Rise of the planet of edtechs

Good morning!

The edtech industry has been heating up for a while now. One of the biggest beneficiaries of the pandemic, the sector has grown at a breakneck speed in 2020. And it looks like the industry is continuing its upward trend.

On Tuesday, one of India’s most valuable edtech startups Unacademy acquired a majority stake in TapChief, a professional networking and future of work platform, in its seventh acquisition.

Unacademy's acquisition spree mirrors the broader industry trend. In 2020, the Indian edtech sector saw more mergers and acquisitions than ever before. 

In the words of Unacademy Co-founder and CEO Gaurav Munjal, "The biggest consumer internet company in India will not be an ecommerce company, but an education company.” 

Even BYJU’S, which has acquired seven companies so far including WhiteHat Jr and Akash Educational Services, is reportedly in advanced talks with rival Toppr for a potential acquisition. Sources close to the development say the deal is estimated to be about $120-150 million in size and could be closed in the next couple of weeks.

Also read: Toppr Founder and CEO Zishaan Hayath talks about the dramatic and irreversible changes in education due to COVID-19 that led to a 9X growth for the edtech startup. 

The Interview

The COVID-19 pandemic was turbulent for many. Several businesses either had to shut down or pivot to stay afloat. One such startup is CashKaro, which diversified to seize new opportunities during the pandemic. In a conversation with YourStory, Swati Bhargava, Co-founder of CashKaro, talks about how the startup evolved its work culture to keep up with the challenges of working remotely.

Editor’s Pick: Product Roadmap

Sateesh Nakula, Sachin Nandwana, and Raj Kancham came from different backgrounds. But, they had one thing in common — love for farming. This led them to found agritech startup BigHaat in 2015. BigHaat leverages science, data, and technology to provide farmers with end-to-end crop advisory and a wide range of quality inputs such as seeds, pesticides, fertilisers, nutrients, and farm implements. Read more. 

Startup Spotlight

Blending brick and mortar coaching with edtech to facilitate learning in small towns

While edtech has found prominence in India due to the pandemic, the importance of brick and mortar centres haven’t completely diminished, and mark an important step when it comes to scaling the education business. That's what Deepak Goyal, Tejpreet Singh, and Sivia Goyal, the founders of YSchool, found out in 2020 after running their edtech startup Edusquare for six years. YSchool is an alternative model of learning that combines edtech with physical coaching centres. Read more.

News & Updates

• Bengaluru-based edtech unicorn Unacademy has acquired a majority stake in TapChief. Post the acquisition, TapChief will join the Unacademy Group with a valuation of Rs 100 crore, and its existing investors can now have an exit.

• Ecommerce giant Amazon will begin manufacturing its hardware devices in India, starting with producing Fire TV Stick devices in Chennai through a partnership with Foxconn, as the company reiterated its commitment to the 'Make in India' initiative towards an Atmanirbhar Bharat.

• Financial product marketplace company BankBazaar has added equity shares worth $15 million to its employee stock options pool, after witnessing strong balance sheet growth over the last year. 

• According to reports, edtech platform BYJU'S is in advanced talks with rival Toppr for a potential acquisition. Sources close to the development said the deal is estimated to be about $120-150 million in size and could be closed in the next two to three weeks.

• Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency, broke above $50,000, rising by 3 percent. This comes as Tesla CEO Elon Musk had earlier endorsed the use of the cryptocurrency, and the electric carmaker also saying that it had bought $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin.

Before you go, stay inspired with… 

"The small business community was among the first and the hardest to be hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. Yet, in the face of so much adversity, they demonstrated unfathomable resilience."

— Archana Vohra, Director, Small and Medium Businesses, Facebook India

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