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Tag: #EdTech

  • Physics Wallah appoints Amit Sachdeva as CFO to drive financial strategy

    Physics Wallah appoints Amit Sachdeva as CFO to drive financial strategy

    Mumbai: Physics Wallah (PW) proudly announces the appointment of Amit Sachdeva, former CFO at Blinkit, as its new chief financial officer. Bringing a wealth of experience in financial strategy and transformation across consumer tech, IT, and ITeS sectors, Sachdeva is set to enhance PW’s mission of delivering quality, accessible education to students nationwide. With leadership roles at prestigious companies like IGT Solutions, Blinkit, and Wipro, Sachdeva is well-prepared to guide PW’s financial oversight and growth initiatives.

    Sachdeva is a chartered accountant from the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and a certified public accountant in the USA. An alumnus of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), University of Delhi, he brings both a strong educational background and years of hands-on experience to PW. As CFO, Sachdeva will lead PW’s strategic and financial initiatives, advancing the company’s vision of accessible, high-quality education.

    Reflecting on his new role, Sachdeva stated, “Joining Physics Wallah is a great opportunity to support an organisation seeking to make education accessible to so many. I am thankful to Alakh Sir and Prateek Sir for this opportunity and PW’s objective to broaden educational access and be of help to students working towards their goals.”

    Physics Wallah, CEO, Alakh Pandey highlighted the significance of this appointment: “Amit’s experience in financial leadership and his focus on robust corporate governance will be invaluable as we continue our efforts to grow and broaden our educational impact. His approach to finance as a transformative tool aligns with PW’s goals, and we’re happy to welcome him.”

    With Sachdeva’s expertise, Physics Wallah aims to reinforce its financial planning, enable sustainable growth, and further its commitment to making quality education accessible to all.

  • upGrad appoints Anuj Vishwakarma to head its online higher-ed programs

    upGrad appoints Anuj Vishwakarma to head its online higher-ed programs

    Mumbai: upGrad, one of Asia’s higher edtech companies has announced the appointment of Anuj Vishwakarma as president for its online higher-ed programs.

    In his new role, Anuj will be responsible for building the online higher-ed vertical for creating a long-term strategic moat and also implement growth best practices for scaling the business.

    Vishwakarma is a seasoned growth leader with over 10+ years of rich experience building high-growth consumer businesses in the fintech, online retail, and offline retail industries. Prior to upGrad he has driven growth for leading consumer internet players like Myntra, Paytm and Ola. He has led high-profile assignments at Ola as revenue & growth head and at Paytm as growth head for Travel Business.

    An MBA degree holder from IIM Bangalore and a National Institute of Technology (NIT) Bhopal, alumnus, Vishwakarma has a constant hunger for growth and has a track record of building large businesses through sustainable growth strategies. He will operate from upGrad’s Bengaluru office and will also collaborate with the multiple teams across upGrad divisions to scale their program vertical.

    Welcoming him, upGrad co-founder and managing director Mayank Kumar commented, “We operate in a golden era where the demand for online higher education will continue to propel and therefore, we need a solution-focused leader who comes with strong hands-on skills. Vishwakarma, for his domain inclination, is best suited to perform in-depth market research and consumer insights to spearhead our vertical growth. His efforts will further solidify our core business while also enhancing our domestic LifeLongLearning suite.”

     “I am humbled to be a part of this dynamic leadership team who knows no limits. upGrad’s vision is synergistic and I look forward to utilizing my domain expertise for building a stronger business foundation for driving career outcomes of our potential learners. This will help me contribute towards strengthening the brand’s reputation across a wider audience,” concluded Vishwakarma.

  • upGrad launches campaign for Digital Marketing Job-Linked Bootcamp

    upGrad launches campaign for Digital Marketing Job-Linked Bootcamp

    Mumbai: Asia’s largest higher edtech company upGrad is back with yet another clutter-breaking digital campaign featuring a seemingly ironic interviewer-interviewee banter. The campaign film, through interesting on-screen chemistry, brings out the efficacy of upGrad’s best-in-class faculty, and the placement strategy it offers under its Digital Marketing Job-Linked Bootcamp, delivering a promising career outcome.  

     Conceptualised by upGrad’s in-house creative team, the film is produced by Valeum Films and is directed by Manoj Tapadia, who has made ad films for an endless list of brands, notably Dove, Maggi, Dettol, Tata Tea, Havells, Symphony, and HDFC. The film, shot in an office setup, shows a job interview underway that isn’t going the applicant’s way, until he answers a key question that turns the interview – and the hiring manager’s perspective – around.

    The six month bootcamp has been developed using upGrad’s extensive industry experience and offers a hands-on curriculum, including 200+ hours of live lectures, introduction to niche digital marketing tools, and 65+ hours of interview preparation and dedicated soft skill development sessions each. Prepared by industry experts for industry roles, the 100 per cent live bootcamp is carefully designed for freshers to assist them land a job with a minimum of Rs 4 lakhs per annum within 150 days of performance-based program completion or an entire fee refund. The move is also set to accelerate India’s growth momentum significantly through an added employment doorway.

    Commenting on the campaign, upGrad CEO – India Arjun Mohan said, “Job-Linked Digital Marketing Bootcamp is one of the biggest milestones, we, as a higher edtech leader, have introduced and therefore, it was critical for us to create maximum awareness touchpoints to let our target group and aspiring marketers take an informed career choice. The campaign draws insights from an internal study which highlighted the existing market gap in terms of available jobs. As a result, we realised that freshers and working professionals who aspire to build a career as digital marketers do not have a direct entry point. They have to pursue multiple different job profiles before they actually land the desired job.”

     “Young people change the face of any industry. Digital marketing is no different – in fact, it is one of the industries, most prone to be changed by new blood coming in. While earlier, young people usually stumbled into digital marketing, a structured and industry-relevant course like this upGrad Bootcamp, will give prospective marketers a great start to their career, thanks to the veteran faculty teaching it. This was the insight that led to the ad film,” added upGrad head of creative and content marketing – India Shreyas Shevade.

     In line with upGrad’s commitment to LifeLongLearning, the program structure also includes 1:1 mentorship opportunity with industry experts, end-to-end support in resume building, interview etiquette, and mock interview sessions, enabling its learners with enhanced career development opportunities.

  • Devendra Nagle joins edtech platform RISE as VP of marketing

    Devendra Nagle joins edtech platform RISE as VP of marketing

    Mumbai: RISE, the edtech platform, has announced the appointment of Devendra Nagle as the company’s vice president of marketing, in a major boost to its leadership group. Incidentally, this is the first leadership hire outside of the founding team.

    Prior to joining RISE, Nagle was associate vice president at the Internet and Mobile Association of India, where he spearheaded digital advertising and venture capital committees.

    Earlier, he had conceptualised and created award-winning IPs in the startup space. He brings 10+ years of extensive experience in marketing across various sectors like media, education, and startups. Nagle had earlier worked at Google, India Today, and Hindustan Times, where he was responsible for leading various marketing initiatives. He holds a B.Tech degree in computer science and an MBA from IIM Bangalore.

    In his role at RISE, Devendra will be responsible for scaling the brand’s industry-led and localised programmes, alongside supporting RISE’s vision to help colleges and universities expand their offerings by focusing on creating new digital credentials and degree programmes with industry-led training. His mandate would be to lead all marketing initiatives for RISE.

    Commenting on the appointment, Nagle said, “With technology as an enabler, there is tremendous scope in the edtech sector across the world. RISE is leading the way in the ed-tech space through a tech-facing strategy that embraces innovation and is focusing on growing its operations rapidly. I am excited to be onboard this rocket ship and look forward to working with Gaurav Bhatia and the team.”

    RISE offers various postgraduate and professional certification courses. Each course is affordable and, crucially, is curated and taught by industry experts, thus increasing the chances of employability. The platform also aims to help colleges and universities expand and add digital content to their offerings, and benefit from the hybrid mode of imparting education.

    RISE CEO Gaurav Bhatia believes Devendra’s varied and vast experience will add to the company’s knowhow. He shared, “We at RISE are always looking to evolve and to introduce new paradigms to the edtech sector, keeping in mind how education overall has transformed since 2020. Getting Devendra on board is just another step in our plans to continue pushing the envelope and ensure that our students are as industry-ready as possible. And with his work experience across various domains, I believe Devendra will bring substance and value to RISE and add to our growth story.”

  • upGrad announces its latest digital campaign for MICA Ahmedabad to aspire Indian youths

    upGrad announces its latest digital campaign for MICA Ahmedabad to aspire Indian youths

    Mumbai: upGrad has launched a new campaign reflecting the well-established legacy and the key differentiators of its digital marketing programme from MICA Ahmedabad.

    The narrative entails the legacy of the program, which is a well-accepted digital marketing course in the industry that provides 100+ digital marketing tools, the opportunity to run campaigns for real money, and access to MICA faculty.

    The programme has 12,000+ learners over 50 batches in seven years, with 300+ recruiters from leading companies and a wide alumni network that is recognised by the industry as a benchmark in digital marketing.

    Conceptualised by its in-house digital creative team, the campaign highlights how young potential aspirants, with a sheer ambition to fast forward their career, are all wanting to improvise in this digital era, while the campaign rightfully outlines how “Greatness can recognise Greatness.”

    As part of its digital campaign, the two ad films beautifully capture the excellence of its program, which is widely accepted and holds industry recognition for helping professionals build their careers.

    Speaking of the campaign, upGrad vice president & head of marketing Ankit Khirwal commented, “The career outcomes and the credibility the programme holds echoes for itself. It’s imperative in this era to hone the right skills needed to be future ready and we are glad that we are empowering the working professionals with the right skills, best pedagogy along with mentorship that will enable our learners to become future leaders of the industry.”

    “Through this film, we have tried to bring out the legacy of our digital marketing programme from MICA Ahmedabad that is widely recognised in the industry,” he added.

    upGrad associate director, head of creative and content marketing-India Shreyas Shevade added, “I’ve been on every side of the table at MICA except for one-behind the desk in their classrooms. I’ve been hired from there, taught there, and even applied to study there. So the idea for this campaign came from the many times I’ve seen a MICAn in an interview getting recognised for their degree. It’s amazing and a little envious that young and aspiring marketers today can add a great name like MICA to their CV just like that. And that’s what upGrad is all about-making great education easily and equally accessible to everyone with will and potential.”

  • upGrad onboards Myleeta AgaWilliams as CEO – International

    upGrad onboards Myleeta AgaWilliams as CEO – International

    Mumbai: EdTech company, upGrad has announced the appointment of Myleeta AgaWilliams as CEO-International to spearhead growth across the APAC, EMEA and US regions. She assumed office in August this year.

    With over two decades of experience in global and digital businesses, Myleeta will be responsible for managing end-to-end international operations and creating region-specific product pipelines, thereby driving high-impact revenue and profitability results.

    Myleeta AgaWilliams will be leveraging her experience in scaling businesses through strategic interventions across content and global distribution for broadcast and streaming media. She will engage with managerial teams based in multiple geographies to align short-term and long-term business objectives for accelerating profitability.

    Previously, she has managed diverse product portfolios and led marketing and sales teams across geographies at Netflix, BBC Studios, Discovery, and UTV, amongst others.

    Commenting on the appointment, upGrad co-founder & MD Mayank Kumar said, “We are at such a high point of our international expansion that we require a leader who has seen these markets evolve to make sound business decisions. Myleeta comes with a strong entrepreneurial mindset and cultural intellect that will augment our operations across existing and upcoming markets.”

    “While we are leading the higher education space in India and have penetrated successfully across SE Asia, we felt it’s the right time to go aggressive with other geographies, which will require strategic linear and non-linear movements to support the growth. Myleeta, who has built and scaled operations across niche markets including Asia, will continue to accelerate our ambition of becoming a global leader within the LifeLongLearning segment,” Kumar added.

    “Taking the hugely successful online learning portfolio that upGrad has pioneered to transform the lives and careers of learners across the globe is a fantastic opportunity,” said Myleeta while talking about her new role at upGrad.

    “In this next stage of growth, we will be looking at each of the markets in which we have ambitions to achieve scale and apply a nuanced and focused strategy, leveraging my past experience and deep knowledge of digital consumption habits. I am thrilled to be joining Ronnie, Mayank, Phalgun, and the leadership team at this exciting phase of high growth,” she concluded.

  • Madison Media Ultra to handle the traditional and digital media mandate for 88Guru.com

    Madison Media Ultra to handle the traditional and digital media mandate for 88Guru.com

    Mumbai: Madison World’s unit, Madison Media Ultra, on Monday, has been appointed to handle the traditional and digital media mandate for the client, including TV, print, and digital for 88Guru.com as the media agency of record (AOR).

    A Singapore-based, socially conscious organisation, 88tuition was founded with a mission to “empower every student to achieve full potential.” 88tuition incorporated the world’s best pedagogy into a highly scalable, technology-driven product which aims to provide students with a high-quality learning experience. The company is now set to launch in India under the brand name 88guru.com.

    Madison Media, India’s largest homegrown media agency, which started media operations in 1995, handles media planning and buying for blue-chip clients like Godrej, Marico, Asian Paints, Titan, Blue Star, TVS, Raymond, CEAT, Pidilite, Bajaj Electricals, McDonald’s, Lodha, Shaadi.com and many others.

    Speaking of the association with Madison, 88Guru director Vinod Gupta said, “We are excited to partner with the team at Madison as we attempt to transform the ed-tech industry. Madison’s expertise across the media spectrum, from traditional to new age, will be critical in our rollout. Lastly, the chemistry with the team has been excellent, and we enjoy working with them.”

    Madison Media Ultra COO Jolene Fernandes Solanki added, “We are excited to partner with 88Guru, a Singapore-based edtech company. Education has radically changed its business model as a result of the pandemic. We, as a team, are confident and excited to launch 88Guru in India and are sure it will exceed industry growth with its digital-first and outcome-driven approach.”

  • Edtech startup Creative Galileo raises $7.5 million in Series A funding

    Edtech startup Creative Galileo raises $7.5 million in Series A funding

    Mumbai: Early learning ed-tech platform Creative Galileo has raised $7.5 million in a Series A funding round from Kalaari Capital, Affirma Capital, East Ventures, Valiant Employee Investment Fund, and angel investors. This brings Creative Galileo’s total funding to $10 million, including a pre-series A round of $2.5 million announced in October last year.

    Creative Galileo offers a curriculum for children through narratives, gamified content, interactive learning journeys, and detailed parent updates.

    The company will use the newly infused funds to scale up, accelerate hiring across the teams in multiple geographies, introduce regional languages and further strengthen the research and development of the platform.

    Creative Galileo was founded in July 2020 by Prerna A Jhunjhunwala and co-founded by Nikhil Naik, ex-Vuclip. As the country’s first-of-its-kind character-based early learning platform for kids aged 3–10, Creative Galileo claims to be the only early learning app to be ranked in the top 20 education apps in the Play Store, India. The company has forged over 20 partnerships with the country’s top content studios in just over a year. With plans to expand in Southeast Asia, Creative Galileo recently started its foray with international alliances such as EBS Korea, an educational content specialist broadcasting company. 

    Creative Galileo founder Prerna A Jhunjhunwala said, “We are excited to bring our new partners on board. In the last year, we have successfully built and provided millions of children access to high-quality content in our Digital and Educational Equality mission. We want to enable bespoke learning for children across the globe through their favorite characters to strengthen their foundation during their early years, which will also help develop and strengthen critical thinking, confidence, cognitive skills, and emotional intelligence.”

    “Our soon-to-be “multilingual” platform will become the largest universe of kids’ character-driven learning platforms with a curriculum designed by experts to meet the foundational learning requirements,” she added.

    Kalaari Capital MD Vani Kola said, “We are excited to strengthen our partnership with Prerna and Nikhil as they continue their journey of transforming learning experiences for children across the globe. In the last six months, they have achieved strong growth with low marketing spend. Creative Galileo has also consistently ranked among the top 20 educational apps in India’s play store—the only early learning app to achieve this distinction. This is a testament to the founders’ relentless focus and strong execution.”

    “We are glad to welcome Creative Galileo into East Ventures’ network and support them in strengthening the education ecosystem in the region. We believe the approach of Creative Galileo will provide fun and exciting learning experiences, and we are looking forward to experiencing more innovation from the team,” said East Ventures managing partner Koh Wai Kit.

    HolonIQ recently listed Creative Galileo on their annual list of the 100 most promising EdTech start-ups from India & South Asia. 

  • Content consumption on OTT apps increases the growth of smartphone users, finds ZEE5 Intelligence Monitor research

    Content consumption on OTT apps increases the growth of smartphone users, finds ZEE5 Intelligence Monitor research

    Mumbai: Over 50 percent of smartphone users in the metros are planning to replace their gadgets within the next six months, according to a research conducted by the OTT platform ZEE5.

    In its fourth edition knowledge series ‘ZEE5 Intelligence Monitor’ report, the video streaming platform highlighted the latest trends prevailing in the Indian smartphone industry.

    The ZEE5 research discovered the consumption of an exciting and wide variety of content on OTT apps is another new driver for this upward movement. The post-covid trend is to grab the latest model; with latest features’ scoring well above price as the key motivator.

    The research also found that brand reputation, features and technology are the leading factors that determine consumers’ preferences. Moreover, two out of five viewers intend to purchase a phone which costs Rs 30,000 or above; with a higher tendency among the 35-44 age group. Besides uncovering the fascinating new consumer behaviour and the contrasting preferences between metro and non-metro consumers in their smartphones’ purchase and usage, the ‘ZEE5 Intelligence Monitor – Smartphones Consumer Insights and Trends Report’ also highlighted the symbiotic relationship between smartphones and OTT platforms.

    Launching the report, ZEE Entertainment Enterprises chief operations officer – revenue Rajiv Bakshi said, “By deep diving into the smartphones segment, we have unearthed amazing new insights on user behaviour which can lead the brand marketers to attract millions of customers eager to upgrade and replace their smartphones. We hope this report will act as a guidebook for marketeers and smartphone brands and serve to be distinctive for the industry at large. Marketers and business leaders can use these findings to make smarter business decisions and hyper-target campaigns utilising the ZEE5 platform to connect with audiences in 12 languages.”

    The report also said that 70 per cent of the non-metro respondents are inclined to buy their next smartphone online. The research revealed that men are more brand conscious and have twice the share of women consumers in the Rs 50,000+ segment. Women appear price and deal-conscious & dominate the Rs 10,000 segment.  

    ZEE5 Intelligence Monitor report also uncovered transformative consumer behaviour, attitudes, and aspirations across multiple industries ranging from e-commerce, EdTech, and online gaming to smartphones, presenting an unmatched opportunity to advertisers to access a hyper-enriched predisposed audience cohort across multiple demographics and geographies.

  • upGrad on-boards Rakesh Raju as director of brand marketing

    upGrad on-boards Rakesh Raju as director of brand marketing

    Mumbai: Strengthening its leadership team, Asia’s higher Edtech major upGrad has announced the appointment of Rakesh Raju as the director of brand marketing. 

    In his new role at upGrad, Rakesh will be responsible for formulating go-to-market strategies and driving high-impact marketing initiatives to further strengthen the brand’s identity across online and offline channels. 

    An IIM Calcutta alumnus with over 12 years of work experience, Raju has led several marketing portfolios across FMCG and telecom industries. In his last stint with CavinKare, he joined as a senior brand manager and went on to head the e-commerce business and was subsequently promoted to a leadership role to manage the haircare portfolio for the domestic business. Prior to CavinKare, Rakesh had worked with Airtel as a senior product manager for the Telecom and airtel money business verticals.

    Welcoming Rakesh to his new role, upGrad head of marketing Ankit Khirwal said, “We are elated to have Rakesh Raju on board. His business prowess and experience in leading brands’ marketing efforts make him an ideal choice for upGrad, especially at a time when we are growing by leaps and bounds and such strategic hirings shall further help us to drive maximum campaign-performance efficiencies.”

    “The timing couldn’t have been any better – I am excited to join upGrad at such an important business juncture. I’ve always admired the leadership and the brand from the other side and now is the time I get to work with them closely for creating a stronger brand niche within an overcrowded space. Driving impactful education for millions requires commitment, and I hope to use my acquired skills and knowledge in a most optimum way to strengthen upGrad’s stature as the ‘higher-ed leader’ across levels,” concluded Rakesh.