Online payment service providers Paytm recently purchased education technology startup Edukart, according to a Mint report.  Edukart, a company which finds backing from people like Yuvraj Singh and Paytm founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma, was absorbed into Paytm as it failed to raise subsequent funding to keep it operations up and running. 

This purchase, also being called ‘aquihire’—or buying out a company primarily for the skills and expertise of its staff intends to also bring in 50 employees from Edukart within its fold. They will be placed across various portfolios within functional areas like sales, marketing, marketplace and payments. This includes Ishan Gupta, founder and chief executive of Earth Education Valley Pvt. Ltd, which runs Edukart, who has joined Paytm as vice-president of business and will be looking after Paytm’s seller financing team. 

Confirming the purchase to The Times of India, Gupta said, "My whole team has joined Paytm in various roles. Their commerce business is expanding and has become a key business. I will be looking after the seller ecosystem for the company's commerce business. Having worked with One97 in the past the transition is expected to be quite smooth."

EduKart, an online course aggregator claimed to have over 10,000 paid students on its platform and partnerships with more than 120 course providers. It offers 250 courses on its platform, ranging from school and college students to working professionals.  According to the company’s website, Edukart aggregated courses offered by other education technology start-ups such as Byju’s, Simplilearn, Edureka and Toppr, coaching institutes such as Aakash Institute, Vidyamandir Classes and Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University, Annamalai University, National Institute of Management and Technology and University of Mysore, among others.

There hasn’t been a further announcement on the details by Edukart.