MAM
FreshMenu.com takes content route to marketing
MUMBAI: FreshMenu.com has taken the content route to talk about everything food related with the launch of their very own magazine ‘Food For Thought’. The magazine is anchored around interesting global food trends and has been produced with the help of agency, DontBeContent. It will be published once in two months and shared with top customers of the brand.
Good food being the key focus, the brand constantly endeavours to offer something new to the customers. The magazine is a step further to delight, engage and interact with their larger customer base.
FreshMenu.com CEO Rashmi Daga said “Our motto is to delight customers with taste and provide them with an array of interesting experiences connected in some way to food. FreshMenu as brand brings together several aspects of lifestyle like travel, health and the appetite to explore the unknown. We understand the pulse of modern Indian customers. Hence, ‘Food For Thought’ will be a medium to start a deeper conversation with them and further fortify our effort to bring something exciting to their plates. Innovation and being unconventional is in the DNA of the brand and this magazine is yet another step in that direction.
Adding to this, FreshMenu.com CMO Aparna Mahesh said, “We don’t believe the traditional marketing models will be adequate for our brand since most of them focus mainly on acquiring new customers. We have built a very strong loyal base since our inception and a large part of our marketing efforts are channelled towards retaining them. How do we engage them in more meaningful conversations around our offering? From this perspective, Content becomes the hero in our plan. And when the category is as exciting as International cuisine, we have the ability to create very stimulating and diverse content that will hopefully resonate with our customers as well. ‘Food For Thought’ is our first step towards achieving that.”
Talking about her experience on working with the brand and process of curating the magazine, Shveta A Sahu, Co-Founder at DontBeContent said, “Very few people know the kind of work which goes behind a brand like FreshMenu. The entire process of curating a new menu every day and giving a twist to global cuisine to meet the Indian palate is extremely fascinating. Modern Indian consumers are hungry to know about global food, ingredients, trends and cooking process. Considering FreshMenu is an app-based service, it’s impossible to exhibit all these though the app or the website. A magazine hence becomes a great medium to communicate this. We were impressed with the clarity the brand team has in terms of what works with their customers. They are focused about providing good global food to their customers. We would sum up our experience of coming up with ‘Food For Thought’ extremely enriching and are confident of receiving good response from the customers.”
Brands
UpGrad to acquire Unacademy in share-swap deal, founders confirm
Proposed share-swap could unite two edtech rivals as sector eyes consolidation
MUMBAI: The Indian edtech sector may be inching toward another wave of consolidation, with online learning platform upGrad signing a term sheet to acquire rival Unacademy in an all stock transaction.
If completed, the deal would bring together two of the country’s most prominent education technology companies at a time when the sector is adjusting to slower demand and a sharper focus on profitability after the pandemic driven boom.
UpGrad founder and chairperson Ronnie Screwvala confirmed the development in a post on X, stating that Unacademy co-founder and chief executive Gaurav Munjal would continue to lead the company following the acquisition.
“We at upGrad have signed a term sheet to acquire Unacademy in an all stock deal, with founder and ceo Gaurav Munjal staying on to build Unacademy and focus on what it does best, creating online education products that learners love,” Screwvala wrote.
He added that the agreement includes a break fee provision if the transaction fails to close. Screwvala also said the combined entity could strengthen upGrad’s integrated learning model spanning K12 education, professional training and lifelong learning.
Unacademy confirmed that the proposed transaction will be executed through a 100 per cent share swap, with the valuation to be disclosed only after the deal closes and regulatory filings are completed.
Announcing the development on X, Munjal described the agreement as the beginning of a new chapter for both companies and the wider edtech ecosystem.
He noted that Unacademy had spent the past year reshaping its operations to focus more sharply on online education products. Among the steps taken were consolidating company operated offline centres with franchise partners and launching a Rs 50 crore employee stock ownership plan buyback, in which around 40 per cent of former employees have already participated.
Munjal also highlighted the traction gained by Airlearn, the company’s language learning product, which he said is expanding in markets including the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany and Canada.
“Our cash reserves as of today are more than $100 million,” he said.
The proposed deal also marks a turnaround from earlier talks between the two companies that had stalled over disagreements on valuation and structure. Previous discussions had placed Unacademy’s valuation in the range of $300 million to $400 million, according to media reports.
If the transaction goes through, Munjal will continue as co-founder and chief executive of Unacademy, focusing on building online learning products for students in India and global markets.
For upGrad, the acquisition would broaden its footprint across the education spectrum, from school level learning to professional upskilling and lifelong education.
The move comes as India’s edtech sector enters a more sober phase after years of rapid expansion. Companies across the industry have been trimming costs, restructuring operations and seeking scale to build more sustainable businesses.
Against that backdrop, the potential combination of upGrad and Unacademy could signal that the next phase of edtech growth may be driven less by blitzscaling and more by strategic partnerships and consolidation.
