iNurture Education Acquires Youth4Work; Forms New Venture ‘Y4W Learning’

Edtech startup iNurture Education has acquired Jag Bros Consultants’ brand ‘Youth4Work’ for an undisclosed amount.

As part of the deal, iNurture Education and Youth4Work have formed a new subsidiary called Y4W Learning Pvt Ltd. In this new venture, iNurture will hold 83.5% equity via its founder and MD, Ashwin Ajila.

Y4W Learning will essentially work on the leads generated from ‘Youth4Work’ assessment platform to grow enrollments for NEP (National Education Policy 2020) programmes. Further, the company’s office will be set up in Noida, with 50-60 employees. 

iNurture, founded in 2007 by Ashwin Ajila, partners with Indian and international academic institutions to offer educational courses to students. It offers graduation and post-graduation degrees in several disciplines including management, computer science, finance, IT, media, and machine learning, among others. 

In 2022, the Bengaluru-based edtech startup raised $15 Mn from ADM Capital. The round was a mix of debt and equity. As part of the deal, iNurture’s existing investor VenturEast exited the startup.

Its other backers include Kimera, Blacksoil, Bertelsmann India Investments, Ascent Capital, and BDMI. 

In 2018, iNurture acquired edtech startup KRACKiN for an undisclosed amount. 

Meanwhile, Youth4Work, founded by Rachit Jain in 2012, offers aptitude, psychometric,typing and preparation tests. It also functions as a job portal, connecting employers with job seekers. 

Some of the online practice exams offered by Youth4Work include CPT (common proficiency test) and IPCC, management, government, defense and engineering entrance tests.

So far, it has raised $500K in funding from a bunch of angel investors.

Besides iNurture, a series of acquisitions have happened in the edtech space recently. A few weeks back, edtech giant LEAD completed acquisition of Pearson’s India K-12 learning business. During the same timeframe, edtech unicorn PhysicsWallah bought K-12 online learning platform Knowledge Planet to expand across GCC region by 2024.

In January this year, edtech startup Uolo acquired online learning platform Tekie to offer affordable online learning programs to school students. 

It is prudent to note that iNuture’s acquisition happened at a time when the Indian edtech space has been battered by funding crisis. Market volatility, low investor confidence, Russia-Ukraine war and opening of schools and colleges have also severely impacted the Indian edtech startups. 

Resultantly, the poor performance of edtech giants such as BYJU’S, Unacademy, Vedantu, Teachmint and upGrad have made VCs, PEs and other investors skeptical of investing in the edtech sector.

To sail through these challenges, edtech startups have opted for survival strategies including going for a hybrid model, trimming the business size, shutting down unprofitable subsidiaries and laying off employees.

As per Inc42 layoff tracker, edtech startups have collectively laid off more than 8,460 employees since 2022.