Amazon Academy will close operations in India from August 2023
- ByStartupStory | November 25, 2022
Amazon said on Thursday that it will be shutting down its operations in India from August 2023 and refund the full fees to those enrolled in the current academic batch.
The e-commerce giant started the edtech platform Amazon Academy in January 2021 to help students who are preparing for the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) to engineering colleges. This newly launched platform helped them to take on top edtech companies such as Byju’s, Unacademy, Vedantu and traditional education institutes in our country. This move also allowed Amazon to tap into the country’s $180-billion education sector.
“Following an assessment, we have made the decision to discontinue Amazon Academy,” said an Amazon spokesperson. “We are winding down this program in a phased manner to take care of current customers.” The Amazon Academy will be shutting down its operations in a phased manner during which the existing batch would able to complete its test preparation module.
According to some sources, Amazon employees have been briefed in October this year about the about the plan to discontinuation of the edtech platform. About 25 employees were working on the project and they all have been absorbed by the company. Customers will be able to fully access the full course material online for an extended period of a year, until October 2024. Those who have enrolled in the current academic batch will get a refund of their full fee.
“At Amazon, we think big, experiment, and invest in new ideas to delight customers,” said the Amazon spokesperson. “We also continually evaluate the progress and potential of our products and services to deliver customer value, and we regularly make adjustments based on those assessments.” Amol Gurwara, who was director, education, at Amazon India, said in a statement last year that the Academy aimed to bring high-quality, affordable education to all. “Our mission is to help students achieve their outcomes while also empowering educators and content partners to reach millions of students,” Gurwara had said. Gurwara now continues his role as Country Manager at Amazon, Kindle.
Amid massive layoffs, Chief executive officer Andy Jassy said in a memo last week that Amazon will cut jobs again worldwide in early 2023. Amazon is shutting down their edtech business when the company is already going through a phase of layoffs. As of now the company has not specified the number of jobs that would be cut in India.
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