Eruditus Unicorn

Emeritus's stated mission is teaching the skills of the future by making high-quality education accessible and affordable, delivered via cutting-edge technology, curriculum design, and senior faculty/mentors.

Lets working professionals earn certificates/credentials from top global universities (MIT, Harvard, Columbia, Wharton, Cambridge, INSEAD) without needing to attend full-time programs.

Eruditus pioneered a cohort-based "SPOC" model targeting defined completion rates within smaller learner cohorts, differentiating it from open MOOC platforms like Coursera.

Career-focused professionals seeking skill development through short courses, professional certificates, degree programs and bootcamps.

Organizations requiring leadership development and talent transformation, served through a dedicated enterprise business unit; Eruditus has been expanding its focus to sell courses to enterprise clients.

80+ academic institutions (MIT, Harvard, Columbia, Wharton, INSEAD, UC Berkeley, IIT/IIM and others) that license their brand and faculty to reach a global online audience via Eruditus's platform.

Programs are designed for mid-career professionals (roughly 5-10 years' experience) and feature mentorship, coaching and practical/applied-learning components rather than self-paced, unassisted video courses.

Enterprise clients are served through a dedicated enterprise business unit that manages leadership-development and talent-transformation engagements as ongoing accounts rather than one-off course sales.

Programs delivered online (and in hybrid/modular formats) directly to learners through Emeritus's own web/app platform, with live sessions and certificates of completion.

Ran a 2022 marketing-distribution partnership/test with Udemy to reach Udemy's much larger visitor base (97.3M monthly visits vs edX's 12.4M) and promote Emeritus's university-branded programs.

Dedicated enterprise sales motion selling cohort-based corporate upskilling and leadership-development programs directly to companies, an area of expanding focus post-Series F.

Co-designs curricula and course content jointly with university faculty partners for delivery across online, hybrid, modular and seminar formats.

Manages technology, marketing and student services for university-branded programs, while the university provides academic credibility and faculty.

Runs recruitment and enrollment-management operations, including a large in-house marketing function (Rs 1,007 crore spent on marketing in FY24 alone) to acquire learners at scale.

Pursues acquisitions (e.g. iD Tech for $200M in 2021) as a growth lever, with a stated target of acquisitions contributing up to 30% of top line and EBITDA within five years of its 2022 CPP Investments debt raise.

Exclusive/long-term agreements with 80+ top-tier universities (MIT, Harvard, Columbia, Wharton, Cambridge, INSEAD, UC Berkeley and others) supplying accreditation, brand credibility and 300+ faculty members.

In-house technology platform used to design, market and deliver 300-450+ programs to learners in 80+ countries.

2,000+ employees across offices including Mumbai, New Delhi, Singapore, Shanghai, Palo Alto, Mexico City, New York, Boston, London and Dubai.

Long-term partnerships with 80+ top-tier universities including MIT, Harvard Medical School, Columbia Business School, Wharton, Cambridge, INSEAD, Northwestern Kellogg and UC Berkeley across the US, Europe, Latin America, Southeast Asia, India and China.

Backed by Accel, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, TPG's The Rise Fund, Prosus Ventures, Leeds Illuminate, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, CPP Investments, Bertelsmann India Investments and Sequoia Capital India across funding rounds.

Acquired K-12 STEM camp/course provider iD Tech for $200 million in May 2021 to add a youth-education arm operating independently within the group.

Educational programs (classroom and online management-education programs sold in partnership with business schools) funded directly by individual learners; this is Eruditus's primary revenue stream.

Corporate/enterprise training and leadership-development programs delivered via the Emeritus platform and funded by corporations rather than individual learners.

Emeritus develops and delivers university-branded programs and shares tuition revenue with the partner university, which supplies academic credibility and faculty; Emeritus retains the majority share to cover technology, marketing and student-support costs.

Marketing expenses were Rs 1,007 crore in FY24 (down 18.85% YoY from Rs 1,241 crore in FY23) — historically one of the largest cost lines, reflecting a marketing-intensive B2C/B2B2C acquisition model.

A portion of tuition/program fees collected from learners is paid out to partner universities under revenue-share agreements, alongside faculty compensation for course delivery.

Other operating expenses (technology, platform, student support, overheads) totalled Rs 1,045 crore in FY24, down 32.16% YoY from Rs 1,541 crore in FY23, on total FY24 costs against Rs 3,733 crore of revenue.