Podcasts about whitehat jr

Code.org, the US educational non-profit, has filed a lawsuit in a California district court alleging that Byju's subsidiary WhiteHat Jr breached a licensing contract by failing to pay fees while continuing to use Code.org's platform. WhiteHat Jr, which sold to Byju's for $300 million in 2020, partnered with Code.org last year and agreed to pay […] © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

ఉన్నతమైన చదువు, ప్రతిష్టాత్మక సంస్థల్లో ఉద్యోగం. ఇదీ కరణ్ బజాజ్ నేపధ్యం. అయినా తను ఎందుకో తృప్తిపడలేదు. అందరికీ సాంకేతిక విద్య అందాలనే ఆలోచనను, ఓ వ్యాపారసూత్రంగా మార్చాడు. వైట్ హ్యాట్ జూనియర్ ద్వారా కోడింగ్ శిక్షణ అందరికీ అందేలా సంస్థను ఏర్పాటు చేశాడు. అప్పట్లో అదో సంచలనం. స్టార్టప్స్ రూపొందించడంలో ఆయన చెప్పే సులువులు ఎంతోమందికి విజయాన్ని పరిచయం చేశాయి. ఈ అరుదైన కథ మీకోసం. Prestigious degree from IIM, a lucrative job thereafter… these didn't stop the ambitions of Karan Bajaj to do something different and achieve something higher. He has started an Edtech called WhiteHat Jr which was a sensation in online technical education. His extensive knowledge about startups has helped many to be successful. Here is his inspiring story. Script & Voice: Geetha #TALRadioTelugu #LifeMantra #KaranBajaj #WhiteHatJr #touchalife #TALPodcasts #TALRadio

Lately, Byju's has been hogging the limelight for all the wrong reasons. What was once touted as the world's largest ed-tech company, is now drowning in crisis. How did a highly valued ed-tech start up come crashing down and what does it say about the future of ed-tech? Tune in to this week's episode of TechTonic Shift! References: Star Founder Broke Down in Tears as Crises Engulfed Byju's Exclusive: Advertising body asks WhiteHat Jr to pull down ads Byju's tuitions business is falling apart

"In order to retain talent, you need to have a great career framework. You need to give a lot of options to your employees, not just to grow vertically in their functions, but also to move horizontally."Today's episode of The Shape of Work podcast features Amol Sonawane, Senior Manager- HR Product at Reliance Industries Limited. He has an overall work experience of four years. He did his B.A in Statistics and Public Administration from Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University and his M.A in Human Resource Management from Tata Institute of Social Sciences. He has worked with Reliance Nippon Life Insurance and WhiteHat Jr as HR Manager and HR Business Partner, respectively.In this episode, Amol talks about the current state of employment in the country and the various challenges in the HR profession.Episode Highlights:Amol's inspiration to work in HRStrategies to attract and retain top talent in the countryThe challenges faced by Amol in his career as an HR professionalWhat should the youth entering the industry be focusing on?Follow Amol on LinkedinProduced by: Priya BhattPodcast host: Aparajeeta Boro About Springworks:Springworks is a fully-distributed HR technology organisation building tools and products to simplify recruitment, onboarding, employee engagement, and retention. The product stack from Springworks includes:SpringVerify— B2B verification platformEngageWith— employee recognition and rewards platform that enriches company cultureTrivia — a suite of real-time, fun, and interactive games platforms for remote/hybrid team-buildingSpringRole — verified professional-profile platform backed by blockchain, andSpringRecruit — a forever-free applicant tracking system.Springworks prides itself on being an organisation focused on employee well-being and workplace culture, leading to a 4.8 rating on Glassdoor for the 200+ employee strength company.

Byju's is weighing whether to wind down WhiteHat Jr, a coding platform that it acquired over two years ago at an enterprise value of $300 million, as the edtech group looks to cut expenses and eliminate a business unit that has drawn considerable criticism to the firm.

In the podcast, Karan shares his life experiences and startup journey building WhiteHat Jr.

Welcome to today's episode of the ‘Crack The MBA Show' with Shuchi Maheshwari, who is a member of the full-time MBA class of 2023 at The Wharton School. Shuchi completed her B. Tech. degree in 2017 from IIT Delhi. Prior to starting at Wharton, Shuchi worked with Bain & Company for three years and WhiteHat Jr. for almost one year. Shuchi had a GMAT score of 760. For her summer internship, Shuchi interned with Adobe's retention strategy team in San Francisco. At Wharton, Shuchi is the co-chair of the Wharton India Economic Forum (WIEF), co-president of India Club and Music Club, and a Student Life Fellow. Through our conversation, we discussed Shuchi's pre-MBA experiences, MBA admissions journey, MBA experience at Wharton, academic experience, involvement in activities, internship recruiting process, and more: 00:00 Introduction 04:08 Admissions Process 08:04 GMAT strategy: 710 to 760 (three attempts) 10:33 How to Choose Admissions Consultant 12:33 Wharton's Essays: Advice 19:27 Career Goals: How to Discover 21:26 Weakness in Candidacy 23:49 Wharton Team-Based Discussion Interview: How to Excel 25:25 Wharton MBA Program's Unique Identity 28:21 Flagship Events Held Annually at Wharton 30:10 Must-Do Courses & Star Professors 33:04 Biggest Challenge Faced at Wharton 37:32 Internship Recruiting Process for Adobe, Retention Strategy Team 44:31 Resources for Networking 46:54 Advice for switching career into tech 50:40 Extra-curricular Activities (Wharton India Economic Forum, India & Music Clubs) 55:47 Trips 58:52 Food Scene in Philly 1:02:19 Parting Advice Thank you for watching! — Nupur Gupta is the founder of Crack The MBA (https://crackthemba.com), India's leading MBA admissions consulting firm. Every year, Crack The MBA's clients attend ivy league, M7 and other top MBA programs globally. Nupur is a graduate of the full-time MBA program at The Wharton School. She has been recognized by Economic Times among the 'Most Promising Women Leaders', by Business Insider among the 'World's Leading Admissions Consultants', along with other honors. Nupur serves on the board of the Association of International Graduate Admissions Consultants (AIGAC) - the primary industry association in MBA admissions. Nupur has also served as two-term president of AIGAC. Follow Nupur and ‘Crack The MBA' on our social media platforms for more updates: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nupurgupt/ https://www.facebook.com/CrackTheMBA/ https://www.instagram.com/crackthemba/ Disclaimer: The opinions shared by guests in this video in no way, shape or form represent advisory provided by Crack The MBA. Each candidate's circumstances may vary and our advisory is always provided specifically based on an applicant's specific profile.

This week in Indian Startup News, Instant Grocery Delivery startups extend their delivery time, Byju's losses pile up, ONDC beta testing to begin soon, Lido learning files for bankruptcy. 00:00 Introduction 00:30 Instant Grocery Delivery startups extend their delivery time 03:33 Byju's losses pile up 04:30 Bird's Eye Segment 06:13 ONDC beta testing to begin soon 06:38 Lido learning files for bankruptcy 06:50 Sponsored Segment 08:15 BWM Update Instant Grocery Delivery startups extend their delivery time: Zepto, Dunzo, Blinkit and Swiggy Instamart are now testing pilots for late night deliveries. These pilots are only available for selected markets in cities like Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Delhi, Pune, Mumbai and Chennai. They are doing this mainly because Indian customers tend to stay up late, and when they stay up late, they tend to order snacks and other eatables in the night. This would give extra business to these companies. Byju's losses pile up: Byju's, world's biggest ed-tech company, has posted their financials a couple of days ago after delaying it for almost an year; and it's not looking good. They reported a loss of 576 million dollars in FY21 from 29 million dollars in FY20, that's a massive increase of 1,880% or 19.8X. Company's total revenue declined by 3.3% from 315 million dollars to 305 million dollars. The main reason for this loss is acquisitions and marketing. 1/4th of the losses are because of WhiteHat Jr, a code learning platform which Byju's acquired back in 2021, which reported a loss of 212 million dollars alone. Funding this week: This week at least 10 Indian Startups raised more than $1 Million, in total raising $143.8 Mn. Yulu raised $82 Million Agritech startup Akshayakalpa raised $15 Mn Deeptech startups raised $21 Million ONDC beta testing to begin soon: ONDC beta testing will begin at the end of September. The beta testing is likely to take place in Bengaluru, said ONDC CEO. Lido learning files for bankruptcy: Lido Learning has filed for bankruptcy! Lido failed to pay off debts payable to its ex-employees, customers, vendors, lenders and sundry creditors.

Byju Raveendran, the founder and CEO of India's highest valued start-up Byju's, will be relieved that the past six months are behind him and his company. In an interview he gave to Business Standard after revealing his company's FY21 financials, Raveendran said that now, the company was prepared. Asserting that this kind of thing happens only once, he said the edtech giant was strengthening the finance function and would hire a global CFO soon.  Raveendran also said the company is now prepared not only for the next year but also to live the life of a public company, whenever it decides to cross that bridge.  However, the FY21 financials don't paint a pretty picture. The company's operational revenue on a consolidated basis grew just 4% year-on-year to Rs 2,280 crore. And the losses jumped 20 times, to Rs 4,589 crore. BYJU's FY20 loss was adjusted to Rs 232 crore. But why have the company's revenues remained flat despite Raveendran claiming significant business growth during the fiscal? This was due to a new revenue recognition practice adopted in FY21. This change was sought by its audit firm Deloitte Haskins and Sells.  BYJU's started recognising streaming revenue over the period of consumption, which was previously recognised fully on the commencement of the contract. Credit and EMI sales will also get recognised after complete collection. This meant that revenue from sales made under deferred payment terms totalling 1,156 crore rupees was not recognised because, according to the auditor, “BYJU's did not meet the criteria that it was probable it will collect the consideration to which it is entitled”.  Deloitte further highlighted difficulties in the auditing process. Under normal circumstances, the fee paid to Deloitte for statutory audit would have grown from 73 lakh rupees in FY20 to 1 crore rupees.  However, Deloitte said it charged Rs 3.5 crore extra as statutory audit fees because of “the additional effort incurred in the audit consequent to material weaknesses observed in internal controls”  Owing to the pandemic, the auditor said BYJU's faced hardships not only in terms of business operations but also in implementation and operating effectiveness of certain internal controls over financial reporting.  As BYJU's diverted its effort toward integrating and streamlining the operations of the various entities it acquired post the end of the financial year, it resulted in delays in the preparation of the financial statements for FY21.  As a consequence, BYJU's could not comply with certain provisions of the Companies Act. Ultimately though, it received a clean audit report from Deloitte, notwithstanding the complexities involved in reworking the numbers based on the new revenue recognition model. It's interesting to note that the share of India in BYJU's total revenue went down from 73% to 43%. Meanwhile, Middle East's share jumped from 11% to 22% and US's share increased from 16% to 35%.  WhiteHat Jr, which the startup acquired in August 2020, has played spoilsport in BYJU's financials. Raveendran said bringing down high customer acquisition costs at WhiteHat Jr is the only business challenge he has. From the date of acquisition, Whitehat Jr has contributed just Rs 326.66 crore to total revenue of BYJU's but Rs 1,548 crore to the loss before tax from operations. Shriram Subramanian, Founder and MD, InGovern Research Services says embedding of processes has not kept pace with BYJU's break-neck speed of growth. Evidence suggests that the worst is not behind for BYJU's. Reputational hit will make raising money more tough amid difficult funding environment. The string of bad news that has followed Byju's has also had an impact on the brand. Christopher Roberts, Founder & Managing Director, Engaged Strategy, says negative word of mouth from customers, employees damaging Byju's brand. The worst is not behind for BYJU's if it does not chan

This week in Indian Startup News, Zomato's acquisition of Blinkit - A disaster or long term bet, BYJU's owned Whitehat Jr and Toppr fire 650+ people and Ola Shuts Used Cars And Quick Commerce Business. In Founder Spotlight, we have the founder and CEO of Unacademy, Gaurav Munjal, who recently opened first offline center in Kota and is now becoming hot favorite for students in offline space. In Funding news we have, Arzoo, Solv, Battery Smart and 10 other Indian startups raise more than $1 Million. 00:00 Introduction 00:06 Zomato's acquisition of Blinkit 02:58 Founder Spotlight 05:20 Funding Analysis 06:33 Sponsored Segment 08:16 BYJU's owned Whitehat Jr and Toppr fire 650+ people 09:25 Ola Shuts Used Cars And Quick Commerce Business Zomato's acquisition of Blinkit: Last week, Zomato had finally concluded its acquisition of quick commerce startup Blinkit and in less than four days of this acquisition, Zomato's share has fallen more than 21% which means that more than 13,000 Crore Rs of Zomato's market value has been wiped off. This seems a bad decision in the short term as Blinkit is a loss making company but Zomato realized that food delivery and grocery delivery have a lot of synergies as both are hyperlocal businesses and the company already has a fleet of delivery people. And that's why they are thinking of this as a long term bet. Founder Spotlight - Gaurav Munjal: This week we have Co-founder and CEO of Unacademy, Gaurav Munjal, and the reason for him to feature here is the aggressive strategy he along with his team is taking at Unacademy to disrupt the offline coaching space in India, and especially in a city called Kota. Gaurav is known for killing off the competition by acquiring them or bleeding them dry by poaching the talent and this is exactly what is happening in Kota right now. More than 40 teachers from Allen have already joined Unacademy and this battle is heating up. Funding this week: This week saw at least 13 Indian startups raising more than $314 Million. B2B Marketplaces - Arzoo raised $70 Million Fintech startups - Progcap raised $40 Million EV startups - Battery Smart raised $25 Mn Real Estate - PropShare raised $50 Million BYJU's owned Whitehat Jr and Toppr fire 650+ people: BYJU's owned Whitehat Jr and Toppr have laid off 300 and 350+ employees respectively. Company has termed these lay offs as ‘business restructuring' and according to Inc42, sales and marketing team were the worst affected. Edtech wasn't the only sector that saw layoffs, as B2B Ecommerce Unicorn Udaan has also laid off around 180 employees to cut costs. Another startup called Nova Benefits, which is a Bengaluru-based insurtech startup, has also laid off around 70 employees. Ola Shuts Used Cars And Quick Commerce Business: Bhavish Aggarwal led Ola has decided to shut down its used car division Ola Cars and its quick commerce business, Ola Dash. The company will now focus on its electric vehicles and mobility businesses from here on. According to the company, they are reassessing their priorities at this point and it seems quick commerce isn't their priority as of now. Company will be using the lessons it learnt from it's Ola Cars business for making go to market strategy for Ola Electric.

What happens when a guy who wears many hats finally builds his personal thesis on “ownership”? He creates WhiteHat Jr, the coding platform empowering the next generation to be creators versus consumers of technology.An engineer, an MBA graduate, a brand manager, a successful novelist, a yoga instructor, a backpacker, and an entrepreneur- he's done it all. From quitting Boston Consulting Group owing to the feeling of being “too much of an owner to enjoy consulting” to building a business that became one of the biggest cash deals in the startup world- Karan Bajaj recounts his fascinating journey in a candid conversation with Akshay Datt.Don't miss:-The Four Percent RuleMagnitude X Impact3 essential elements to scale a businessWhiteHat Jr's acquisition by Byju's-----If you want to be a podcaster, then check out Zencastr.com which is also the generous sponsor for this episode. Zencastr is like a Shopify for podcasters taking care of all your needs from recording to editing to hosting. Show your love for this show by using this link to sign up: https://zen.ai/founderthesis

This week in Indian Startup News, Unacademy opens first offline learning center in Kota to take on Allen and other players, Paytm Shows Strong Growth in Lending Business, Shiprocket acquires Pickrr, Mensa Brands buys Pebble, Sequoia Closes Largest India & SEA Fund At $2.85 Bn. In Founder Spotlight, we have the founders of Dukaan, Subhash Choudhary and Suumit Shah, who have announced plans to take Dukaan global. In Funding news we have, upGrad, WOW Skin, infra.market and 18 other Indian startups raise more than $1 Million. Unacademy Open first Offline Center: India's Edtech sector is seeing a major shift as billion-dollar startups are now taking on Offline coaching centers like Allen in offline space. After the impact of Covid going down and schools reopening, ed-tech startups have seen their growth slow down as we saw in the case of Byju's and Whitehat Jr and other startups like Unacademy, Vedantu and Lido Learning laying off hundreds of employees. This move by Unacademy has brought a big pushback from Allen as their founder Brajesh Maheshwari released a video warning it's teachers not to leave it. In response, Unacademy has asked for police protection for it's teachers. Founder Spotlight - Subhash Choudhary and Suumit Shah: Subhash and Suumit started Dukaan in 2020 to help Indian small businesses go online. After having a great run in local market, they have now decided to go global and take on Shopify. They have identified the issues that brands face with Shopify and they want to solve them. The major issue that they feel brands are facing with Shopify, is speed and performance and this is causing merchants to lose out on sales if customers have to wait even a few additional seconds for sites to load. Now this move by Dukaan would further solidify Indian SaaS companies reputation worldwide and would inspire more entrepreneurs to make products for the world. Funding this week: This week saw at least 21 Indian startups raising more than $637.6 Million. Edtech startups - upGrad raised $225 Million D2C startups - Skincare Brand WOW Skin raised $48 Million Social-tech startups - Mohalla Tech - parent company of Sharechat raised $77 Mn Construction sector - infra.market raised $50 Million Paytm Shows Strong Growth in Lending Business: After a period of sad state of affairs for Paytm ever since it's IPO in November last year, there is finally some good news for Paytm in it's lending business. For the two month period ending May 2022, Paytm has seen growth of over 471% YOY (year on year) as compared to the same period last year. Along with this rise in lending business, total number of users transacting on Paytm have also increased by almost 50%, to 74 Million compared to 50 Million during same time period last year. Shiprocket acquires Pickrr, Mensa Brands buys Pebble: Logistics startup Shiprocket has acquired it's rival Pickrr in a $200 Million deal. Started in 2017, Shiprocket has been one of the market leaders in logistics space and now they are looking at an inorganic channel of growth as they are on a massive acquisition spree. Since the start of this year, they have acquired majority stakes in Glaucus Logistics, market automation startup Wigzo, B2B logistics platform Rocketbox and SaaS-based Logibricks and Pickrr is their 5th acquisition this year. Mensa Brand acquiring Noida-based wearable brand Pebble is next and this acquisition will allow Mensa Brand foray into India's smart wearable segment. Pebble was started in 2013, by father and daughter duo – Ajay Agarwal and Komal Agarwal and it offered audio products, fitness wearables, chargers and cables. Now Pebble was a very significant player in the smart wearable segment, with more than 10 Million customers in 9 countries.

Topics This Week:Edtech Funding LandscapeWhy Some Investors Say Edtech ‘Doom and Gloom' OverhypedUnacademy tells employees to focus on profitability at all costs to ‘survive the winter'College EnrollmentCollege Enrollment Drops, Even as the Pandemic's Effects EbbCredential Train Is Leaving the Station—Get on BoardIf Students Had Their Way, Hybrid Learning Would Be Here To StayTech as ContentTeaching AI to All StudentsITE and Microsoft Collaborate to Equip over 4,000 Students with Responsible AI SkillsWhy children around the world need crypto educationCode.org to Offer Equity-Minded AP Computer Science Curriculum NationwideIndian Edtech ShrinksByju Raveendran Set to Focus on US Market as India's EdTech Dries UpByju's to divert focus on global businesses as Indian market is shrinkingThe Curious Case of BYJU's and WhiteHat Jr's Sudden DownfallFunding + M&ASkillePointe secures $2.25M in Series BLearnfully raises $2MSafe School raises $2MZovio sells TutorMe to GoGuardian for $55MRoblox to partner with medically-prescribed video game

 Investors, founders and CEOs have started sounding bugle on an impending funding crisis for start-ups and are taking a sombre tone on the medium-term outlook of the ecosystem.  After raising a record $35 billion in 2021, Indian start-ups are staring at falling valuations and a slowdown in funding as investor sentiment turns negative after more than a decade of bull-run that saw India mint a 100 unicorns.   This has prompted several start-ups lay off employees as focus turns towards profitability and cash conservation to increase runway. The latest to do so are SoftBank-backed pre-owned e-commerce platform Cars24 and ed-tech start-up Vedantu, which had turned unicorns in the last two years.   Cars24 reportedly laid-off 600 staff, making up 6% of the company's total employee strength whereas Vedantu laid off 424 employees, about 7% of its workforce. It had laid off 200 of its contractual and full-time employees earlier this month. Ed-tech unicorn Unacademy, too, recently laid off about 10% of its staff or 600 employees, including contractual workers and educators. Back in March, it had cut 100 jobs from its PrepLadder team. That's not all. Over 800 employees of WhiteHat Jr resigned from the Byju's-owned start-up in the last two months after being asked to work from office. And in February, ed-tech startup Lido Learning shut down operations. Social commerce start-up Meesho, which more than doubled its valuation last year to $5 billion, sacked 150 employees from its grocery business last month.  Vedantu cited a tough external market environment which means “capital will be scarce for upcoming quarters.” Co-founder and CEO Vamsi Krishna told employees that it was important to build a longer capital runway of at least 30 months given the uncertainties of the outside world and tightening of capital availability expected for the next few quarters. He cautioned that with Covid tailwinds receding, and schools and offline models opening up, the hyper-growth that Vedantu experienced during the last two years will also get moderated. Japan's SoftBank, which is India's biggest tech investor, with more than $14 billion in investments, has reported a record loss of $26.2 billion at its Vision Fund investment arm. Its founder and CEO Masayoshi Son said that this year the firm may invest only half or a quarter of what it did last year. Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said his company will reduce expenditure on its marketing and incentive activities and treat corporate hiring as a “privilege” in response to what he called a "seismic shift" in investor sentiment.  Prominent Silicon Valley incubator and startup fund Y Combinator, which has investments in over 150 Indian startups, has advised its portfolio founders to “plan for the worst” as fears of an economic downturn in the US grow. Regardless of a founder's ability to raise new funds, it's their responsibility to ensure the company will survive for the next 24 months even if no new fundraise happens, it added. Y Combinator also said that poor public market performance of tech companies significantly impacts Venture Capital investing. In India, shares of startups like Nykaa and Zomato which had blockbuster listings last year, are down 67% and 43% from their peaks, respectively. Paytm is trading 73% below its IPO price. Nithin Kamath, the founder and CEO of India's largest brokerage Zerodha, said that misjudging the market size and opportunity, then setting wrong expectations and chasing valuations are probably the biggest reasons why startups fail. Kamath, whose Zerodha is boot-strapped and profitable, noted that sustainability was more important than valuation.  According to Prajakt Raut, Managing Partner, Supply Chain Labs, things will turn a little more bleaker than what they currently are. As such, early-stage startups seeking funding will have to get much stronger fundamentals. Enterprise startups are in a better pos

In this episode, we take a look at current scenario of Indian Edtech sector and decode the road ahead for these edtech companies. Since the start of 2022, nearly 4,000 people either quit or been fired in this sector. To understand how this happened, we have to look at how did we reach here? Indian edtech as we see today started in early years of last decade. Around 2016, when jio came, suddenly these companies saw huge influx of people consuming this educational content and this was the time when VCs took this business seriously. BYJU'S raised more than $100 Million in 2016 and became India's first edtech unicorn in 2018. Companies like Unacademy and Toppr also raised venture capital at this time. This continued on till 2020, when the pandemic hit the world, and all education moved online. In 2020, Indian startups raised $10.14 Billion in total in 2020, and more than 20% of this went into edtech. In 2021, this number more than doubled to $4.7 Billion. Companies used this money for acquisitions and growth. BYJU'S bought 13 companies including Aakash Institute and Whitehat Jr, spending $3 Billion. Unacademy bought 10 companies, including Prepladder, Mastree and Codechef. These acquisitions and sharp growth meant that these companies were spread too thin and this resulted in companies lose their focus and move away from their core businesses. And when in 2022, things started opening up, students are now choosing to switch back to a mainly offline educational experience. These has resulted in declining revenue for edtech startups, which means higher customer acquisition cost (CAC) and now companies find themselves too spread out. In February of 2022, Lido Learning announced they are shutting down, resulting in 1200+ people losing their jobs. Then in March, Unacademy shut down their K-12 business, and in April it was announced that they'd laid off about 1,000 people. Vedantu was next with 200 employees, and then between 200 and 800 employees resigned when BYJU'S-owned WhiteHat Jr. asked them to stop working from home. With the decline of revenue, another issue these companies are facing is funding crunch. Now as the demand of edtech is slowing down and number of new customers is decreasing, investors aren't quite as enthusiastic. In addition to this, global economy has also taken a turn: the Russia-Ukraine war has caused supply chain issues in almost every sector, creating a sense of uncertainty and panic in the market. These edtech startups are trying to extend their runway in the hopes of surviving the global venture capital shortage and staying alive. So now, what does the road ahead look like for Indian edtech? It seems we will see more layoffs in the near term and companies will have to take sharp measures like price cutting to stay attractive for students. For example, Vedantu recently launched Ai Live, a cheaper alternative to their main offering, where an annual course costs just 5000 Rs, compared to earlier price of 22,000 to 25,000 Rs. Other thing these companies will have to do going ahead, is take an omnichannel approach. BYJU'S, for example, acquired Aakash for $1B back in 2021, which seems like a smart and long term move now. They've also launched BYJU'S Tuition Centre, which combines offline and online learning experiences in 200 cities. Unacademy, too, has launched an experience center in Delhi, and they're looking to open similar centres in Kota, Jaipur, and Lucknow too. Upgrad is also making the transition to offline - they acquired offline test preparation institute, The Gate Academy, which has about 50 centers across India. We also have Physics Wallah Pathsala, which is PW's offline offering for students in a number of cities across India.

A college dropout, Gautam Adani reached Mumbai in 1978 to chart out his own course -- away from his father's small textile business in Ahmedabad. From a diamond sorter to the world's sixth richest man, the last 44 years saw him growing from an ambitious teenager to an astute businessman. And the last two years have been quite eventful when his wealth grew from $8.9billion to $105billion -- a figure when put on graph throws almost a 90 degree bend. He has been on a shopping spree for a while now. Last week he clinched a deal to acquire Ambuja and ACC cements.   Shares of ACC and Ambuja Cements soared up to 4% in yesterday's trade after the deal. Analysts now believe the Adani Group may merge both these entities over the medium term.  From Adani's acquisition spree, let us turn our focus to companies which are caught between rising attrition rate and their plan to bring all employees back to office. Scores of employees of ed-tech firm WhiteHat Jr have reportedly quit over the last two months after being told to join offices. It has brought the focus back on India Inc.'s return-to-office plan and challenges it is facing in implementing it. So what the road ahead looks like? And what are the possible solutions that India Inc can deploy?  Most companies are treading cautiously while implementing the back-to-office plan. Meanwhile, the government and RBI are also circumspect as soaring inflation is hitting the common man hard. But what is CPI inflation and how is it calculated? Let us find out in this episode of the podcast.    Watch video

The Covid-19 disruption has changed the way we live and work. While companies had to fast-forward digital transformation, their workforce adapted to remote and hybrid operations to ensure work continuity.    As economic activities are returning to normalcy, India Inc is now facing subtle pushbacks in getting its workforce back to the office.   However, mass resignation reported at Mumbai-based startup WhiteHat Jr after it asked its employees to get back to office has put the spotlight on the problem facing India Inc: Employees don't want to return to office full-time.    According to a November 2021 survey by Nasscom and job portal Indeed, around 70 per cent of IT companies were trying to make the hybrid model work effectively. The survey found that 66 per cent of the respondents had reported higher employee satisfaction working remotely. Now, let's examine the present employee outlook and the steps taken by India Inc. In March 2022, a financial daily reported the finding of a survey where six out of every 10 employees who responded were prepared to quit their jobs instead of returning to the office.   The same survey by recruitment firm CIEL HR Services found that a similar number of employees ready to forgo a higher-paying job that required them to come to the office. This view is prevalent among employees in sectors like IT, outsourcing, consulting and BFSI, along with tech start-ups. According to a recent Business Standard report, companies across sectors are proceeding cautiously. In June 2020, FMCG player CavinKare had said that it would rent out its corporate office and its 300+ employees might work-from-home permanently. At present, CavinKare's corporate office is still in the WFH mode and in-person meetings are held once in 15 days. In April 2020, TCS called out for a 25/25 model. Under this model, by 2025, 25 per cent of the IT major's workforce would work out of its facilities, without spending more than 25 per cent of their time in office.     HCL Technologies, meanwhile, has identified 40-50 per cent of employees who can work from home permanently. For its part, upGrad has established offices across multiple locations in multiple cities. This has allowed its workforce to choose their preferred work location.   Over at ITC, employees can work-from-home for up to two days in a week. However, this is subject to approval. And, in case of an emergency situation, work-from-home is allowed for up to 15 days in a month. For many who have moved back to their hometowns, it will be difficult to convince them to return to the high rents and long office commutes of the metros. Some prefer continuing from their hometown. Hybrid work models might not be enough to retain such talents. However, there are other options.   There are many advantages for India Inc too in adapting to the changed circumstances. Not to mention, the changes seen in the nature of work, like the hybrid model, might not go away even if the pandemic does. Getting employees back to work will be a continuing challenge, especially if Covid-19 cases rise again. Even if and when the pandemic ends, companies might find that they have to the employee location and not the other way round. What about you? Would you give up an attractive paycheck for work from home?  

This week in Indian Startup News, 800 Whitehat Jr Employees resign, Swiggy shuts down supr daily, OYO IPO under trouble, Ola's chief marketing officer resigns. In funding and acquisition news, Great Learning Acquires Northwest Executive Education, OYO Acquires Croatia-Based Hospitality Service Provider Direct Booker, Ather Energy raises $128 Million, SirionLabs raises $85 Million and more. 800 Whitehat Jr Employees resign: At least 800 Whitehat Jr Employees have resigned in last two months as company asked all these employees to come to office from April 18. According to these employees, 1 month notice period is very less to move to a new city to join office and also company isn't giving a salary hike to these employees. Swiggy shuts down Supr Daily: Swiggy has shut down it's subscription based service Supr Daily in five out of six cities. It will continue in Bengaluru for now. Supr Daily was a daily delivery service for stuff like Milk, Bread and Eggs. Company has decided to shut it down to focus on its core business of food delivery and Grocery Delivery. OYO IPO under trouble: Federation of Hotel and Restaurant Associations of India (FHRAI) has reached out to SEBI asking to cancel OYO's upcoming IPO. According to FHRAI, Oyo is continuously running in losses, and it's IPO will make founders and management rich, while making common public poor. OYO has filed its DRHP in Sept 2021, and company is expected to go public in 2023. Ola's chief marketing officer resigns: Ola's chief marketing officer Varun Dubey has resigned from the company amidst other high profile exits like CTO Dinesh Radhakrishnan, CEO of Ola Cars Arun Sirdeshmukh, its Chief Financial Officer Swayam Saurabh, Chief Operating Officer Gaurav Porwal, HR head Rohit Munjal and General Counsel Sandeep Chowdhury. Great Learning Acquires Northwest Executive Education: Byju's-owned upskilling platform Great Learning has acquired Singapore-based Northwest Executive Education for a $100 million cash and stock deal. This acquisition will allow Great Learning to expand it upskilling offerings to senior employee segment as well. OYO Acquires Direct Booker: Travel and hospitality platform OYO has acquired Europe based company ‘Direct Booker' for $5.5 million. Direct Booker's portfolio primarily consists of vacation rental homes and this acquisition will strengthen OYO's presence in Europe broadly and Croatia specifically. Ather Energy raises $128 Million: EV startup Ather energy has raised $128 Million in it's series E round led by National Investment and Infrastructure Fund (NIIF) and Hero MotoCorp. The company plans to use the funds raised to expand its manufacturing facilities, invest in research and development, charging infrastructure and to grow its retail network. SirionLabs raises $85 Million: SaaS Platform Sirionlabs has raised $85 Million in its series D round. SirionLabs is focussed on contract lifecycle management and the company will use the fresh capital to boost product innovation and expand its enterprise customer base.

Topics This Week:Higher Ed's Commodification and DecentralizationUpskilling Trend Brings Coupons, ‘Flash Sales' and Other Marketing GimmicksedX's Role After 2U AcquisitionThe Future Of Learning Is Radically DecentralizedK-12LAUSD makes 'historic' $50M investment to address digital divideUnion pushback on MetaTwitter sale shows us why edtech companies should be accountable to schoolsTikTok May Be More Dangerous Than It LooksWorkforce DevelopmentUnpaid Internships vs. Work-Based Courses.Why MIT was right to reinstate the SATLayoffs amid a Looming RecessionBrutal week of layoffs - OnDeck along with Vedantu, Unacademy, Whitehat Jr & Lido Learning800 WhiteHat Jr Employees ResignFunding + M&AEducapital, Manara, Skillmatics, iNurture, Rise Up, Magnify Venture, ForeignAdmits, Pando, Byju's

The world's highest-valued edtech company, Byju's, is on a shopping spree, with an aim to build an edtech empire out of India, encompassing everything from K12 to test preparation to courses for mid-career professionals.    Byju's, valued at $18 bn, has been gobbling up smaller startups with niche offerings for the last two years, capitalising on the massive shift to online learning that we have witnessed amid the pandemic. This week, the company acquired Austrian math-learning platform GeoGebra for around $100 mn.   Byju's has acquired nine startups so far this year. Last year, it acquired two companies. In 2019, it took over the US-based Osmo for $120 mn. In 2018, it acquired math learning platform Math Adventures. In 2017, it took over TutorVista and Edurite from UK-based Pearson and also acquired Vidyartha.   This year alone, Byju's has spent around $2.4 bn in acquisitions. The company's chief strategy officer, Anita Kishore, has talked about how acquisitions as an inorganic growth route have worked well for the company.  Let us look at how some of Byju's acquired startups are doing.    Byju's acquired Osmo in 2019 to tap into the US market. Osmo's revenue was about $25 million at that time. It has now grown four times in two years to around $110 million.   Byju's acquired online coding startup WhiteHat Jr in August last year for $300 million. Anita Kishore has told media outlets that in the one year since the acquisition, WhiteHat Jr's revenue has grown three times.   Byju's acquired Aakash Educational Services for $1 bn earlier this year. In an interview with Business Standard, Aakash Education's CEO Abhishek Maheshwari said that after the deal, AESL was transforming into a hybrid edtech firm. For Byju's too, the partnership with Aakash would allow it to expand its base to tier 2 and 3 cities, where Aakash has a physical presence.   Founder Byju Raveendran has said that he is expecting his company to clock a revenue of Rs 10,000 crore this year. In FY20, the company reported a revenue of over Rs 2,400 crore.    Industry experts are of the view that mergers and acquisitions help startups do away with long sale cycles. Instead of taking months to develop and deploy a new product, bigger players would rather acquire an existing company with a solid product market fit and scale it up.    However, it is worth mentioning that Byju's, which is growing so aggressively, has faced criticism in the recent past for precisely that reason. T

In today's video, we take a look at the top 10 Indian startups that went international. #10 FreshToHome: Founded by Mathew Joseph and Shan Kadavil in 2015, FreshToHome is an online platform that delivers fresh meat. They are now delivering more than 1.5 million orders every month across 28 Indian cities. In 2019, they even expanded internationally to UAE and now plan to make their way to Saudi Arabia as well. #9 Cult.Fit: Founded by Ankit Nagori and Mukesh Bansal in 2016, Cult.Fit had managed to open more than 200 fitness centers across India by 2019. In 2020, after the pandemic swept the world, Cult.Fit was forced to shut down some of their centers but that gave them the opportunity to go international by offering online classes to their users in the US. #8 Moglix: Founded by Rahul Garg in 2015, Moglix is a B2B e-commerce platform that enables businesses to buy equipment and supplies like industrial power tools, chemicals and metals. Apart from operating in India, they also export their products to over 54 countries. #7 Cars24: Founded by Gajendra Jangid, and Mehul Agrawal, Ruchit Agarwal and Vikram Chopra in 2015, Cars24 is a used car marketplace that lets you sell your car through their online auction platform to one of their 10,000 channel partners. Today, they are selling more than 15,000 cars every month. In 2021, they expanded their reach to countries like Australia and the UAE. #6 Urban Company: Founded by Abhiraj Singh Bhal, Raghav Chandra and Varun Khaitan in 2014, Urban Company is essentially the Uber or Ola for home service professionals. Today, Urban Company has more than 35,000 professionals offering services to 5 million customers across 35 cities in India. They started their international expansion in 2018 to reach UAE, Abu Dhabi, Australia, Singapore. #5 Lenskart: Founded by Amit Chaudhary, Peyush Bansal and Sumeet Kapahi in 2010, Lenskart is an omnichannel eyewear retailer that has expanded their offline presence to more than 750 stores across India. They first went international by opening their first store in Singapore in 2019 and today they have more than 25 stores in the country and are among the top three players. #4 Ola Cabs: Founded by Ankit Bhati and Bhavish Aggarwal in 2010, Ola Cabs is one of India's leading cab aggregators with more than 1.5 million driver-partners completing over 1 billion rides every year. The startup went global in 2018 by launching in Australia and New Zealand and the UK in 2019. #3 Oyo: Founded by Ritesh Agarwal in 2013, Oyo became the world's fastest-growing hotel chain after it managed to get over 43,000 hotels under its brand across 80 countries in just six years. The hospitality startup had to shut down operations in multiple countries and had to fire hundreds of employees during the pandemic to make their business sustainable. #2 Paytm: Founded by Vijay Shekhar Sharma in 2010, Paytm is gearing up for India's largest-ever IPO. While Paytm is a well-known digital payments startup in India, they also have operations across countries like Canada, Japan and Bangladesh. They have raised $4.4 billion from the likes of SoftBank, Alibaba and SAIF Partners for their international ambitions. #1 Byju's: Founded by Byju Raveendran and Divya Gokulnath in 2011, Byju's is the world's most valuable edtech startup. The edtech giant has been acquiring startups at an astronomical pace and not all of that acquisition was restricted to India. They acquired Osmo, Epic and WhiteHat Jr to build Byju's Future School to launch in countries like the US, Australia, the UK, Brazil, Indonesia, and Mexico.

In today's video, we talk about the top 10 biggest Indian startup acquisitions. #10 TaxiForSure: Founded by Aprameya Radhakrishna and Raghunandan G in 2011, TaxiForSure was one of the earliest players in the online cab aggregation space in India, apart from Ola. To compete with Uber in India, Ola had acquired TaxiForSure in a deal worth $200 million. #9 Simplilearn: Started by Krishna Kumar in 2007 as a blog, Simplilearn was turned into a startup in 2010. Today, Simplilearn is a profitable edtech startup offering more than 40 courses on its platform and has trained over 2 million professionals. Earlier in 2021, Blackstone acquired a majority stake in Smiplilearn in a deal worth $250 million. #8 Myntra: Founded by Ashutosh Lawania, Mukesh Bansal, Raveen Sastry, Sankar Bora and Vineet Saxena in 2007, Myntra was just an online platform selling personalised gift items which ventured into fashion products in 2011. After witnessing rapid growth, Myntra was acquired by Flipkart in a deal worth $280 million in 2014. #7 WhiteHat Jr: Founded by Karan Bajaj in 2018, WhiteHat Jr offers live one-on-one online personalised coding classes to its students. Their unique teaching approach, combined with their aggressive marketing helped them reach a revenue runrate of $150 million in just 18 months. In 2020, Byju's acquired WhiteHat Jr in an all-cash deal worth $300 million. #6 PlaySimple Games: Founded by Preeti Reddy, Siddhanth Jain, Siddharth Jain, and Suraj Nalin in 2014, PlaySimple Games makes simple word games like Word Trip, Crossword Jam, Word Bingo and Word Bliss. After building a profitable gaming business with just $4.5 million in investment, PlaySimple Games was acquired by Modern Times Group (MTG) in a deal worth $360 million. #5 FreeCharge: Founded by Kunal Shah and Sandeep Tandon in 2010, FreeCharge offered an online platform for users to recharge their phones. By 2015, FreeCharge was doing more than 1 million transactions every month. That is when Snapdeal had acquired FreeCharge for $400 million – making it one of India's largest acquisitions at the time. #4 Great Learning: Founded by Arjun Nair, Hari Nair and Mohan Lakhamraju in 2013, Great Learning offers upskilling courses to help working professionals accelerate their career growth. The founders bootstrapped their startup to profitability and reached a revenue runrate of $100 million before it was acquired by India's most valuable edtech startup Byju's in a deal worth $600 million in 2021. #3 BigBasket: Founded by Abhinay Choudhari, Hari Menon, Vipul Parekh, VS Ramesh and VS Sudhakar in 2011, BigBasket is India's most valuable online grocery delivery startup serving millions of users across more than 30 cities. Earlier this year in 2021, Tata Digital acquired a 64% stake in the startup for $1.3 billion. #2 GoIbibo: Founded by Ashish Kashyap in 2007, GoIbibo started as a social networking platform before pivoting to an online travel booking platform in 2009. By 2015, GoIbibo was ranked among the top 3 online travel platforms in the country. Then in 2016, MakeMyTrip acquired GoIbibo in a deal worth $1.8 billion. #1 Flipkart: Founded by Sachin Bansal and Binny Bansal in 2007, Flipkart started its journey as a small online bookstore before becoming India's e-commerce behemoth. By 2018, Flipkart was raking in $4.5 billion in revenue. In Flipkart, Walmart found a perfect opportunity to enter India's booming e-commerce market and acquired them in a massive deal worth $16 billion.

This week in Indian Startup News, Karan Bajaj quits WhiteHat Jr, e-RUPI explained, Food delivery partners protest against exploitation from Zomato and Swiggy on Twitter, Zomato's grocery delivery and Zomato Pro Plus, CarTrade IPO date, Policybazaar files for IPO, Nykaa files for IPO and UpGrad acquires KnowledgeHut. In funding news, Unacademy raises $440 million, BharatPe raises $370 million to become a unicorn, OfBusiness raises $160 million to become a unicorn, Infra.Market raises $125 million and MindTickle raises $100 million to become a unicorn. Karan Bajaj quits WhiteHat Jr: After selling WhiteHat Jr to Byju's in a massive $300 million all-cash deal last year, Karan Bajaj has decided to quit the startup as he plans on taking a sabbatical before starting some public service work. e-RUPI explained: e-RUPI is a digital prepaid voucher that can be used by the beneficiary to avail a specific service without the need of an app, internet connection or even a bank account. This is going to be primarily be used by the government to ensure that the money allocated to a beneficiary not only reaches them but is also used for the purpose it was intended. Food delivery partners protest against exploitation from Zomato and Swiggy on Twitter: According to the latest report by ET, food delivery partners have taken to Twitter to raise their voices against the exploitation by Swiggy and Zomato. Their complaints include lack of compensation for rising petrol prices, absence of first-mile pay, lack of long-distance return bonus and daily earnings cap. Zomato's grocery delivery and Zomato Pro Plus: After stopping grocery delivery services, Zomato has restarted grocery delivery on their platform after their investment in Grofers and they have also introduced Zomato Pro Plus - offering services like free delivery to their customers. CarTrade IPO date: Online marketplace for used cars CarTrade's IPO is all set to go live on 9th August. This profitable startup is planning to raise $400 million during the IPO. Policybazaar files for IPO: PB Fintech, the parent company of Policybazaar and Paisabazaar, has filed their DRHP and are planning to raise $800 million through the IPO. Nykaa files for IPO: Nykaa has filed for an IPO and they are planning to be the first profitable unicorn to go public. They are looking to raise $540 million at an expected valuation of $5-$5.5 billion. UpGrad acquires KnowledgeHut: Professional upskilling platform UpGrad has acquired another professional certification course provider KnowledgeHut to strengthen their upskilling and reskilling portfolio. Unacademy raises $440 million: Edtech unicorn Unacademy has raised $440 million in a round led by Temasek Holdings. BharatPe raises $370 million to become a unicorn: Digital payments and lending startup BharatPe has raised $370 million in a round led by Tiger Global – turning them into a unicorn. OfBusiness raises $160 million to become a unicorn: B2B e-commerce and financing platform OfBusiness has raised $160 million in a round led by SoftBank – turning them into a unicorn. Infra.Market raises $125 million: B2B marketplace for construction materials Infra.Market has raised $125 million as its valuation climbs to $2.5 billion. MindTickle raises $100 million to become a unicorn: SaaS startup MindTickle has raised $100 million to be the third Indian startup to turn unicorn this week.

Byju's, India's most valued startup, is discovering the real cost of acquiring WhiteHat Jr. A server that mostly contained data about WhiteHat Junior's students, parents and teachers—including email addresses, phone numbers and account reset information—was left exposed. And in today's tech conversation, Partha Narasimhan of Velodyne Lidar talks about the San Jose company's new India design centre in Bengaluru

“The act of creation will transform you completely - even if it doesn't achieve success.” Karan Bajaj is the CEO & Founder of WhiteHat Junior - and the first of many Alumni leader that is an “accomplished entrepreneur” - going beyond the “big brand” path to success - where there are many equally valuable learnings. Karan leads WhiteHat Junior, which is a leading edtech and coding platform for kids - which he founded 2 years ago - and was sold to Byju's for $300 Million after just 18 months. Karan was previously the CEO of Discovery Networks in South Asia - overseeing popular channels like the Discovery Channel, TLC, Animal Planet, and Discovery Kids. Karan was a senior marketing director over Kraft's $3 Billion Dollar global gum business, and a Management Consultant for the Boston Consulting Group. Karan got his start at P&G, where he spent 6 years on Ariel across Southeast Asia and Herbal Essences in the US Karan's been awarded to AdAge's 40 Under 40, has hiked every tough mountain from Kilimanjaro to Dianali, and also a best-selling fiction author of books like Keep Off the Grass, Johnny Gone Down, and the Yoga of Max's Discontent. He's a yoga practitioner and teacher, as well as a husband and a father of two. You'll enjoy this conversation with an accomplished Alumni entrepreneur - about the act of creation, and the perseverance to do so...

In this episode, we chat with Karan Bajaj, Founder, WhiteHat Jr. From being the CEO at Discovery, to being an author with Penguin Random House & HarperCollins Publishers, to curating his Edtech venture Karan has donned many hats.Founded in November 2018, WhiteHat Jr is focused on helping children between 6 to 14 years in developing commercial-ready games, animations, and apps online using the fundamentals of coding. In August 2020, Whitehat Jr was sold to Byju's in a $300 million all-cash deal. During the podcast, Karan talks about how he took 3 breaks in his professional career and how they impacted him as a person, he also talks about what roles should a founder play at various growth stages in a startup's journey.For anyone looking to make a planned approach & setting outcomes for sabbaticals, or for any founder confused with prioritizing the impactful things in their journey at various stages, this conversation can be of great value.Notes - 01:03 - Early childhood & career prior to WhiteHat Jr03:49 - Taking breaks in a professional career04:10 - Becoming consistent with writing - “Natural consequence of living what I thought was a very interesting adventure, an experience that I thought that many people should do.”07:04 - Major career sabbaticals throughout his journey14:24 - Impact of 1st Sabbatical: Understanding that the world is very boundary-less15:06 - Impact of 2nd Sabbatical: Productivity as an individual 15:41 - Impact of 3rd Sabbatical: “If I pick up something, I just have to keep at it every day.”17:00 - Growing leaps and bounds in corporate career after 2nd sabbatical 18:30 - Self-doubts while writing and publishing his books22:04 - Accepting and realising that growth isn't linear28:43 - Ideating and pursuing WhiteHat Jr34:46 - Initial scale, revenue, and metrics tracked at WhiteHat Jr38:17 - Top mistakes at WhiteHat Jr while blitzscaling41:45 - Being mindful as a founder while facing criticism 43:15 - “The founder in a blitzscaling phase has to let some fires burn.”45:41 - Byju's & WhiteHat Jr deal: Startup economics for Acquirer, Acquired & Investors51:19 - Enabling 11000+ women teachers on the platform52:07 - Karan's perspective on the Wolf Gupta's Ad1:00:14 - WhiteHat Jr's journey in a book & chapter names for each phase1:04:32 - One major personality change while building WhiteHat Jr

Pradeep Poonia is a software developer, who was sued by WhiteHat Jr for Rs 20 crore ($2.7 million) for defamation and copyright infringement. He is the guy who created the YouTube channel called ‘WhiteHat Sr' and started questioning WhiteHat Jr's marketing tactics and business model when no one was listening. After speaking out against WhiteHat Jr, his 16 videos, two YouTube channels, two Reddit accounts, one Twitter handle, three articles on LinkedIn and Quora accounts were either removed or temporarily disabled. In this video, Pradeep Poonia talks about his journey in fighting the Rs 20 crore ($2.7 million) lawsuit filed by WhiteHat Jr and Karan Bajaj against him, how it bought a positive change, India's edtech space and his plans for the future. WhiteHat Jr withdraws the lawsuit against Pradeep: It came as a surprise to Pradeep and his team but he is glad that some sense prevailed in the end and WhiteHat Jr decided to withdraw the lawsuit. He is also grateful to everyone who supported him in his journey, especially everyone on Reddit, Telegram and LinkedIn. Impact of Pradeep's fight against WhiteHat Jr: At the time when Pradeep was the only one criticizing WhiteHat Jr and didn't have a lot of support but now a lot of people are not just supporting him but also coming out and sharing their own stories and feedback on WhiteHat Jr's business and marketing practices openly. The company has also stopped using FOMO to drive growth, due to which their sales have also gone down significantly. Benefits of Pradeep speaking out against WhiteHat Jr: Initially, the company was aggressively quashing dissenting views and taking down posts and accounts across social media platforms. Now, however, parents, students and even their employees are able to openly share their views without the fear of their account being suspended. Talking about India's edtech space: The pandemic has been a perfect opportunity for edtech startups to grow rapidly and because they have been so focused on growth that a number of problems have cropped up like in the case of Vedantu, their own sales team had been taking advantage of the ‘any time refund' policy to get more people to sign up to grow the numbers and claiming the refund later. This means their growth isn't what it looks like from the outside and that is the case with most edtech startups that are too focused on growth at all costs. Possible solutions to edtech problems: Some suggestions from Pradeep include opening a dialogue with all the involved stakeholders like parents, students, entrepreneurs, teachers and startups to better understand the needs of each other. He also believes that it is time for the government to step in and create their own edtech platforms that can help reach the sections of society that are not served by these startups and also there needs to be a balanced approach when regulating the industry in order to leave room for innovation while keeping things in check. Focus on the solution, not the problem: More and more edtech startups are trying to get into the coaching market but the problem is that we still have more students that want to get into premier colleges like IITs and IIMs but there aren't enough good colleges. So, rather than preparing everyone for IITs and IIMs, it's time to create better schools and colleges. What's next for Pradeep Poonia: While Pradeep is still preparing for his UPSC exams, he is also working on some ideas on how to teach computer science concepts to kids in a more effective manner. Now that he is free of the lawsuit, he will be focusing on a bunch of ideas that come his way.

This week in Indian Startup News, WhiteHat Jr withdraws defamation case against Pradeep Poonia, Government approves experimental drone deliveries, Private banks looking to ban crypto transactions again, PUBG's return to India, Swiggy's four-day workweek and Ola's international expansion plans. In funding news, Byju's in talks to raise $150 million, Teachmint raises $16.5 million & Nivesh raises $1.6 million. Introduction Government approves experimental drone deliveries WhiteHat Jr withdraws defamation case against Pradeep Poonia Private banks looking to ban crypto transactions again PUBG's return to India Swiggy's four-day workweek Ola's international expansion plans Byju's in talks to raise $150 million Teachmint raises $16.5 million Nivesh raises $1.6 million WhiteHat Jr withdraws the defamation case against Pradeep Poonia: After months of slugging it out in court, Pradeep Poonia has got some relief after WhiteHat Jr finally withdrew their defamation case against him. Pradeep Poonia has been a vocal critic of WhiteHat Jr for a long time and has been crucial in unveiling some of the companies alleged questionable marketing and business practices. Government approves experimental drone deliveries: The government has approved experimental drone flights for 20 consortiums including Swiggy, Dunzo, ShopX and Asteria Aerospace. They will be testing the drone for deliveries for the next year and the government will be updating the drone rules based on results. Private banks looking to ban crypto transactions again: Top Indian private banks like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Induslnd Bank have allegedly been ordered by the RBI to ban cryptocurrency transactions. PUBG's return to India: PUBG has announced the launch of Battlegrounds Mobile India (previously known as PUBG Mobile India). While the date of the launch has not been revealed, it is expected to open pre-registration for the game in May or June. Swiggy's four-day workweek: Amidst the rising number of COVID19 cases in India, Swiggy has decided to make work more flexible for their users in the month of May by allowing for a four-day workweek and the employees can choose the days they want to work. Ola's international expansion plans: Ola Electric has hired Wayne Burgess as their new head of design, a guy who has worked with leading car companies like Bentley, Aston Martin and Jaguar, to help Ola Electric design their electric scooters and also electric four-wheelers in the future. Furthermore, the company is planning to enter European markets like France, Italy, and Germany in FY22. Byju's in talks to raise $150 million: Byju's is in talks with the UBS Group to raise up to $150 million at a valuation of $16.5 billion – which would make it India's most valuable startup. Teachmint raises $16.5 million: Edtech startup Teachmint has raised $16.5 million in a round led by Learn Capital to get more teachers on their platform and explore acquisition opportunities. Nivesh raises $1.6 million: Wealth management startup Nivesh has raised $1.6 million in a round led by Indian Angel Network Fund to add new insurance and credit products.

This week in Indian Startup News, Minus Zero's attempt at building India's first fully autonomous electric car, Upstox data breach, Pradeep Poonia vs WhiteHat Jr, Flipkart partners with Adani Group to strengthen supply chain and data capabilities, Flipkart acquires Cleartrip, Pine Labs acquires Fave and Nykaa acquires Pipa Bella. In funding news, Zeta in talks to raise $250 million, DealShare raises $100 million, CarTrade raises $25 million, WeWork India raises $26.5 million, Miko raises $6.6 million and Beldara raises $7.4 million. Minus Zero's attempt at building India's first fully autonomous electric car: Indian EV startup Minus Zero is trying to build India's first level 5 fully autonomous electric car. They have successfully tested their technology by retrofitting an e-rickshaw. Their level 5 fully autonomous electric car should be ready by the late 2023. Upstox data breach: India's second largest discount broker Upstox has witnessed a data breach in their system leading to personal data of 2.5 million users being leaked on the dark web. The company has acknowledged the situation – saying that the financial data of their customers is secure and that they have strengthened the security on their servers. Pradeep Poonia vs WhiteHat Jr: Pradeep Poonia has decided to file a lawsuit against Byju's while he continues to defend himself in the defamation case. The next hearing for the case us scheduled for 25th May. Flipkart partners with Adani Group: Flipkart has partnered with the Adani Group to strengthen its supply chain by building a fulfillment centre in Mumbai and to strengthen their data capabilities by building a data centre in Chennai. Flipkart acquires Cleartrip: Flipkart has acquired Cleartrip in a deal which is expected to be worth $40 million – which is a discount for Flipkart as the entire hospitality and travel industry has been hit by the pandemic and this will strengthen Flipkart's ticketing business. Pine Labs acquires Fave: Pine Labs has acquired Malaysia-based payments and discovery platform Fave as the company looks to strengthen its own loyalty program across India and also expand its consumer-based business in the Southasian markets. Nykaa acquires Pipa Bella: Nykaa has acquired online jewelry platform Pipa Bella as the company looks to expand its jewelry business ahead of its IPO. This acquisition will give them access to more than 1,500 jewelry styles while offering them the option to design their own jewelry. Zeta in talks to raise $250 million: Fintech startup Zeta is in talks to raise $250 million in a round led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 – which could make value Bhavin Turakhia's latest venture a unicorn. DealShare raises $100 million: Social ecommerce startup DealShare has raised $100 million in a round led by Tiger Global Management. CarTrade raises $25 million: Online marketplace for buying and selling used cars CarTrade has raised $25 million – pushing the startup closer to being a unicorn at a valuation of $967 million. WeWork India raises $26.5 million: Coworking space provider WeWork India has raised $26.5 million in a mix of equity and debt funding to focus on profitability. Miko raises $6.6 million: Robotics startup Miko has raised $6.6 million in a round led by IvyCap Ventures to further invest in product development. Beldara raises $7.4 million: B2B ecommerce marketplace platform Beldara has raised $7.4 million from Hindustan Media Ventures as the company looks to promote their agro B2B product – Farm 2 Guide.

This week in Indian Startup News, MobiKwik's potential data breach, WhiteHat Jr to offer space education, InMobi plans an IPO in the US, Pine Labs to IPO in 2022, Two Delhivery co-founders exit ahead of IPO, Nazara's successful IPO, NPCI issues guidelines for implementing 30% cap on UPI transactions, Amazon acquires Perpule and Byju's is in talks to acquire online reading platform Epic. In funding news, Byju's raises $460 million, FirstCry raises $315 million, Uniphore raises $140 million, DotPe raises $27.5 million, HealthPlix raises $13.5 million and Chingari raises $13 million. MobiKwik's potential data breach: According to multiple media reports and independent cybersecurity experts – MobiKwik's data has been breached leaving personal data of their 100 million users exposed. While the company has denied the reports of any data breach on their servers, RBI has asked them to conduct a forensic report. WhiteHat Jr to offer space education: WhiteHat Jr has partnered with satellite company EnduroSat which will give them access to two satellites in space and help their students to learn more about space technology. InMobi plans an IPO in the US: India's first unicorn and a mobile advertising platform InMobi is all reportedly all set to launch their IPO in the next three months. They might raise as much as $1 billion through the IPO - valuing the company at $13-15 billion. Pine Labs to IPO in 2022: Pine Labs is expected to IPO in 2022 in the US – valuing the company at $5 billion. Two Delhivery co-founders exit ahead of IPO: Two of Delhivery's co-founders' Mohit Tandon and Bhavesh Maglani have reportedly left the company ahead of their IPO. Nazara's successful IPO: Nazara shares were issued at Rs 1,101 but they hit a 80% premium at the time of listing. NPCI issues guidelines for implementing 30% cap on UPI transactions: The 30% cap on overall UPI transactions came into effect starting this year but the UPI apps like PhonePe, Google Pay and Amazon Pay have until the end of 2022 to comply. When any UPI app hits 30% limit, they will be asked by the NPCI to stop onboarding any new customers in a bid to bring down their number of transactions to keep them within the 30% limit. Amazon acquires Perpule: E-commerce giant Amazon has acquired Perpule for $14.7 million as they plan to strengthen their presence in India's offline commerce space which generates 95% of the sales by helping them get online using their latest acquisition. Byju's is in talks to acquire online reading platform Epic: India's most valuab;e edtech startup Byju's is reportedly in talks to acquire Epic as the company plans to expand its overseas presence in the US. Byju's raises $460 million: Byju's has raised a massive $460 million in their ongoing series F round from MC Global Edtech Investment Holdings at an expected valuation of $13 billion. FirstCry raises $315 million: Omnichannel retailer for baby products has reportedly raised $315 million as they plan to expand their presence in the Middle East. Uniphore raises $140 million: Conversational AI startup Uniphore has raised $140 million from Sorenson Capital Partners to help them focus on video-based AI applications. DotPe raises $27.5 million: DotPe has raised $27.5 million from PayU at a $90 million valuation to help offline businesses to sell online. HealthPlix raises $13.5 million: HealthPlix has raised $13.5 million in series B round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners to onboard 50,000 doctors on their platform. Chingari raises $13 million: Chingari has raised $13 million from OnMobile for a 10% stake to enhance its content portfolio and expand its user base.

This episode is also available as a blog post: http://kunalsharda.com/2021/03/22/whitehat-jr-scam/

Wishing all our dear listeners a very happy new year - The golden era for India - Digital Marketing trends in 2021 - Whitehat Jr. and its unconventional marketing strategy - Trick used by Rapido drivers - Increasing steel price - 65+ lakhs Chinese smartphones sold and other business news from Dec 28 to Jan 3 presented by Robo and Cat --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/mba-meme-school/message

Shwetabh, author of The Rudest Book Ever, talks with @Vedant Rusty and @Prakhar ke Pravachan about various topics. They debate about whitehat jr -- whether children at 5 should learn coding or not?

Just wanted to shara some opinions on Whitehat Junior

Welcome to East West Hurricane! 🌪We update you on the most essential news from Asia in tech, media, and business—the things you need to know that you probably haven’t heard in Western media.Follow us on Twitter and Instagram! ⚡️Chinese Real Estate Company Beike to Raise $2 Billion in US IPO 🏘Beike Zhaofang is a Chinese online property platform backed by Tencent and Soft Bank that was last valued at $10 Billion. The company was launched by one of China’s biggest real estate companies Lianjia as an online property brokerage platform. Last Friday, they made a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission to raise $2 Billion in an IPO on the New York Stock Exchange. This would be the largest Chinese IPO in the US since iQiyi raised $2.4 Billion in March 2018.Over the last few months, several Chinese tech companies (JD, Netease, Ctrip, etc.) have chosen the opposite path. They have either delisted from US stock exchanges or chosen to list in Hong Kong instead. While the US government still continues to pose financial restrictions on both individual Chinese companies and Chinese firms more broadly, Beike is accepting these risks while some of their peers are not.The Thousands of Newly Banned YouTube Accounts 🚫YouTube announced last week that they have banned thousands of Chinese accounts on their platform for engaging in “coordinated political influence” on political issues. For more detail on the scale of the ban, 2,596 Chinese accounts were taken down in Q2 of this year versus 277 in Q1. Google’s message came from their publicly available Threat Analysis Group Bulletin.This news implies that there is a significant increase in pro-Chinese spam and propaganda on YouTube. The research firm Graphika posted a full report outlining their analysis on the proliferation of pro-Chinese spam across not only YouTube, but other social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter. Even outside of purely China-related spam, Google has reported a uniquely busy year for taking down threatening political channels. Whoever is behind content we see on social media, there are many people who would benefit from enhancing the tensions between the US and China on platforms like YouTube.An Indian Hypergrowth Startup Story = WhiteHat Jr. 🚀WhiteHat Jr. is an Indian edtech startup founded 18 months ago that offers online coding classes for students in India and the US. Another Indian ed tech firm Byju just acquired WhiteHat Jr. for $300 Million, which makes WhiteHat Jr. the fastest, largest startup exit story in Indian history. The company hosts live online coding classes that assign one teacher to each student and cost around $10 per class.This is a wonderful success story for India’s tech ecosystem. One of the most important parts of building a startup ecosystem is having successful exits, which increases the startup community’s number of role models, strengthens psychological belief, and theoretically allows ‘alumni’ from those startups to invest in the next generation of founders. And to double down on the specific vertical, ed tech is a very hot space right now given the move to virtual/remote education because coronavirus. It’s estimated that 250 Million students in India have had their schooling disrupted over the last few months. Byju has raised $400 Million this year and other Indian competitors like Unacademy and Vedantu have received similarly large recent funding rounds. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit eastwesthurricane.substack.com

Our guest is a Mumbai based sleep consultant, author of Sleep, Baby, Sleep - Kerry Bajaj. She has studied infant and child sleep in America and a member of the Indian Society for Sleep Research. We spoke to her about kids and sleep, her book and much more. Kerry Bajaj is the wife of Karan Bajaj - CEO and Founder of WhiteHat Jr who recently sold his company to Byju's for $300 million Let us know if your child has had an interesting sleep journey - popsinapod@gmail.com . Follow us on @popsinapod on Instagram