1947 Tech — Week 28
A few good articles and tweets that I came across this week..
1. Edtech is on 🔥🔥: Sequoia, SAIF, And Nexus Invest $21 Mn In Unacademy
Unacademy’s platform enables free learning for millions of students, from thousands of top educators. It’s special when a startup can have such impact on society.
Unacademy plans to use the funding to onboard new educators on the platform, penetrate deeper into categories including courses for pre-medical, GATE, and CAT, and further strengthen its core product and technology team.
2. Zuck backed: Edtech Unicorn BYJU’S Looks To Raise $150 Mn Funding
After bringing a big bang start to 2018 with entry into Unicorn club, edtech platform BYJU’S is ready for another spike in its valuation. According to reports, the company is looking to raise another round of funding at a valuation of $1.8–2 Bn. The funding amount is expected to be $150 Mn.
The company is also looking to add at least two new investors with participation from existing investors led by Tencent Holdings Ltd.
Founded in 2011 by Byju Raveendran, BYJU’S offers learning programmes for class 6–12 and test preparation for JEE, AIPMT, CAT, IAS, GRE and GMAT. They launched BYJU’s –The Learning App in 2015.
3. Bollywood magic: Airbnb rides on Bollywood charm to influence millennial travellers
In India, Bollywood is a part of the culture. It’s very usual that In India to expedite the brand awareness of a company, the company brings Bollywood stars on board.
For example Airbnb, the home-sharing company, is riding on the popularity of Bollywood stars to grow its outbound business as an increasing number of Indians are taking international holidays. In its first big India specific campaign the company has brought star couple Saif Ali Khan and Kareena Kapoor Khan who are seen sharing their holiday experience in the UK using Airbnb through a series of ads
4. Ofo fires staff in India, winds down operations in the country
What works in the West doesn’t mean it will work in India. The market is a lot different in India. Consuming power is still very low when comparing to the markets in the west and China.
Individuals with knowledge of the matter told TechNode that the Ofo is winding down operations in the region and that most of the company’s staff have been laid off.
5. A new fund: SoftBank Capital’s Kabir Misra To Set Up $250 Mn Startup Fund
Kabir Misra, managing partner at Softbank Capital, is looking to launch his own startup fund with a corpus of $250 Mn. According to sources, Misra will make early-stage to mid-stage investments in US, India and Southeast Asia.
Kabir Misra has also played a key role in finalising the $16 Bn worth Walmart-Flipkart deal and was also a part of the Flipkart’s $2.5 Bn fundraise from SoftBank in 2017.
Besides the Flipkart board, Misra also sits on the board of Paytm, owned and operated by One97 Communications Ltd. The move comes after SoftBank invested $1.4 Bn in Paytm last year.
6. A tweet: Founder and CEO Aloke Bajpai reflects on the lessons he earned while building online travel marketplace ixig
