On Tuesday, edu-tech portal Unacademy launched two offline learning centres in Rajasthan’s Kota. The move was part of Unacademy’s larger plans to establish offline experience learning centres for its userbase across many cities in the country. After opening its first flagship centre in Delhi, Unacademy inaugurated a similar touchpoint in Kota, the hub of IIT coaching in the country.
Talking about the company’s expansion, Gaurav Munjal, co-founder and CEO of Unacademy said, “Every two weeks, a new store is being launched starting with Kota, followed by Lucknow and Jaipur in the next phase. After these four stores, we are going to take a call on whether we want to open large stores or keep them small – and open 100 or 200 of them. Depending on the response, we are going to decide on the next plan of action.” The Unacademy centres will facilitate the offline classes in the NEET-UG, IT JEE and Foundation (9-12) course categories.
With Unacademy’s rival BYJU’s already opening offline tuition centres, its announcement to do the same starting with Kota put a challenge before its established offline contemporaries – notably the Allen Institute. When Allen’s co-founder Brajesh Maheshwari found out that Unacademy was looking to hire teachers and other faculties from institutes like Allen, it warned its teachers of leaving the institute and moving to the other offline coaching centres.
Recently, in a widely circulated video, Brajesh Maheshwari was seen warning teachers in his institute that action will be taken against teachers who leave the company and join its rivals. “Teachers who leave the institute will be blacklisted from working with Allen again. They will not be allowed to join back,” Maheshwari added.
Brajesh Maheshwari co-founded Allen Career Institute. Its well known for IIT JEE, NEET etc entrance exam prep. Website says 25Lakh+ students since 1988. Now @unacademy starting a coaching centre in Kota.
— Nayantara Rai (@NayantaraRai) June 10, 2022
Maheshwari threatens educators of being blacklisted if they leave Allen👇 pic.twitter.com/CJQXv97kbr
Maheshwari added that he dosent want to work with teachers who work only for money while adding, “Sharafat ki duniya khatam, jaise duniya waise hum.” (there is no decency left on earth, we will treat others how they treat us).
It is to be noted that a number of faculty members who were instrumental in Allen’s growth were recently hired by Unacademy which is on an expansion spree. This includes Ashish Arora, co-founder of Allen Jaipur who has now defected to Unacademy to head the operations at Unacademy’s centre of excellence.
According to INC42‘s source, Some of the top tutors at Allen had easily drifted to Unacademy because compensations they were offered were huge as compared to what they were being given traditonally. In an era where teachers have become stars with a massive following that attracts students to a particular teaching facility, the competition among the traditional players and new entrants in the offline markets is only set to grow.
Paying no heed to Allen’s threats, the company has recruited Kota’s top names in teaching including Mohit Bhargava, Parvez Khan, Insaf Ali, Vijay Kumar Tripathi, Ashish Gupta, who will be part of the Unacademy’s larger faculty team. Unacademy’s flagship centre will have a massive library, doubt-solving zones along with several classrooms and a multi-functional café as well.
Followed by Delhi and Kota similar institutes will be set up in Jaipur, Bengaluru, Chandigarh, Ahmedabad, Patna, and Pune in the next phase by Unacademy. The company in August 2021 raised USD 440 million in a funding round with a total valuation of USD 3.44 billion. Whereas, the traditional mogul in the education market in Kota, Allen was co-founded by the Maheshwari brothers in 1988 and has coached more than 25 lakh students since its inception.
