both manual tasks by Pilot’s team members and automated tasks by their software. The first level of checks is done on completed books by Reviewbot software which flags anything that looks questionable so that experts can easily analyze it. After the monthly check is complete, the company receives an email of their books, along with notes from the finance expert. 

Business Model & Pricing

Pilot has a B2B business model where it caters to businesses by providing them with bookkeeping, CFO, and tax services. The company earns money through its annual subscription model that is scaled according to a business’s expense rate and needs like institutions, bills, and invoices. It also charges an onboarding fee for the first month of bookkeeping to ensure that the setup process is smooth.

Traction

In 2020, Pilot earned $10.5M revenue, served 1000 customers, and had a revenue rate of $20M.  That year the company booked more than $3B in bookkeeping transactions for its customers. The company claims its revenue has approximately tripled every year since its inception, except for 2020, when it only doubled due to the brunt of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Founder(s)

Waseem Daher: CEO and Co-Founder at Pilot. Waseem, an MIT graduate, previously co-founded Zulip, a group collaboration tool for businesses and Ksplice, an open-source extension of the Linux kernel  He also worked as Group Product Manager at Dropbox and as Senior Director at Oracle. 

Jessica McKellar: CTO and Co-Founder at Pilot. Jessica, an MIT graduate has worked as an Engineering Manager at Oracle and as Director of Engineering at Dropbox. She also co-founded Zulip, a group collaboration tool for businesses.

Jeff Arnold: COO and Co-Founder at Pilot. Jeff, an MIT graduate, worked as Head of Operations at OpenAl and as Head of Products, Clients, and Platforms at Dropbox. She also co-founded Zulip, a group collaboration tool for businesses. 

History & Evolution

• In 2016, Pilot was launched by Waseem Daher, Jessica McKellar and Jeff Arnold to provide an easy tech solution to SMEs struggling with back-office operations. 

• In 2019, the company expanded to Nashville with an expectation to create 450 new local jobs.

• In 2020, it launched 3 new products –  R&D Tax Credit, CFO Services and Extended Services – to become a one-stop trusted provider of financial services.

• In 2021, Pilot became a unicorn after raising $100M in a Series C funding round.

From archive.org 

Market Snapshot

• According to a study conducted by BlueWeave Consulting, the United States fintech market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.1% during 2021-2027. 

• Businesses in the fintech industry of the United States received $59.8B investments in 2019 from Mergers & Acquisitions, Private Equity deals, and Venture Capital, totaling 1,144. 

Suggested Next Reads

• Building the Best Bookkeeping Service - Pilot's Founding Story (Waseem Daher, Pilot)

• Pilot on the AI-driven 'financial back office' (Poornima Apte, VentureBeat, Aug ‘21)

• How Pilot charted a course of not raising too much money (Mary Ann Azevedo, TechCrunch, April ‘21)

• Pilot: A Smarter Back Office for Every Startup and SMB | by Sequoia (Sequoia, Jan ‘21)

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2014, Gurgaon-headquartered Urban Company is India’s largest home services platform that connects service seekers with service providers. The platform helps customers book services like beauty treatments, home cleaning, massages, appliance repair, which are delivered by trained professionals at home. 

During the coronavirus pandemic, the company saw a significant increase in sales and customers due to the lack of mobility caused by the lockdown. As a result, the company became India’s 13th unicorn in 2021 after raising $255M in a Series F funding round and was valued at $2.1B. In December 2021, Urban Company concluded an Employee Stock Options (ESOP) sales program worth $7.3M where the company was valued at $2.8B.

The company has more than 32,000 trained professionals on board who have served over 5 million customers. It operates in 5 countries and is backed by notable investors like Tiger Global, Elevation, Vy Capital, Steadview, Accel, Bessemer Venture Partners, Prosus Ventures, and Dragoneer Investment Group.

On the Web: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

Urban Company provides home services in the following categories: 

• Urban Beauty: Salon and makeup services for women at home

• Urban Spa: Massage therapy for men and women at home

• Urban Grooming: Haircut and grooming services for men and children at home

• Urban Repairs: Electricians, plumbers, carpenters, AC, and appliance repair

• Urban Cleaning: Regular and deep home cleaning solutions

• Urban Painting: Professional home painting services

• Other services such as fitness and yoga at home and pest control

The company operates across 5 countries: India, Australia, Singapore, UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Its operations are spread across 44 cities and by 2022 it plans to enter the South-East Asian market and expand to 100 cities.

How It Works

Urban Company connects skilled and experienced professionals with customers looking to avail home services. Professionals on the platform have to undergo intensive training before they can offer their services to users, ensuring a safe experience for customers. Once professionals have been trained, their services are then listed on the platform and a matchmaking algorithm connects them to users whose requirements they match, in terms of availability like date and time. 

On the user side, service seekers use the mobile app to scroll through numerous services in an attempt to find one that matches their requirements. Upon finding a service that fits their criteria, the user selects a package and schedules an appointment. Users also have the option of checking the service provider’s profile thoroughly before booking them. 

Anytime a service is booked, the relevant service provider receives a request notification and it is upon him whether he wants to accept or deny the proposal. If he accepts the proposal then both the service provider and user receive a confirmation message. Payment for the services can be made through both advance payment or cash on delivery.  

Business Model & Pricing

Urban Company earns revenue through 3 main sources; commission, reverse auction, and advertisements. For starters, when professionals on the platform are paid by customers, the company deducts 10-20% from the total service cost as service charges and the remaining amount is paid to them. So this commission that the company charges service providers make up for 85% of their total revenue. Moreover, Urban Company also earns revenue from their reverse auction where service providers pay the company to list their services on the platform. In return for a fixed amount of money, the company helps professionals on the platform with lead generation and conversion. The company’s 3rd source of revenue is advertisements, as businesses, manufacturers, and services provide an advertising fee to showcase their advertisements on the platform. 

Traction

Urban company’s revenue saw a significant 13.3% growth, from $28M in 2020 to $32M in 2021 after witnessing hypergrowth during the pandemic.  It became India’s 13th unicorn in 2021 after raising $255M in a Series F funding round and was valued at $2.1B. It was also awarded the Covid-led Business Transformation Award by ET Startups in 2021. 

The platform has over 30,000 partners who have delivered more than 750,000 services to date. They have over 100 training centers spread across India with 200 full-time trainers who train between 3000 to 5000 professionals a month. It operates in 36 cities across India and its app has been downloaded more than 10 million times.

Founder(s)

Varun Khaitan: Co-Founder at Urban Company. Varun, an IIT graduate has previously worked as a Consultant at The Boston Consulting Group and as an Engineer at Qualcomm. He also founded CinemaBox, an on-demand movie streaming platform. 

Abhiraj Singh: Co-Founder at Urban Company. Abhiraj, an IIM graduate previously worked as a Consultant at The Boston Consulting Group and co-founded CinemaBox, an on-demand movie streaming platform. 

Raghav Chandra: Co-Founder at Urban Company. Raghav, a Berkeley graduate previously worked as a Software Engineer at Twitter and also founded Buggi, a dynamic peer-to-peer auto-rickshaw ride-sharing platform.

History & Evolution

Initially, Varun Khaitan and Abhiraj Singh started their journey with Cinemabox, a service that allows travelers to stream movies on their phones in planes, trains, or buses. However, that venture failed to impress customers and as a result, it had to be shut down within 6 months. It was during this time that the two friends met Raghav Chandra, a fellow entrepreneur who was also reeling from the failure of his first startup Buggi, an on-demand rickshaw hailing platform.  Together the 3 entrepreneurs started brainstorming for potential business ideas and soon discovered the gap in the Indian home services market. Keeping the gap in mind, they decided to build a home services platform that would provide both transparency and credibility to its customers and that was how Urbanclap came into existence. 

In 2014, Urbanclap was launched. Initially, scouting for customers was difficult so they began with their own circle. They found photographers, plumbers, and beauticians and connected them with friends and family in need of their services. Moreover, they also roamed through markets in Delhi, looking for customers, and even gave demos at companies their friends worked at in a bid to score new consumers. 

In 2015, after bootstrapping for a year, UrbanClap raised $1.6M in a seed funding round; $10M in a Series A funding round; and $25M in a Series B funding round. In just a year, the company was catering to 1000 customer requests per day in 80 categories across 6 cities and became the most funded startup in the hyperlocal segment.  

In 2016, UrbanClap acquired HandyHome, a home appliance repair or servicing company. That same year it also acquired GoodService, a chat-based concierge application. 

In 2017, UrbanClap raised $21M in a Series C funding round, $3M in Debt Financing Round, and $1M in Angel Funding Round. That year the company had served around 1.5 million customers and had a network of about 65,000 professionals across India. Its team of 320 employees was processing 7,000-8,000 service requests daily. 

In 2018, the company raised $50M in a Series D funding round and expanded its services to Dubai. It also became an assembly partner for IKEA and partnered with Acko to develop an accident insurance product for its partners. 

In 2019, UrbanClap raised $75M in a Series E funding round and launched its operations in Australia.  also reported 2.5x growth in operating revenue and served 3 million customers that year.   

In 2020, it rebranded itself as Urban Company to capture the company’s ambition to become a horizontal gig marketplace with a global footprint and leadership position across service categories. The company also acquired Glamazon, an on-demand beauty startup. 

In 2021, Urban Company became India’s 13th unicorn after raising $255M in a Series F funding round.  During the lockdown, it focused on delivering safer and more hygienic services by making significant investments in technology, PPE, and safety training. This is why it witnessed a positive trajectory and customers trusted them to enter their homes for beauty and home services. It won the Covid-led Business Transformation award and expanded to over 35,000 workers that served more than 5 million customers in 36 cities. 

Additional Learnings

Urban Company is leading the industry mainly because of their adoption of a full-stack model that onboards gig workers offering them financial assistance, skills training, access to branded tools and products, and a ready-to-serve market. The full-stack model helps the company maintain quality standards irrespective of the partner delivering the service, thereby building consumer love and loyalty.

Since December 2021, Urban Company has started offering free video consultations for appliance repair services. Senior experts with over 15 years of experience will be providing free video consultations to consumers so they can instantly resolve their issues and help consumers come up with exact diagnoses and cost estimates. 

Market Snapshot

According to ResearchandMarkets.com, the Global Online On-demand Home Services Market 2021-2025 report, the online on-demand home services market is expected to increase to $4,730.31B during 2021-2025, growing at a CAGR of 70%.   

In 2018, the Indian home services market was valued at $10.29B and according to research, it is expected to reach $65.51B by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 27.2% from 2019 to 2026. 

Suggested starting points to dive deeper

• Can Urban Company Give India's Gig Economy A Makeover? (A Junior VC, May ‘21)

• Urban Company, hit by protests, promises to enhance partners’ earnings (Ratna Bhushan, The Economic Times, Oct ‘21)

• Why Is Urban Company Bringing Back Services It Had Discontinued (Kamalika Ghosh, Outlook, Sep ‘21)

• How Urban Company Got A Makeover And Doubled Revenue (Naini Thaker & Naandika Tripathi, Forbes India, Dec 20)

• Untold Seed Stories: First 500 Days of Urban Company | SeedToScale (Seed to Scale, Oct ‘20)

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2011, Karnataka-headquartered Unacademy is India’s leading online education platform. With the help of top educators, it targets students preparing for competitive exams for college admissions, as well as those who are pursuing graduate-level courses.

In 2020, Unacademy became the second unicorn in the Indian ed-tech industry after raising $150M in a Series F round led by Softbank, a Japanese multinational conglomerate. Today it is valued at $3.44B after its latest Series H funding round in August 2021, where it raised $440M.The company is funded by notable investors such as SoftBank Vision Fund 2, General Atlantic, Tiger Global, Tracxn, Steadview Capital, Sequoia Capital India, Dragoneer Investment Group, Mirae Asset Capital, Nexus Venture Partners, Sachin Tendulkar, Facebook and SAIF Partners. 

About Unacademy: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

Unacademy is a learning platform that prepares students for competitive exams. Unacademy prepares learners for a long list of subjects and exams from university-entrance exams, to professional and career certifications, to general career upskilling. Offerings range for students from grades 6-12 all the way up to general career professionals.

It offers courses in 14 languages and operates in India, Brazil and Indonesia, with plans to expand its footprints globally in the future.

How It Works

Unacademy offers daily live classes to its students, where they not just consume educational content but also get a chance to interact with educators, ask them questions and answer live polls. During these live classes, in case students have a query or doubt that needs further elaboration, they are allowed to raise their hands virtually and upon being invited by the educator, discuss their issue. Moreover, if students have trouble with a certain topic after the class has ended, they are also provided with the option to connect with teachers for one on one interactions. 

The platform also provides learning materials as PDFs for revision and practice, these include mock tests, practice sections and lecture notes. For students to keep track of their class schedules, upcoming tests, announcements and personalized messages, Unacademy provides personalized planners as well so they can plan ahead and utilize the free time between classes to incorporate self-study sessions. The performance tracker feature helps users track their academic performance, test grades and overall progress.

Students preparing for the same goal can also arrange group study sessions where they can study together and later compete with one another in weekly competitions. To ensure students have clear concepts, educators dedicate every 4th class to answering their queries while weekends are for conducting mock tests. The prices of these courses range from $20 per month for exam preparation to enter the job field of government-owned banks or Indian railways, to $150 per month for the tests to enter civil service jobs or elite engineering schools. 

Business Model & Pricing

Unacademy has a business-to-consumer (B2C) freemium business model where consumers are provided basic features for free. However, they can only access premium features after paying a subscription fee for Unacademy Plus. This is an ad-free platform that offers paid live classes for one-on-one sessions to clear doubts and is the company’s major source of revenue. Other streams of revenue include earnings from their multiple Youtube channels for different competitive exams and school grades. 

Traction

During the coronavirus pandemic, Unacademy witnessed a significant spike in its growth, due to the country’s shift to digital learning. As a result, the company stood out as one of the largest edtech companies among its peers and acquired 8 companies in 2021 alone. As for their revenue, the startup reported operating revenue of $53M in 2021, which was a 6.1x year to year increase from 2020’s revenue of $8M, with the largest source of income coming from the platform’s paid subscriptions. From 2020-21, the company has witnessed an 80% to 100% growth and claims to have an annual revenue rate of $140M. Unacademy became India’s second ed-tech unicorn in 2020 and is now valued at $3.44B after raising $440M in a Series H funding round in 2021. The company was reported to have over 6 million monthly active users, out of which 600,000 were paid subscribers as of August 2021, and their app had been downloaded more than 15 million times.

Founder(s)

Hemesh Singh: CTO and Co-Founder at Unacademy. A graduate of Motilal Nehru National University of Technology, with a degree in B-Tech, Hemesh was previously CTO at Flatchat, a mobile-based application that enables users to connect with people looking for flatmates. 

Roman Saini: Co-Founder at Unacademy. A graduate of AIIMS Delhi, with an MBBS degree, Roman passed the IAS exams and served as an IAS officer for almost two years before founding Unacademy. 

Gaurav Munjal: CEO and Co-Founder at Unacademy. A graduate of NMIMS Delhi, with a B-Tech degree in computer engineering he co-founded Flatchat with Unacademy co-founder Himanesh. 

History & Evolution

In 2010, Munjal, an engineering student started Unacademy, an educational Youtube channel that offered Java coding lessons as a hobby. He soon gained immense popularity and became one of the most followed people on Quora for questions about the subject of Computer Science. He then brought Saini, one of the youngest persons to clear the IAS exams on board. Together they started creating high-value intensive courses like the preparation for IAS, concentrating on certain subjects as well as English and coding courses. 

In 2015, Munjal, Saini, and Singh registered Unacademy, a digital education platform comprising a mobile app, web portal, and YouTube channel as a brand under the parent company Sorting Hat Technologies Pvt. The platform aimed to provide free online coaching to underprivileged students. Within a day of launching, the Unacademy app had 3000 downloads and that year a total of 10 students of Unacademy passed the civil services exam.

In 2016, Unacademy had more than 100 educators on board who reached 500,000 students through 2,400 courses and delivered 11 million lessons. In 2017, the platform collaborated with the leading career advice platform, TapChief, and launched courses on job preparation for first-year students, recent graduates and working professionals. That year the company reported more than $1M registered users. In 2018, Unacademy acquired WiFiStudy, an online exam preparation platform. The aim was to increase its presence in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities among students who prepare for public recruitment exams including railways and banking. That year the company reported 5,000 active educators, 5 million learners, and over 50,000 courses in more than 10 Indian languages. In 2019, it launched Plus Subscription after a beta of two months. The subscription gives students preparing for various examinations unlimited access to live classes by the country’s best teachers. Within 11 months of the launch, it had 74,000 active subscribers and 31 active categories.

In 2020, Unacademy went on an acquisition spree. It acquired Kreatryx, an online GATE and ESE preparation platform; CodeChef, an algorithm and coding platform; PrepLadder, a postgraduate medical entrance exam preparation platform; NeoStencil, a test preparation platform focused on government jobs; Mastree, a K12 learning platform; and Coursavy, a platform for UPSC test preparation. During the pandemic, the platform offered over 20,000 free live classes across categories like  UPSC, Bank Exams, Railway Exams, and became India’s second edtech unicorn. 

In 2021, Unacademy continued its acquisition journey with TapChief, an online learning platform for professionals to earn incomes without full-time jobs. It also acquired Handa ka Funda, an online coaching institute for CAT and MBA preparation; Rheo TV, a live game streaming platform; Swiflearn, K-10 online tuition platform; and Spayee, a software as a service (SaaS) education platform. The company also revamped their entire learning experience on the app and launched it to all the students via their first-ever Unveil 1.0 event. It also announced Teacher Stock Options (TSOPs) for its educators, where it will grant over $40 million to all tutors on its platform over the next few years. The startup is now valued at $3.44B and has over $50M active learners and over 1000 top educators. It has also launched Relevel, a platform that enables job-seekers to showcase their skills and get employed at some of India’s largest startups; and Graphy, a platform that allows users to explore stories, ideas, books and original content through video, audio, images and quizzes.

From archive.org 

Additional Learnings

What makes Unacademy different is its free education policy. The platform provides free pre-recorded lectures by expert educators and that is what initially reels users in. Unacademy Plus is an added service that they can avail but otherwise, there is no concept of trial expirations because lectures are free for all.

The company has also set up a Grievance-Redressal-Council, the first of its kind in the edtech industry of India. The council will deal with issues in the following categories, content on Unacademy, the conduct of educators, and consumer grievances. More importantly, this platform will be open for everyone irrespective of whether or not they are paid subscribers. The company’s initiative aligns with the government’s Consumer Protection Act 2019 and aims to safeguard the interests of consumers. 

Market Snapshot 

• The edtech industry saw a significant boom globally due to the COVID-19 pandemic with the market size expected to increase from $85B in 2021 and expected to reach around $218B till 2027. 

• India’s EdTech user base is estimated to be around 90M in the k-12 and post k-12 sector, making it a very lucrative industry for investments.

• Leading EdTech companies in India including Unacademdy, Byjus and UpGrad have formed the Indian EdTech Consortium ( IEC ) which is under the aegis of Internet and Mobile Association of India. 

Suggested Next Reads

• Unbundling Unacademy (Punita Sabharwal, Entrepreneur Europe, July 10, 2021)

• Exclusive: Unacademy in talks to acquire Swiflearn (Harsh Upadhyay, Entrackr, October 18, 2021)

• Stock option for teachers, a first for gig workers in India — what does Unacademy’s offer entail? (Pranav Mukul, The Indian Express, August 3, 2021)

• [TechSparks 2020] Our audacious goal is to compete with Netflix: Unacademy's Gaurav Munjal (Sohini Mitter, Your Story, October 30, 2020)

• Millions of Unacademy user accounts exposed in data breach: Report (Abhijit Ahaskar, Live Mint, May 6, 2020)

• Building Unicorns Podcast: Unacademy's growth strategy different, not building a conglomerate like Byju's, says Gaurav Munjal (Mugdha Variyar, CNBC TV, August 20, 2021)

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2015, Mumbai-headquartered UpGrad is an online higher education platform that provides industry-relevant programs. It teaches subjects including Marketing, Technology, and Management to students, working professionals, and enterprises.

Upgrad partners with universities to develop and promote courses. Partner institutions include universities like Duke, Purdue, Emory, The University of Arizona, Liverpool University, IIT Delhi, Michigan State University, and Swiss School of Business Management.

The company entered the unicorn club in 2021 after raising $185M in its second round of external funding, bringing its total valuation to $1.2B. It is backed by notable investors including IIFL Finance, International Finance Corporation, Temasek Holdings, and Unilazer Ventures.

UpGrad has received numerous awards for its contribution to improving digital education in India. In 2020 it was honored with “The Best E-learning Company of 2020” award by Business World and the “Best Communication and Teaching Platform” award by Entrepreneur India.

On the Web: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

UpGrad mainly offers courses in the following categories: 

• MBA and DBA

• Data Science

• Machine Learning

• Management

• Marketing

• Software and Technology

• Business Analytics 

Besides the educational platform, UpGrad has the following offerings:

UpGrad Rekrut: A recruiting firm present in over 72 cities to help organizations hire the best talent. It offers six solutions for other businesses: Rekrut Select, Rekrut Pro, Rekrut Flexi, Rekrut Futures, Rekrut Edge, Rekrut ROD.

UpGrad Alumni Network: An online community portal for UpGrad alumnis to connect with one another. The portal helps members register and attend alumni events, apply and post jobs and schedule and attend meetings.

UpGrad Jeet: helps candidates prepare for government exams through online coaching. 

UpGrad Campus: promises to aid college students in securing quality jobs by giving them access to numerous certification courses and mentorship from industry experts. 

UpGrad KnowledgeHut: a B2B solution that helps companies provide training to their employees through the catalog offered by KnowledgeHut. 

The above 3 subsidiaries, UpGrad Jeet, UpGrad Campus and UpGrad KnowledgeHut have been merged into a single entity called UpGrad Education Pvt.Ltd with an aim to provide technology solutions for life-long learning. 

The company has over 62,000 paid users belonging to more than 50 countries with the largest chunk coming from the Middle East, followed by the United States of America, Southeast Asia and Europe.

How It Works

UpGrad Education provides programs in the areas of data, technology and management to college students, first-time job seekers and working professionals. These programs are designed in collaboration with top-notch universities and focus on getting learners job-ready through aptitude training, resume building and mock interview prep sessions.

The company also offers programs with a guaranteed job at its completion for fresh graduates. Working professionals also have the advantage of going back to university without quitting their jobs, courtesy of UpGrad’s easy learning platform. On course completion, the learners become alumni of the partner university and also get to attend on-campus hackathons and graduation ceremonies. For enterprises that are looking to upskill their employees, UpGrad offers the option to train them on behalf of the companies.  

The company also has an UpGrad basecamp, where learners get a chance to network and engage in peer-to-peer learning through offline meetups. They also receive career support which includes resume building, career landscaping, mock interviews and interview guarantees. The ‘Just in Time’ Interview Prep by UpGrad helps learners with last-minute interview preparation, guiding them through key concepts before interviews and mentoring them through the joining process.

Upgrad’s curriculum comes from lecturers of mentors who share their real-life experiences with the learners. The UpGrad Live platform is built to replicate a real-time classroom learning experience for enrolled students by providing greater interactivity, real-time doubt resolution, in-class concept check, and session analytics to gauge live session performances.

Business Model & Pricing

UpGrad has a two-way business model where it caters to both learners and learning providers. Through its edtech platform, the company connects expert teachers with individuals eager to learn as well as companies looking to upskill their employees.  

UpGrad earns revenue from enterprises as well as individuals by offering them programs at reasonable prices that range from $3,300 to $6,750. While enterprises that send their employees to UpGrad for training pay the entire fees upfront at the time of enrollment, learners who sign up for programs are given an attractive deal. The candidate pays 50% of the fees at the time of enrollment and is only liable to pay the other half if they get placed after the program’s completion. This pay-after placement model is the first of its kind in India.

Traction

In October 2021, the company claimed it had crossed the milestone of $14M a month and achieved an Annual Revenue Run Rate of $210 Million. It also became India’s 3rd Edtech unicorn by raising $185M in a funding round led by Temasek, International Finance Corporation and IIF. The company’s consolidated revenue doubled to $40M in 2021 whereas its net losses increased threefold due to an increase in advertising and promotion expenses. 

In 2020, the company witnessed a 100% growth in revenue, mainly due to the coronavirus pandemic lockdown which led to an increase in online education demand. That year it witnessed a 75% rise in app downloads, tripled its course offerings and scaled university partnerships.

In 2022, the company has more than 2 million platform users belonging to over 85 different countries and has closed 10 acquisitions. Its app has been downloaded more than 1 million times and has 62,000 paid users with an 87% program completion rate and 1 million+ learning hours to its credit. 

Founder(s) & Team

Mayank Kumar: Co-founder and Managing Director at UpGrad. Prior to co-founding UpGrad, Mayank served as the VP of Education at Bertelsmann, where he was responsible for overseeing their education strategy and multi-million dollar investments in India. Post Bertelsmann, he became a Board Member of iNurture, an edtech company enabling career-ready formal higher education in India. 

Phalgun Kompalli: Co-founder and Head of Sales and Marketing at UpGrad. Phalgun, an IITian, served as Principal at EY Parthenon, a leading global strategy consulting organization. He has also worked extensively in the field of higher education and tech enabled learning across several countries like the US, Africa, Brazil and Southeast Asia. 

Ronnie Screwvala: Co-founder and Chairman at UpGrad. Ronnie was a key player in establishing cable TV in India, which is why he’s very well known in the Indian Television Industry. He also founded UTV Group which is now known as Walt Disney India and has helped improve the standard of living in numerous rural areas through his NGO, Swades Foundation.  Ronnie has also been featured in the 100 Most Influential People list on the Time 100 (2009 issue).  

Ravijot Chugh: Co-founder and Head of Product at UpGrad. Ravijot, an IITian has also served as a Product Lead at Housing.com, and Parthenon Group. Along with UpGrad, he has also co-founded 36hrs.in, a travel and tourism startup. Rajivot’s contribution towards improving the state of education sectors in emerging markets also earned him a spot in the Forbes Asia 30 under 30 list.

History and Evolution

• UpGrad was founded in 2015 by Mayank Kumar, Phalgun Kompalli, Ronnie Screwvala and Ravijot Chugh with a conviction to bridge the gap between working professionals and rapidly evolving industry requirements. For the first 100 customers, UpGrad used several offline events to promote its initiative. The founders personally spoke to all learners and prospective students had to share their video profiles and SOPs (Statement of Purpose) before enrolling. They were then given 2 weeks of learning content for free. Only after experiencing the free content was the payment option made available to them.

• In 2016, UpGrad acquired Pyoopil Education Technologies, a mobile-based SaaS (Software-as-a-service) product used by companies to deploy online training programs. That year it was also selected as the official educational partner for the Government of India’s Startup India Learning Program.

• In 2017, UpGrad in collaboration with Invest India developed the Startup India Learning Program, a free four-week online learning program for entrepreneurs. The company also got featured in the Top 10 Most Innovative Companies Of India list by Fast Company.

• In 2018, UpGrad acquired Acadview Software, an online learning platform for graduate students. It also got awarded the Best Education Brands award by Economic Times and got featured in Linkedin’s Top 25 Startups list. 

• In 2019, UpGrad partnered with Infosys and Wipro to provide upskilling solutions to its employees. The same year it acquired Cohort Plus, an online community for product managers and data science enthusiasts. The company also got accredited by National Skill Development Corporation and its courses were added to eSkillIndia, NSDC’s e-learning aggregator. 

• In 2020, UpGrad was chosen by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to make topics like artificial intelligence and machine learning accessible to all students. It acquired The Gate Academy, a coaching institute focused on entrance tests for government/public sector jobs, and rebranded to UpGrad Jeet. Rekrut India, a recruitment and staffing solutions firm was also acquired by the company in the same year. 

• In 2021, UpGrad went on an acquisition spree first by acquiring KnowledgeHut, short-term skilling and training courses startup and Impartus, a video learning solutions provider which it rebranded as UpGrad Campus. Later Global Study Partners, an Australian study abroad company and Talentedge, an online higher education company were also acquired by UpGrad. 

• The company also expanded its presence in Asia Pacific by setting up a regional hub in Singapore. Moreover it launched upLevel, a platform that provides corporations with an organization-wide on-demand learning capability. 

• In 2022, UpGrad acquired Work Better, an enterprise training firm and launched UpGrad Alumni Network to provide a platform for alumni to connect with one another.

From archive.org 

Additional Learnings

• The most prominent feature that makes UpGrad stand out from its competitors is the hand-holding provided to each learner. This practice is called ‘student mentorship’ and the team behind it is known as ‘Student Success’. The moment a learner is assigned to a batch, a student mentor gets in touch with them. Since day one, the learner/mentee and student mentor start communicating regarding program-specific topics. This makes the overall learning experience easier than ever. Moreover, the company has the ability to provide meaningful career outcomes for its learners. It is India’s only player in the higher edtech market that enables its students to achieve their fullest potential by providing a transition into their desired professional roles.

• Originally the company was registered under the name, UEducation. However, during an activity with an external agency for logo and brand name generation, they came up with the name, UpGrad.

Market Snapshot

• The global Ed-tech industry reached a valuation of around $85B in 2021 with India slated to become the Ed-Tech capital of the world with the industry being expected to grow over the next 5 years with a CAGR of 39.77%.

• EdTech in India was the least funded sector till 2019 but the reliance on online education due to the pandemic catapulted the industry to be estimated at $750M in 2020 and over $1B in 2021.

Next Suggested Reads

• upGrad to add 30 + Top Global Universities in next 12 months (India Education Diary, October 8, 2021)

• Why education tech startup upGrad chose Midtown for its U.S. expansion (Erin Schilling, Atlanto Inno, October 1, 2021)

• upGrad to upskill 1 lakh women in data and technology roles (Press Trust of India, Herstory, June 4, 2021)

• Story of upGrad- India's EdTech Major Redefining Online Education and Learning (Motiverge, November 9, 2020)

• Ep. 15: Focus, Choices and Empathy: The 3 Golden Words, The Ronnie Screwvala Podcast: Dreaming with Your Eyes Open (IVM Podcasts, July 30, 2019)

• The Idea Called UpGrad: A Start For Start-Ups (Mayank Kumar, upGrad, December 8, 2016)

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2020, Karnataka-headquartered Teachmint is India’s leading teaching platform that enables educators to digitize their classrooms through proprietary classroom technology. Through the platform, educators are able to fulfill all their needs such as setting up virtual classrooms with assignments, administration management, progress tracking, student information management, and more. 

The company’s last funding round was in October 2021, where it raised $78M in a Series B funding round co-led by Rocketship.VC and Vulcan Capital bringing its total valuation to $500M.

Teachmint is backed by notable investors like Learn Capital, Rocketship.VC, Lightspeed, Better Ventures, CM Ventures, Goodwater Capital, Epiq Capital Investment Advisory LLP, and Titan Capital. 

Business Overview & Products

Teachmint is an education infrastructure provider that enables educators to digitize their classrooms so they can conduct online classes. Tutors on the platform use the Android or IOS app to connect virtually with their students. The platform allows teachers to schedule and conduct live classes, communicate with students and clear their queries, collect fees, mark attendance, share study material, arrange webinars, recruit new students, take tests, offer support via phone calls and grade tests. 

The company has students and teachers from more than 25 countries using their platform to connect virtually.

How It Works

Teachmint allows educators to virtually engage with their students by helping them digitize their classrooms, thus creating a two-way interactive learning solution for both students and teachers. 

Through the platform, teachers not only conduct online classes by creating individual classrooms but also mark attendance, assign students tasks, collect fees, share learning material, and conduct tests. All of this is possible due to Teachmint’s tutoring management SaaS which helps educators manage their classes in an easier and more transparent manner, instead of relying on third-party tools for each feature. 

Teachmint caters to educators of all kinds from K-12 schools to after-school tutoring, universities, and edtechs. The platform is free for teachers and has been customized specifically for the Indian audience keeping in mind problems like low data bandwidth. For instance, their video technology supports live classes even in low-speed connections. Moreover, their mobile data consumption is also highly optimized so that students with limited data can easily access the app. 

Once a tutor signs up on the app, they are provided a unique link for their classroom which they then share through social media or messaging applications. In order to enroll, students simply have to click on the link and join the class. The class has features like automated notes creation, automatic attendance, public streaming, whiteboard session, and class recording to make the learning experience seamless for both parties. It also offers multiple payment facilities to teachers and students to make fees payment and collection easier. 

For beginners that have trouble accessing the app, Teachmint has a support team of 20 people to assist them with their queries and app functions. The platform also allows educators to create white-labeled websites that list all the courses and demo lectures conducted by them which helps in generating demand.

The platform provides lessons as well as solutions and instructions in over 15 Indian and international languages including English making it the only vernacular video conferencing app in India according to the founder. 

In case of any confusion or queries, students are connected with educators 24/7 through communication tools available on the app. Tutors also have the option of recording their lessons so students can view them later or they can bundle up these lessons and sell them as independent courses. Offline content like assignments, notes, and study material can be digitized on the platform as well. 

Business Model & Pricing

Teachmint has a freemium business model for tutors where it allows them to sign up on the platform for free. Tutors on the platform connect with their students virtually through live classes as well as recorded videos. However, for institutes looking for advanced services like fee management, teacher workshop, and training, classroom monitoring, multiple admin access, etc. Teachmint has a paid plan with a 14-day free trial. It is now moving towards a subscription-based pricing model and is currently working on a pro plan for users which will include services like parent engagement app, HR management, lesson planning, inventory management, etc. 

Traction

To date, Teachmint has onboarded over 1,000,000 teachers to their platform from 5,000+ cities who have created more than 2,000,000 classrooms. The platform is available in over 15 Indian and international languages and has expanded to 25 countries in a span of 2 years. The company claims that over 4,000 institutions use their platform for conducting live classes and to date more than 500,000 recorded lecture repositories have been created on the platform. According to Crunchbase, Teachmint’s monthly site visits are 155,764 and its app has been downloaded more than 10 million times.

Founder(s)

Mihir Gupta – Co-Founder and CEO at Teachmint. Mihir, an IITian previously served as Business Head at Open Financial Technologies, Asia’s first neobanking platform for SMEs and startups and Head of Revenue at OYO, an Indian multinational OTA, homes and living spaces. 

Divyansha Bordia – Co-Founder and COO at Teachmint. Divyansha Bordia, an IITian  previously worked as AVP Business Operations at GlowRoad.com, a social selling platform and Senior Manager at Swiggy, an Indian online food ordering and delivery platform. He also featured in Forbes 30U30 Asia list for his incredible work for the edtech industry. 

Payoj Jain – Co-Founder and CPO at Teachmint. Payoj, an IIT graduate, previously worked as a Data Scientist at OYO, an Indian multinational OTA, homes and living spaces. He also served as a Teacher Assistant at Univerity of Colorado Boulder. 

Anushman Kumar – Co-Founder and CTO at Teachmint. Anushman, an IIT graduate previously founded Recvani, an information technology, and software company. He has also worked as Head of Machine Learning and Data Engineering at Ropose, a leading live video and shopping app. 

History & Evolution

• In 2020, Teachmint was launched as a solution for teachers and students who were struggling to go online during the pandemic. The aim was to help teachers conduct live classes and make the offline to online transition seamless for both students and teachers. 

• Within a week of launch, the platform was able to onboard over 25,000 users.

• In 2020, Teachmint launched their free live tutoring mobile app that delivers high-quality two-way streaming video to enable educators to digitize their classrooms with a simple mobile experience.

• In August 2021, Teachmint partnered with Shikho, a tech startup to deliver live classes to 42 million students in Bangladesh.

• In October 2021, the company partnered with Pandai, a Kuala Lumpur-based edtech to deliver live classes to over 5 million students in Malaysia.

• In December 2021, the company acquired Airlearn, a video engagement platform for education businesses, Teachmore, a course selling platform, and Teachee, a course selling startup.

• That same month, Teachmint launched in 25 countries across South East Asia and the Middle East like UAE, Saudi Arabia, Indonesia, Vietnam, and Thailand.

• It also announced the first of its kind Continuous ESOP Liquidity Plan (CELP) for its employees to reward and recognize them.

• In 2022, Teachmint acquired MyClassCampus, an educational ERP player which aims to help educational institutions go digital.

Additional Learnings

Teachmint stands out from its competitors because of its own stack that helps educators enable live streaming and virtual classes. This in-house tech stack allows the company to deliver a quality online learning experience to its users and that too in the fastest way possible. The strategy also helps Teachmint save a significant amount of money thus making their operations cheaper.

Market Snapshot

• In 2022, the Indian edtech industry is valued at $2.8B and is expected to increase to $10.4B by 2025. 

• The online tutoring service industry in India is expected to grow to $9B by 2022 with a CAGR rate of more than 16% according to the Online Tutoring Services Market in India 2018-2022 report by Technavio.

Suggested Next Reads

• Here's How This Edtech Has Opened Up A World Of Possibilities (Prabhjeet Bhatla, Entrepreneur, Sept ‘21)

• EdTech startup Teachmint to enable digitisation of 25B private tutoring industry in India - BW Disrupt (BW Online Bureau, BW Disrupt, Sept ‘20)

• Democratising Online Education, Online Teaching Platform Teachmint Is Helping Million of Tutors Across India Teach Online For Free (Team The Startup Lab, The Startup Lab, July ‘21)

These briefs are produced by leveraging publicly available data sources and information. If you notice a mistake or see an area for improvement, please let us know through this typeform or via email (team@sandhill.io).

Snapshot

Founded in 2011, Karnataka-headquartered Byju’s is India’s largest ed-tech company that provides online learning and tutoring services to students worldwide. It offers online learning programs for K3, K10, K12, NEET, JEE, UPSC & Bank Exams with personalized video lessons, tests, one-on-one mentorship programs from expert teachers, and offline classes in coaching centers from IIT and IIM graduates.

In 2020, Byju’s became India’s 3rd decacorn after raising an undisclosed amount of funding from BOND, a global technology investment firm. The company’s last funding was in November 2021 where it raised $363M in a Series F funding round and is now valued at $21B. The startup is planning to go public in the next 18 months and according to Inc42, is eyeing a $40B valuation.

It is backed by notable investors like the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Sequoia Capital India, Bond, Silver Lake, BlackRock, Sands Capital Management, Alkeon Capital Management, Sofina, Naspers Ventures, Tiger Global, Aarin Capital, Verlinvest, Times Internet, Lightspeed Ventures and more. 

About Byju’s: Website, Linkedin

Business Overview & Products

Byju’s provides online educational services in the following categories:

• Byju’s Classes: online tutoring program with a unique two-teacher model for students studying in grades 4-10. 

• Aakash +Byju’s: live online and offline classroom program for JEE and NEET aspirants. 

• Disney Byju’s-Easy Learn: an online learning platform for children aged 4-8 years that aims to develop their math, language, and reading skills through interactive programs featuring Disney’s stories and characters.  

• Byju’s IAS: IAS preparation program that offers both online, offline, and tablet programs to aspirants. 

• Byju’s Parent Connect: a platform that provides real-time updates to parents about their child's progress.

• Byju’s Future School: one-on-one live learning platform for coding & math for kids.

The company currently operates in India, Australia, Brazil, Indonesia, Mexico, the US, and the UK, and has a reach of over 1700 cities worldwide.

How It Works

Byju’s aims to provide a holistic learning experience to students which is why its app takes care of every process from learning to revising before the exam. 

Once a student signs up and enters all their information, the app creates a personal dashboard for them that consists of learning materials based on the grade. The dashboard keeps track of the chapters the student has visited, the percentage of lessons completed and suggests a revision plan. Moreover, if the student is preparing for a specific exam, the app provides quizzes, games, and a series of tests designed for the particular exam. The app is also constantly analyzing users’ progress to give a detailed report of the skills acquired, courses completed, and the overall performance of the user. 

Byju’s uses knowledge graphs to create personalized learning journeys for their users. These graphs help the company design quizzes, videos, flashcards, and questions according to the interests and progress of their students. The learning content is also attached to multiple other properties and parameters like when a student signs up on the app, a learning profile is built for them to personalize their learning experience based on their strengths and weaknesses. This content is tagged at the sub-micro concept level helping the algorithms create a smooth learning curve so the students can feel motivated and challenged. If they make a mistake, the right remedial method is identified to strengthen the student’s learning experience. 

Byju’s also has standardized personal mentoring in all their learning programs. The mentor is responsible for guiding students every step of the way and suggesting methods of improvement if needed. Users also have the option of attending offline classes that are conducted by IIT/IIM graduates at the center near them. This service is currently available in cities including Gurgaon, Pitampura, Janakpuri, Noida, and Rohini. 

Business Model & Pricing

Byju’s has a business-to-consumer (B2C) freemium business model. Users are given a 15-day free trial with some limited features. Once the trial period is over, they have to pay INR 1,000 for a subscription to unlock all of the app’s features. The subscription amount contributes to a large chunk of the company’s revenue. Other sources of revenue include product purchases from its website like tablets, SD cards, reference books, and payments for career counseling and offline coaching. 

The company has also attracted a large user base courtesy of its two-teacher model. Under this model, one expert teacher out of the duo teaches students through strong visuals and storytelling in an attempt to explain complex topics in great detail. The other teacher focuses on solving instant doubts, paying individual attention to students who are struggling with a certain topic, and making the session more interactive. This teaching model is quite popular among students now as they get to experience the best of both worlds, access to an expert teacher who ensures concept clarity and personal attention from the second teacher for all their queries and doubts. 

With this, students get the best of both worlds - access to high-quality teachers and personal attention.

Traction

Ever since the world went digital due to the pandemic, Byju’s has witnessed incredible growth. For starters, it was listed as the 13th most valuable startup in the world according to CB Insight’s unicorn tracker in December 2021. In 2020, the company reported a revenue of $326M which was an 82.31% increase from last year. From these earnings, 74% was collected from India whereas 24.6%  was collected from the rest of the world. It also reported a profit of $7M which was a two-fold increase from the previous year.

 In 2021, Byju’s became India’s biggest unicorn after raising $340M funding in a financial round led by UBS Group and Eric Yuan, the founder of Zoom. It is now a decacorn valued at $18B and has overtaken Paytm to become the most valued Indian startup.

The company is reported to have over 80 million users out of which 5.5 million are paid subscribers, and their app has been downloaded more than 100 million times. This growth is also due to Byju’s aggressive acquisition spree majorly in 2021 where it acquired 10 startups in a bid to enter allied segments and strengthen its core offerings. 

Founder(s)

Byju Raveendran: CEO and Co-founder of Byju’s. Prior to founding Byju’s, Byju worked as a Service Engineer at a multinational shipping company and helped students prepare for entrance exams in his free time. In 2003, he scored 100% in Common Entrance Exam (CAT) and this result further increased his popularity among students. Two years later Byju quit his job to pursue teaching full time and today his company, Byju’s is the largest edtech company in India. 

Divya Gokulnath: Co-founder and Director of Byju’s. Prior to founding Byju’s, Divya worked as a Teacher at Byju’s coaching classes where she taught mathematics, English, and logical reasoning for competitive examinations.

History & Evolution

• In the late 2000s, Byju Raveendran was an engineer working overseas who started helping his friends in India to prepare for the Common Aptitude Entrance (CAT) exam. His effective teaching method led to all his friends scoring high grades and thus began his journey of tutoring students. As his popularity increased, he switched from one-on-one study sessions to workshops and from classrooms to auditoriums, in order to accommodate a large number of students. The classes became the next big thing and in 2009 Byju started recording his lectures to cater to a larger audience. 

• In 2011, he along with his students launched Think & Learn, a company that aimed at creating content for school students. He believed that for adults to do well in competitive exams, their concepts must be clear during school years. Think & Learn was bootstrapped by Byju with an investment of a little over $2,500. 

• In 2015, after 4 years of development, Think & Learn launched Byju’s. The platform officially started as a Learning App which aimed to create highly engaging video lessons with content that was a healthy mix of animation, gamification, and live-action formats. Within just three months of the app launch, it scaled to more than 2 million students.

• In 2016, it received the ‘Best Self Improvement’ app award at Google Play India and became the first company to be backed by the Chan Zuckerberg initiative. 

• In 2017, Byju’s Math App for children was launched next to Byju’s Parent Connect app for parents to track their child’s learning progress. That year the company also became a business case at Harvard Business School and acquired Vidhyarta, a customized learning guidance platform, Tutorvista, a leading online tutoring company, and Edurite, an education solutions provider. 

• In 2018, Byju’s became India’s first ed-tech unicorn and grew to 15 million users including 900,000 paid users. That same year the company also acquired Math Adventures, a math learning platform.

• In 2019, Byju’s turned profitable and became the world’s most valuable ed-tech company. The company acquired Osmo, an educational games company, and launched the Disney-Early Learn app with learning programs for children in grades 1-3. 

• In 2020, Byju’s attained decacorn status and added more than 25 million new students to its platform due to lockdown measures by offering free live classes. It launched Byju’s Classes, a comprehensive online tutoring program to offer personalized after-school tuition.

• It also acquired WhiteHat Jr, an online coding school for young kids, and LabInApp, a  virtual lab simulation platform. 

• In 2021, Byju’s acquired Tynker, a coding platform for K-12 students; Epic, a digital reading platform for children; Aakash Educational Services, a 33-year-old chain of physical coaching centers; Toppr, a school focused test preparation platform; Great Learning, a professional training; Gradeup, an online exam preparation platform; Whodat,  a computer vision and AR startup; HashLearn, an on-demand tutoring app; Scholr, a doubt-solving ed-tech platform and GeoGebra, Austria-headquartered math learning platform. 

• The company has launched Byju’s Future School, an online live coding platform for kids. It is currently valued at $21B and is planning to go public in the next 6-12 months. 

Additional Learnings

• Byju’s stands out from its competitors because of the personalized learning experience it provides to users as well as the original content it churns out. They aim to make users fall in love with learning and they have accomplished that by offering programs that have movie-like videos and game-like interaction in their content. They have put together contextual, theoretical, and visual dimensions to create interactive and entertaining videos, thus creating a huge fan following amongst students of all age groups. 

• The company has garnered a lot of criticism for its aggressive sales tactics after several of its employees came forward to speak about Byju’s high-pressure sales culture. According to BBC, many employees of the company claimed that they were forced to sell expensive products to underprivileged families to avoid facing punishments or losing their jobs. Moreover, many disheveled parents also complained about being scared into buying products they couldn’t afford and not receiving the services they were promised like one on one tutoring and an assigned mentor to monitor their child’s progress. 3 such cases were registered in consumer courts where Byju’s was ordered to pay damages to their customers.

Market Snapshot

• According to a report by transaction advisory firm RBSA Advisors in 2021, India’s edtech industry is expected to grow to $30B in the next 10 years, currently, its market size is between $2.75 – 3.00 billion.

• Due to the pandemic which closed down in-person schooling and catapulted the education-seeking demographic towards online learning, Edtech was the most funded sector in India with edtech startups raising more than $1.43B in 2020.  

Suggested Next Reads

• The rise of online learning: How Byju's became India's biggest edtech company (CNN, October 19, 2021)

• Byju's Founder Is On A Buying Spree To Keep His EdTech Company Best In Class (Any Raghunathan, Forbes, October 6, 2021)

• Hard sells and ‘toxic’ targets: How Indian edtech giant Byju’s fuels its meteoric rise (Akanksha Singh, Rest of World, August 30, 2021)

• Bankers chase Byju's for IPO, valuation pegged up to $50 billion (Manish Singh, TedCrunch, August 24, 2021)

• BYJU’s: The Unordinary Story of an Indian Decacorn Powerhouse (Vinit Shah, Age of Awareness, August 23, 2020)

• How Byju's built its brand (Sadhana Chathurvedula, Live Mint, 27 April 2017)