As India's edtech giants stumble, Manipal's UNext bets on discipline

Backed by MEMG, the company is betting on AI, university partnerships and lower acquisition costs while avoiding the high-spend consumer model that hurt several edtech rivals

India's edtech bust has hit some of the sector's biggest names. Byju's, once the country's most-valuable startup, went into insolvency. Unacademy, once valued at about $3.4 billion, sold to rival upGrad for roughly $200 million in September this year.

 

UNext Learning took a different path. Ambrish Sinha built it inside the Manipal Education and Medical Group (MEMG) rather than as a venture-funded startup. Its enterprise-training business is already earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda)-positive, and the company expects to break even on a consolidated basis by March 2027.

 

UNext's edge was never about building a consumer brand, said Sinha, the online higher education and talent transformation company’s founding chief executive. It was about being a capital-efficient tech platform that worked with partner universities, while keeping a close watch on what growth would cost.

 

MEMG has backed UNext with roughly ₹700-800 crore internally. UNext, launched in 2021, has become one of India's largest online degree and certification providers, with more than 125,000 monthly active learners. As of March 31, 2026, UNext reported gross bookings of ₹925 crore and consolidated revenue of more than ₹580 crore. Its business-to-consumer (B2C) online business recorded 35 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) revenue growth. The company is projecting growth of about 30 per cent in financial year 2026-27 (FY27). Student enrolments grew 60 per cent Y-o-Y. The company has also reduced its customer acquisition cost by 25-30 per cent.

 

Its enterprise skilling business — UNext for Enterprise — serves the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sector, and has trained and placed more than 250,000 professionals. UNext for Enterprise is a comprehensive business-to-business (B2B) talent transformation and workforce development arm of UNext Learning. The B2C online business is gross-margin-positive, and the company expects it to turn Ebitda-positive from FY28.

 

“We will be breaking even by the end of this year and will be Ebitda-positive next year,” Sinha told Business Standard.

 

Sinha attributed the company's relatively capital-efficient growth to three things: its late entry into edtech, a technology-led business model, and close partnerships with universities and colleges. UNext focused on providing technology infrastructure to educational institutions rather than building a standalone consumer brand. This allowed it to leverage institutional brands, lower customer acquisition costs, and avoid heavy spending on advertising and marketing.

 

The founding chief executive said the company remained conscious of the cost of growth. It also maintained strong governance standards, supported by its parent.

 

Sinha was part of Zopper's founding team as chief business officer. PhonePe later bought the hyperlocal Point of Sale (POS) platform in 2018. He also held leadership roles at ICICI Prudential Life Insurance, HDFC Life, and IndusInd Nippon Life Insurance.

 

UNext is betting big on artificial intelligence (AI). It integrates AI across its learning platform, marketing, content production, product development, and workflow automation. Its in-house learning management system, Lumen, uses AI for doubt resolution, automated quizzes, content summaries, and personalised learning paths.

 

Sinha said AI is reshaping higher education through personalised learning, improved course completion rates, and more frequent assessments. AI also helps students stay engaged and disciplined in online programmes, where learners must manage their own progress. The company is deploying AI in lead nurturing and voice-based interactions to reduce acquisition costs and match learners with relevant courses.

 

“Through the use of AI today, we are also able to churn out our content faster, and bring our content up to date quickly,” said Sinha.

 

He expects AI to shift how learners access information, from search to curated answers. Sinha said AI would augment rather than compete with education technology platforms. He expects its impact to be more pronounced in higher education, where students have the maturity to use the technology effectively. In schools, particularly for children below 10 to 12 years of age, social learning, discipline, and teacher-led instruction will continue to matter, he said.

 

There is concern that AI could hit the entry-level jobs edtech firms train people for. Sinha does not expect AI to eliminate those jobs altogether. Instead, he expects a reallocation of roles and skills, with some jobs declining while new roles emerge. He said big companies in India are currently using AI largely to optimise processes and reduce costs, rather than to replace workers entirely.

 

UNext will remain focused primarily on India. Rather than pursuing aggressive global expansion, it plans to deepen partnerships with universities, including potential foreign university collaborations. It also plans to introduce specialised programmes for working professionals.

 

The firm is also moving offline into manufacturing, retail, and FMCG (fast-moving consumer goods) training centres in Mumbai, Delhi-NCR, and Jaipur. UNext sees physical training centres and instructor-led programmes as complementary to its digital business. The broader ambition of the company is to become a lifelong learning partner across online, offline, and hybrid formats.

 

UNext sees universities as partners and other edtech companies as competitors. Its closer benchmarks include Coursera, upGrad, Great Learning, and Simplilearn. It may also look at acquisitions. Its only acquisition to date is Jigsaw Academy. Sinha said the company would evaluate opportunities in higher education, technology, content, and adjacent business models if strategically relevant.

 

The company does not plan an initial public offering (IPO) in the near term. It is focusing instead on long-term growth, market-share expansion, and innovation.

 

“We would like to stay private and continue to build on our strengths that we have in the higher-education space,” said Sinha.