Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL), an arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) that houses its telecom and digital businesses, is set to absorb edtech firm Indiavidual Learning Private Limited, or Embibe, in a move that has caused the retrenchment of nearly 300 employees over the past few months, people aware of the development told Mint.
“Embibe will become a part of Jio and will continue as an edtech firm. Jio is currently amid a due diligence exercise relating to the merger,” said a senior industry executive, asking not to be identified.
Merging minds
RIL, which acquired a nearly 73% stake in Embibe in 2018, will completely merge the edtech firm into JPL, a second official with direct knowledge of the development said.
A Jio representative said: “As part of our broader vision to harness the transformative power of digital technology for national priorities, Jio is actively integrating its efforts in the education domain. Jio will leverage the work done by Embibe to scale these innovations and education solutions across the country.”
Multiple queries sent to Embibe did not elicit a response till press time. Mint’s emails to Embibe founder Aditi Avasthi bounced back. Mint also tried to reach out to Avasthi via calls and messages, which went unanswered.
“After 13 years since founding Embibe—and six years of building the right foundation to execute a bold, Jio-scale vision—I’m proud to share that we’ve officially graduated,” wrote Avasthi, in a public post on professional networking platform Linkedin, on Saturday. “Embibe is merging into its parent – India’s largest distribution platform, with a phenomenal team from Embibe transitioning into this next chapter.”
Founded in 2012, by Avasthi as a K-12-focused edtech platform, the company raised funding from angel investors, followed by investments from early-stage venture capital investors like Kalaari Capital and Lightbox.
Later in 2018, Reliance Jio made a commitment to invest close to $180 million into the Bengaluru-based AI-driven education platform, over the following three years for a stake of 72.69% from Embibe’s existing investors. Lightbox achieved a threefold return with a 35% internal rate of return (IRR) when Reliance Industries Ltd acquired its stake in Embibe in 2017, Mint reported back in January.
According to the second executive cited above, the Embibe team, which had close to 80 employees during the acquisition by Jio, grew to almost 2,000 employees at its peak, following a pivot towards creating scalable classroom solutions.
Over time, the numbers started to dwindle, and in the last few rounds, about 300 to 350 employees were let go, a third source told Mint.
India’s edtech sector has faced two challenging years marked by dwindling investor confidence as post-pandemic demand for online learning faded, mounting losses from aggressive growth strategies, and the downfall of the industry giant Byju’s.
“Embibe had around 380 people remaining between Bangalore and Ahmedabad towards the end. The company management had known it would merge (with Jio) since last year. Not all 380 people are laid off, some people are going to be picked up by Jio,” said the second executive quoted above.
Employees who have been let go are given proper severance pay as well, while the remaining may get absorbed into JPL, they added.
