“With Stoa, we took a shot at solving upskilling for the rebellious lot which doesn’t fit the criteria of traditional institutions. We succeeded at a lot of things – getting learning from operators right, getting a community of ambitious yet helpful folks right, but also failed at a few things,” cofounder Aditya Kulkarni said on X.
Founded in October 2020 by Kulkarni and Raj Kunkolienkar, the Bengaluru-based company offered a six-month MBA programme, competing with the likes of Masters’ Union and Mesa School of Business.
The edtech company had raised a total of $1.77 million in funding from angel investors including Cred founder Kunal Shah and Ziwame founder Richa Kar, according to data intelligence platform Tracxn.
“Of course Stoa as a community could not have been what it is without our alums – many of them have started on their own and some are part of core teams at fast growing startups,” he said.
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Stoa School had halted new admissions for its courses in June this year. Despite this, the founder emphasised that the business was not being closed but was instead reassessing its future direction, as per a report by Ken.
“Stoa did become my social identity within the small circle who cares about such things and it is kinda terrifying to reinvent it all over again. But I guess that’s life,” Kulkarni added.
Stoa School is the latest to join the growing list of startups that have shut operations. Over a dozen Indian edtech startups have been acquired in the past year, underscoring a challenging funding scenario for smaller firms.
Sales software provider Toplyne, Insurtech startup Kenko Health, upskilling and job finding platform Bluelearn, homegrown social media app Koo, artificial intelligence-led software startup Nintee and spiritual tech startup My Tirth India are among those that shut down operations over the last few months.