‘We felt that with Byju’s, we can redefine competitive coaching’

Why read this story?

Editor's note: I have been chasing Aakash Chaudhry for a meeting since December. You see, when the pandemic forced a nationwide lockdown last year, many people, including us at The Morning Context, began writing eulogies to brick-and-mortar coaching centres.  With an increasing number of parents beginning to accept the online mode of learning as a legitimate tool, valuations of education technology startups went through the roof, and the fear among their offline counterparts was palpable. But as the year drew to a close, it was evident that offline institutes were not going anywhere. In fact, the way forward for education companies would be to adopt a hybrid model, or a mix of online and offline modes, of education.  My keenness to meet Aakash Chaudhry was because he is the managing director of Aakash Educational Services Ltd, a company with a network of 200-plus centres across the country, some of the best educators and nearly 150,000 students on its platform. Started by J.C. Chaudhry (his father) in 1988 with just 12 students, it has come a long way in its over 30 years …