Investor funding in edtech drives unwarranted behaviour: Byju's Aakash CEO

Investors' funding in the edtech space is driving an unwarranted behaviour which is not good for the industry, Byju's Aakash Education Services Limited (AESL) Managing Director and CEO Deepak Mehrotra said on Monday.

Speaking to PTI, Mehrotra also said that digital alone can't meet aspirations of medical and engineering students looking to get into premium institution, and it is important to address requirement of new learners.

"Investors' funding is very clearly driving behaviours which are not good for anyone, I only hope sanity prevails," said Mehrotra who has been appointed AESL's CEO on Monday.

He was replying to a query about the need for consolidation in the edtech and test preparatory space where there has been a lot of changes in the business models of several firms.

During the edtech's growth stage, several brick-and-mortar test preparatory firms entered into the online space, while online education firms added brick-and-mortar centres.

Mehrotra said that digital alone is not enough to address the requirement of students preparing for high stake examinations.

"If a learner that you are talking to is preparing to pick up premiere Indian institutions, be it medical or engineering, it needs long learning. I am completely convince it cannot be done digitally alone," he said.
 

He, however, said that the digital medium is required to address the need of new learners who are more of digital natives.

Mehrotra said that his company will look at reaching out to digital natives in the language of their choice by increasing the component of digital in the system at AESL.

Referring to Manipal Group's Ranjan Pai's investment in AESL, Mehrotra said that he has joined the company at a time when entrepreneurs with solid credentials of having built institutions, that has been delivering core higher education for decades, have put their might behind the company.

The position of CEO at Aakash had been vacant after Abhishek Maheshwari resigned from the company in September 2023.

Mehrotra's appointment fills in the position of CEO after a gap of about seven months.

With over 35 years of experience in executive roles, Mehrotra has worked across FMCG, telecom, and education industries.

Prior to joining AESL, he was the Managing Director at Ashirvad Pipes. He has also worked at Pearson India, Bharti Airtel, Coca-Cola, and Asian Paints.

An electrical engineering graduate from IIT Roorkee, Mehrotra has also completed an executive programme from The Wharton School, Philadelphia (USA).