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Context is everything.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Detailed stories on technology startups, business and economic current affairs.
Social media is littered with instances of parents and students running from pillar to post to get their money back once they realize the courses they signed up for are worthless. The absence of regulatory oversight has only made matters worse.
Editor's note: Three thousand two hundred rupees. That is the equated monthly instalment, or EMI, Shubham Dhande has to pay for his Unacademy subscription every month. At times he mans his father’s tea stall or does odd jobs; sometimes his grandfather gives him part of his pension—anything to put together the EMI. Or else the recovery agents will come knocking. Dhande, 24, comes from a lower-middle-class family in Amravati, Maharashtra. While his father runs a tea stall, his mother works as a cook in the army canteen. Their only shot at a better life is if Dhande gets a good government job. So he started preparing for the civil services examination, conducted by the Union Public Service Commission, in 2018, while still an undergraduate student. For two years, he went through everything he could on the internet, watching videos, learning hacks, understanding courses. Unacademy’s free courses came as a saviour. But after a failed attempt in 2019 and months of introspection, he realized he needed some guidance. He had liked Unacademy’s free courses and educators. He decided to take the plunge. Sometime …
Social media is littered with instances of parents and students running from pillar to post to get their money back once they realize the courses they signed up for are worthless. The absence of regulatory oversight has only made matters worse.
Editor's note: Three thousand two hundred rupees. That is the equated monthly instalment, or EMI, Shubham Dhande has to pay for his Unacademy subscription every month. At times he mans his father’s tea stall or does odd jobs; sometimes his grandfather gives him part of his pension—anything to put together the EMI. Or else the recovery agents will come knocking. Dhande, 24, comes from a lower-middle-class family in Amravati, Maharashtra. While his father runs a tea stall, his mother works as a cook in the army canteen. Their only shot at a better life is if Dhande gets a good government job. So he started preparing for the civil services examination, conducted by the Union Public Service Commission, in 2018, while still an undergraduate student. For two years, he went through everything he could on the internet, watching videos, learning hacks, understanding courses. Unacademy’s free courses came as a saviour. But after a failed attempt in 2019 and months of introspection, he realized he needed some guidance. He had liked Unacademy’s free courses and educators. He decided to take the plunge. Sometime …
For one of the world’s largest and shrewdest investors to entirely skip putting money in the country is a sign of how quickly the nature of the Indian startup ecosystem has changed.
As the company weighs a move into test prep ahead of a 2027 IPO, the question is whether entering a category from which upGrad has consciously stayed away so far makes sense.
The latest quarterly report on the emirate’s real estate market, a new listing in Saudi Arabia and an Airtel arm eyes a UAE IPO.
For one of the world’s largest and shrewdest investors to entirely skip putting money in the country is a sign of how quickly the nature of the Indian startup ecosystem has changed.
As the company weighs a move into test prep ahead of a 2027 IPO, the question is whether entering a category from which upGrad has consciously stayed away so far makes sense.
The latest quarterly report on the emirate’s real estate market, a new listing in Saudi Arabia and an Airtel arm eyes a UAE IPO.
