Alternative MBA Startup Stoa Shuts Operations

Bengaluru-based Stoa, the poster child of alternative MBA, has shut down its operations. Taking to social media, Stoa’s cofounder Raj Kunkolienkar announced that after four years, the startup will shut its operations. 

Calling the decision “gut-wrenching” Kunkolienkar said that in a bid to provide affordable business education to millions, online was the key. However, he noted post the pandemic, there was a dip in online-learning and the company chose against going offline. 

“Despite having built a strong brand, we decided against going offline because the economics of that move would lead us to a place we stood against,” he wrote. 

The fresh developments came almost five months after The Ken reported that Stoa is shutting down its operations. Cofounder and CEO Kulkarni said at the time that the startup had only pressed pause on operations and was reevaluating its next steps.

Post this, the startup launched a new AI-based enterprise agent platform called Zeus. The new AI agent was supposed to co-exist with Stoa. However there was no clarity on the launching of the next cohort. 

Back then, Kunkolienkar said that Zeus would be launched with a wide set of features that cover tasks such as minutes of meetings, work assignment, research and more.  

• Send personalised emails to people in the organisation after meetings, even if they haven’t attended the meeting
• Can take instructions over the call and dispatch work to people
• Do internet research on topics discussed
• Draft documents/mails
• Brainstorm and come up with solutions
• Ask for elaboration on points
• Relay messages to others

However, at present there seems to be no presence of Zeus. Founded in 2020 by Kulkarni, Raj Kunkolienkar, and Manoj Kambadur, Stoa has served over 1,500 students across 15 cohorts. 

The startup reported a revenue of INR 15.9 Cr in FY23, a 160.6% jump from INR 6.1 Cr in the previous fiscal year. It also managed to narrow its loss by 43.8% to INR 43.9 Lakh from INR 78.2 Lakh in FY22. It’s not clear how Stoa performed in FY24 as the startup is yet to file its financials. 

The startup had raised $1.5 Mn in seed funding from Nithin Kamath, Kunal Shah, Myntra’s Raveen Sastry, among others. Stoa School competes against the likes of Masters’ Union, Mesa School of Business, among others.