Good morning [%first_name |Dear Reader%],

Welcome to a brand-new week. 

Before we go any further, I have to address the Byjunacademy firestorm that hit us late last week. Moneycontrol’s break—about a potential merger between Unacademy and Byju’s-controlled Aakash Educational Services Ltd—has the potential to completely re-order Indian edtech power dynamics. Though strong denials have been issued all around, it’s not difficult to imagine the potential win-win for both Byju’s and Unacademy from such a deal. As my colleague Praveen writes in his latest The Nutgraf edition, Byju’s is now a company that’s “practically running a hedge fund that does some edtech on the side.” 

Less than two years ago, I’d written about how Byju’s had morphed from being one giant edtech into a large acquisition machine that acted more like a PE firm looking for its next big bet. When the story was published in June 2021, the company had just acquired three popular companies in the US, and was front-loading WhiteHat Jr as its marquee product in the country.