Aashay Mishra, Atulya Kaushik, Manish Agarwal: Upskilling without the hassle of costs

(Clockwise from top) Atulya Kaushik, Manish Agarwal and Aashay Mishra’s PrepInsta has about 2.25 lakh paid active subscribers in the B2C model Image: Madhu Kapparath; light painting: Kapil Kashyap

Aashay Mishra | 28
Atulya Kaushik | 27
Manish Agarwal | 29
Co-founders, PrepInsta Technologies
 
PrepInsta Technologies works like an OTT platform, where users pay a subscription fee to get access to more than 200 courses for a fixed amount of time—a few months or a few years. These courses include upskilling subjects such as AWS, cloud computing and artificial intelligence, or interview preparation subjects such as aptitude, logic, verbal and personality development. While most other players in the education sector that provide similar platforms charge between ₹50,000 and ₹1 lakh, or more, PrepInsta charges between ₹4,000 and ₹5,000 for a yearly subscription. Users also get to complete an internship programme at Tata Consultancy Services.

“Our idea was to provide students with education without the hassle of costs. All the courses we provide are available on the internet for a very high ticket-value, and those who are from smaller cities often can’t afford them. We wanted to make these courses available to them at a very low cost,” says Aashay Mishra, co-founder, PrepInsta, a four-year-old bootstrapped startup in the education sector.

Based in Noida, PrepInsta works with engineering students from Tier II and III cities and helps them get placed in “their dream jobs”, with upskilling courses and placement preparations. “We have partnered with 49 colleges in India and have a pipeline of another 30 to 35 colleges in this quarter, which include government and private colleges, and those based in Tier II and III cities. We aim to partner with about 300 colleges,” says Manish Agarwal, co-founder. For its B2C model, a large portion of users come from Tier II and III cities, while for its B2B model, there is an equal mix of bigger and smaller cities.

Also read: Forbes India 30 Under 30: The ones we couldn't ignore

The platform has about 2.25 lakh paid active subscribers in the B2C model. It is a profitable venture, claims to have an Ebitda of 40 percent, and is on its way to earn revenues of ₹20 crore to ₹25 crore this year, growing at roughly 4x over the last three years. It is in talks with venture capital and angel investors.

View the full list of Forbes India 30 Under 30 2023 here

“Ours is a self-paced platform, where students attending college can learn at their own pace, in their own time, and watch the videos at their own convenience,” says Atulya Kaushik, co-founder, adding that PrepInsta also provides mentorship.



“I really like their presence in the student community, and the brand recall they have created,” says Arush Dhawan, founder, Covvalent, a startup in crossborder commerce of specialty chemicals, who earlier worked in the education sector and has known the co-founders of PrepInsta for about three-and-a-half years. “The engagement levels they are doing on their platform and on social media, in terms of jobs and placement preparation, is resonating well with users. Their pitch is that they can prepare you for placements, and will tell you which companies are hiring, and keep the student community abreast.”