Mukesh Ambani’s Jio Platforms to absorb…, bad news for employees as it will sack around…

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.

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.

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). 

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