Byju's dissection: Inside the edtech scramble for best assets

The collapse of Byju’s has now narrowed to its final, decisive chapter: who will take charge of the only asset still pulsing with life. With rival bids from Ronnie Screwvala’s UpGrad and Ranjan Pai’s Manipal Group in hand, the process has shifted from rescuing the edtech firm to salvaging its last remaining centre of gravity. 

And that centre is unmistakably Aakash Educational Services. 

Aakash has emerged as the single unbroken strand of value in Byju’s fall from grace. In a business built on hyper-scaling digital learning, Aakash is the opposite — rooted, proven, and physical. As Vivek Parti, an Insolvency Professional, told Business Today, "Akash was the most prized possession... their importance [was] based on the faculty that they already hold and the reach that they had for physical [centres]. Students are so vulnerable, they need that touch and feel." 

That clarity explains why the bidders are not trying to revive Byju’s. They are trying to detach and reclaim what Byju’s could never fully absorb. 

For UpGrad, the stakes are transformative. Acquiring Aakash would offer a direct gateway into the high-stakes K-12 and entrance-prep market — a segment still dominated by physical coaching institutions. The combination of UpGrad’s digital reach with Aakash’s centre-based network could instantly create a formidable hybrid education powerhouse. 

For the Manipal Group, the logic is even more structural. Already holding 58% in Aakash, Manipal sees the platform as a strategic feeder. Bringing students into its ecosystem at the pre-medical and pre-engineering stage creates a smooth, controlled pipeline into Manipal’s own degree programmes, aligning perfectly with its higher-education strengths. 

A key enabler of these bids is India’s insolvency framework. The lingering litigation around Byju’s does not travel with the asset. Clarifying this, Parti explained that a “resolution applicant gets the corporate debtor as a clean sheet,” insulating bidders from historic liabilities and enforcement actions. That assurance is essential — letting both bidders focus entirely on Aakash’s operating value, not Byju’s legal baggage. 

What happens next will shape the sector. As Parti put it, the outcome ultimately depends on the “COC's to see where value is getting created.” A winning bid would signal a return to sustainable, asset-backed education models and mark a decisive shift away from the “growth at all costs” era that propelled, and then broke, Byju’s. 

For the industry, it would be a closing chapter on a spectacular misfire. For the bidders, it is a calculated move toward what Indian education is reverting to: a future anchored in physical infrastructure, trusted brands, and real-world learning outcomes.