Latest news with #Jio-scale
India.com
22-04-2025
- Business
- India.com
Mukesh Ambani's Jio Platforms to absorb…, bad news for employees as it will sack around…
Mukesh Ambani's Jio Platforms to absorb…, bad news for employees as it will sack around… As Embibe becomes an official part of JPL, it shows one more sector which Mukesh Ambani's Reliance is interested in. By Anirudha Yerunkar Edited by Anirudha Yerunkar Advertisement Mukesh Ambani (File) Jio Platforms Ltd (JPL), a subsidiary of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) that oversees its telecom and digital businesses, is taking up the edtech firm Indiavidual Learning Private Limited, known as Embibe. However, the merger is not good news for all as this process may lay off 300 employees over recent months, according to a Mint report. Embibe Transition It was founded in 2012 by Aditi Avasthi as a K-12-focused edtech platform. It received funding from firms like Kalaari Capital and Lightbox. In 2018, RIL acquired a 73% stake in the education platform with a $180 million investment promise. Advertisement === In a LinkedIn post, Aditi Avasthi wrote, '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. Embibe is merging into its parent – India's largest distribution platform, with a phenomenal team from Embibe transitioning into this next chapter.' Employee Layoffs Embibe's team once expanded to around 2,000 employees, however, the company faced a reduction in workforce over time. Recent rounds of layoffs affected about 300 to 350 employees, according to a media report. Advertisement === After Covid-19 peak is over, many educational institutes are back to regular offline classrooms pattern or learning. This has badly impacted India's edtech sector due to reduced demand and financial losses. Embibe had around 380 employees remaining across Bangalore and Ahmedabad. Some employees will be transferred to JPL, while others have been laid off with severance packages, claimed the Mint report citing sources. After Reliance acquired Embibe in 2018 other investors withdrew their investments, like Lightbox reportedly earned a threefold return and a 35% internal rate of return (IRR).
Mint
21-04-2025
- Business
- Mint
Jio Platforms to absorb edtech firm Embibe, lays off around 300 employees
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. 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. Multiple queries sent to Embibe and RIL 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. First Published: 21 Apr 2025, 06:18 PM IST
