Adda247 Hires Former NIIT Exec Bimaljeet Singh As CEO To Scale Up Higher Education Business

Bolstering its leadership, edtech startup Adda247 has appointed ex-NIIT president Bimaljeet Singh to lead its skilling and higher education verticals as the CEO. 

In a statement, Adda247 said the appointment will set the company up for new growth engines and expansion into the skilling, upskilling and higher education business. Singh brings in around two decades of experience at the helm of the startup. 

He spent over five years with skilling giant NIIT as its president of the enterprise business between 2018 and 2024. Prior to this, he had a seven year stint with Manipal Global Educational services (2011-2017) and a decade-long engagement with Wipro (2001-2011).

“Our career and industry-focused initiatives will equip learners with the mindsets and skill sets required to succeed in their career across private and public sector jobs. Equally, we will collaborate with education providers and enterprises across sectors to launch employment-focused education and skilling offerings which will help build highly quality talent for enterprises,” Singh said. 

Adda247 was set up by Anil Nagar and Saurabh Bansal in 2016 and counts the likes of Google, WestBridge Capital and JM Financial among its investors.

The edtech platform focussed on the competitive exam prep space offers video courses and mock tests for more than 500 competitive exams in 12 Indian languages. The company claims to have a monthly active users of 40 Mn and a student base of 2 Mn.

“Bimaljeet’s extensive experience in this Industry and his innovative approach to collaborate with the Industry in launching job-focused education and skilling programs aligns perfectly with Adda247’s mission,” cofounder Nagar added in a statement. 

Singh’s appointment comes amid widening losses for the startup in FY23. However, there’s no clarity on whether these losses were overcome in FY24. 

For FY23, Adda247’s losses widened 1.5X to INR 296 Cr from INR 203.5 Cr in the previous fiscal year. However, its operating revenue grew 2X to INR 114.8 Cr in the year. 

It is pertinent to note that the company fired around 250-300 employees across multiple verticals in October 2023. The layoffs were undertaken as the startup  didn’t expect the investment environment for the sector to improve back then. 

Funding for edtech startups has remained largely muted for the past several quarters, with just eight individual deals recorded in Q1 2024. Further, according to Inc42’s Indian Tech Startup Funding Report 2023, edtech startups only secure a mere $283 Mn in 2023 compared to $2.4 Bn in 2022.