Unacademy founders exit stage; Ola Electric's freefall

Time of India

5 days ago

Unacademy founders exit stage; Ola Electric's freefall
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Exclusive: Unacademy founders Munjal, Saini set to exit, shift focus to AirLearn
Why it matters:
Backdrop:
The big picture:
Ola Electric slips to number three in EV two-wheeler market as rivals gain ground
By the numbers:
Rivals on the rise:
TVS Motor and Bajaj Auto increased their market shares to 25% and 22.6%, respectively, in May, despite slight dips in absolute volumes.
Ather Energy's share declined to 13.1%, from 14.9% in April.
Mounting headwinds:
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Top AI firms pivot to profitability track leaving price wars behind
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Global Picks We Are Reading
Happy Wednesday! Unacademy cofounders are planning to exit the edtech firm as the company expands its offline footprint. This and more in today's ETtech Morning Dispatch.■ AI price tags■ Infosys-Cognizant legal spat■ BlackBuck turns profitableGaurav Munjal and Roman Saini, cofounders of Unacademy, are preparing to depart from the SoftBank-backed edtech firm as it doubles down on its offline coaching pivot, people in the know told us. Sumit Jain, who joined Unacademy in 2020 through the acquisition of his startup Opentalk, will take over as CEO, they added.The leadership shake-up follows months of boardroom deliberations and coincides with the founders' growing focus on AirLearn, a standalone language learning app aiming to take on Duolingo. AirLearn has hit 70,000 daily active users (DAUs) and a $2 million revenue run rate, Munjal recently told staff.Munjal and Saini are expected to receive a cash payout while retaining their equity in the company. Their departure follows Unacademy's scrapped $800 million deal with Allen Career Institute, as reported by us on December 4, and comes amid a wider edtech slump that has seen peers like Byju's collapse.Once valued at $3.4 billion, Unacademy has struggled to hold onto its pandemic-era highs. It posted Rs 840 crore in revenue for FY24 and cut net losses to Rs 631 crore. The company still has Rs 1,200 crore in the bank, according to Munjal.Bhavish Aggarwal, founder, Ola ElectricOla Electric, once the market leader in India's electric two-wheeler segment, fell to third position in May, ceding ground to legacy rivals TVS Motor and Bajaj Auto.The Bhavish Aggarwal-led company's market share dropped to 20% during May 1–26, down from 22.1% in April, and a sharp decline from over 50% just 13 months ago. Registrations fell to 15,221 units—nearly 60% lower than the 37,388 units logged in May 2024.Ola Electric's slump comes amid a broader sector slowdown and growing internal challenges, including regulatory scrutiny, operational inefficiencies, and concerns over after-sales service. The firm is also under investigation over discrepancies between reported and actual vehicle registrations.The latest figures stand in sharp contrast to CEO Aggarwal's ambitious goal of 50,000 monthly unit sales, which is necessary to achieve breakeven. Earlier this month, Ola Electric approved raising up to Rs 1,700 crore through debt instruments—its first funding move since its initial public offering (IPO) in August 2024. The company's shares continue to trade below the Rs 76 issue price, closing at Rs 52.49 on Tuesday.With intensifying competition and declining customer trust, Ola Electric faces an uphill task in regaining lost momentum.ETtech Top 5 and Morning Dispatch are must-reads for India's tech and business leaders, including startup founders, investors, policy makers, industry insiders and employees.Interested? Reach out to us at [e-mail] to explore sponsorship opportunities.Artificial intelligence (AI) companies are now prioritising profitability after slashing prices by 65–90% last year.OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and Google are releasing new AI models at roughly flat or even higher rates. The cost of intelligence may decline, albeit at a slower pace, as companies are no longer rushing to train new models. This spells trouble for startups that depend on these models.'AI companies may not have reached an optimum pricing point but to a point where reduction in pricing is appearing to slow down,' said Naga Santhosh Josyula, cofounder of vibe coding platform Tablesprint.The price pressures, however, have led to several Indian startups struggling to scale AI applications, invest in R&D, and pass on cost savings to customers, ultimately causing them to depend on external funding.'Running production-grade agents at scale isn't cheap, and it impacts pricing strategies, performance tuning, and R&D investment decisions,' said Somit Srivastava, chief technical officer (CTO) wealthtech firm Wealthy.in Startups need to be 'smart about AI usage,' either through model routing, hybrid stacks, or targeted agents, rather than waiting for prices to fall. TableSprint's Josyula said his company is reducing costs by using smaller or optimised models.A US court has asked both Infosys and Cognizant Technology Solutions to attempt to resolve the case by oral agreement . Failing to do this, they can 'seek an informal telephone conference with the court to attempt to resolve' the conflict, the bench said.Oravel Stays Ltd, the parent company of hospitality startup Oyo, is set to formally review proposals from merchant bankers next week as it prepares for a fresh attempt at an initial public offering (IPO), targeting a valuation of $5–7 billion, according to multiple people familiar with the development.The Naukri parent saw its net profit rise to Rs 678 crore in the March quarter from Rs 88 crore on reclassification of a joint venture investment as financial investments and long-term capital gains tax rate change. Operating revenue increased 14% to Rs 750 crore during the period.Trucking aggregator BlackBuck owner Zinka Logistics saw a 31% year-on-year (YoY) increase in operating revenue, reaching Rs 121.8 crore, up from Rs 93.2 crore a year ago. It posted a net profit of Rs 280 crore , compared to a net loss of Rs 90.7 crore in the same quarter last year.The Gurgaon-based firm raised Rs 113 crore in a funding round led by existing investors Indiamart Intermesh and Beenext (through its Accelerate Fund).Frinks AI has raised $5.4 million in a round led by Prime Venture Partners, along with Chiratae Ventures, as well as new investors Navam Capital and Zen Technologies founder Ashok Atluri.Deeptech startup Contineu has secured $1.2 million in a seed funding round led by SenseAI Ventures, with participation from Piper Serica Angel Fund.■ Google CEO Sundar Pichai on the future of search, AI agents, and selling Chrome ( The Verge ■ The math tutor and the missing $533 million ( Rest of World ■ WordPress has formed an AI team ( Techcrunch