Amid the funding winter and slowdown in the Indian edtech sector, the CEO of India’s edtech unicorn Unacademy has recently stated that he had overestimated the potential of the online mode of education during Covid. He added that a large section of people wants a hybrid mode of education – making the offline mode equally important.
“I overestimated the potential of online… during Covid, I didn’t estimate the impact of offline. But a large section of people wants online plus offline (mode of learning). And that was the miscalculation we did. Majority of the laid off employees were in the online space,” said Gaurav Munjal, co-founder & CEO at the Unacademy Group to ToI
Munjal shared that the company has shut down many verticals in order to focus on fewer and deliver them right.
“We shut down many verticals. My approach has now changed – I do not want to do 10 things… I want to do few things but I want to do them right,” he said.
“I don’t think an edtech company can become big in India without having an offline play. The online business has degrown but offline has massively bounced back. Last year, we had enrolled around 7,000 students in our offline centres and we plan to end this year with 35,000 students,” Munjal said, adding that the strategy will be to open new centres in existing cities. “Kota, Delhi, and Indore have worked well for us. We will open centres in those places,” he added.
Gaurav added that Unacademy can manage the expand into offline education without raising new funds as the company has around INR 2,100 crore in the bank.
“Unacademy has INR 2,100 crore in the bank and can manage without raising funds from investors. Munjal claimed that the company’s cash burn is now one-fifth of what it used to be. “We have five to six years of runway (the amount of time a business has before it runs out of cash). Next calendar year, the online business will be fully profitable on an annual basis,” he said.
Finally, Munjal opined that edtech sector might be facing a slowdown currently but the market exists,
Edtech may be going through a rough patch, but the market for it exists, Munjal said. “People want to study, get better jobs, crack examinations – the edtech model is here to stay,” he added.
