Vedantu’s painful growth spurt in the eye of an edtech storm

Vedantu was the first edtech to launch live video classes in India. Covid-19 gave it a real boost—its users grew 6X in 2020 and its valuation more than doubled to ~$600 million. The flipside, however, is that Vedantu may just not have been prepared for it

The pandemic has catapulted Vedantu to the limelight. And made its live class tech mainstream. The start-up is now valued at around $600 million

But it has a mini-mutiny on its hands, as it fired about 100 sales executives for logging "fake sales"

Edtech is cut-throat. There's pressure to keep increasing users to compete. Vedantu's feeling the brunt both internally and externally

The new incumbent has gone on a sales and marketing blitzkrieg to consolidate gains, trying to position itself as a formidable rival to Byju's

In the first two weeks of March 2021, some 100-odd sales executives at seven-year-old edtech company Vedantu found themselves locked out of their email accounts. Their credentials were rescinded and the teams working under them were either disbanded or re-assigned. The executives were fired without any notice period, on charges of making “unethical or fraudulent” sales.

The Ken spoke to over 20 such executives over a joint Google Meet call. “They turned us into scapegoats. But they haven’t been able to prove any wrongdoing. So how can they fire us?” says one angry Bhopal-based business development executive (BDE).

AUTHOR

Olina Banerji

Based in Delhi, Olina writes about mega-trends in urban mobility, education, skilling and the environment, with a focus on how institutions and innovations can help cities grow sustainably. She is a graduate of the London School of Economics, and has worked previously with India Today and global non-profit Ashoka.

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