“Before Unacademy became a household name, a small startup called MBApedia quietly built the code that would one day power thousands of MBA aspirants. This is the untold story of how a modest startup project became part of India’s edtech backbone.”
Indian edtech platforms have transformed the way tens of millions of students prepare for competitive exams, but few know about the technical underpinnings that enabled that shift. Behind many successful platforms are infrastructures constructed by entrepreneurs who fixed puzzles that others were not even trying to solve. One such case is that of MBApedia, an edtech startup whose backend infrastructure became the technical foundation for a platform that later merged with one of India's largest online education businesses.
In 2013, MBA students throughout India had to contend with a splintered learning environment. Study materials were spread out across sites, coaching centers worked in isolation, and there was no one platform that consolidated resources specifically created for the varied requirements of MBA students. While big edtech players concentrated on school education or entrance exams, the segment of MBA education was underserved, especially for students seeking structured, valuable, and meaningful online material.
Pankaj Pilaniwala, now a product manager for a leading AI and commerce platform, identified this gap and created MBApedia from the ground up. When the site launched, there was an obvious value proposition: bring high-quality MBA learning resources together in one location and make them available to students no matter where they lived. "When I started MBApedia in 2013, the goal was simple: consolidate high-quality MBA study resources and make them accessible to every student in India, regardless of their location or financial situation," said Pankaj.
MBApedia's technological infrastructure was valued for its scalability and ease of content delivery. Pankaj architected the back-end to handle a wide range of content types, including industry-leading case studies to niche topics, notes, and assignments, without compromising the platform's ability to manage increasing user traffic without performance dips. Pankaj stated, "I focused on building a scalable and adaptable backend for MBApedia, knowing that content delivery and user traffic would only grow. This modular design allowed us to handle diverse content, from quantitative problems to verbal exercises, and ensured smooth performance even with increasing users." The system was engineered to be able to accommodate repeated content updates so that educators and contributors could introduce materials easily.
In 15 months, the platform had 25,000 organic users. This was achieved without using paid ad campaigns but through word of mouth and the usefulness of the platform. Students from leading business schools such as the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad and the Indian Institute of Management Calcutta applied MBApedia as an ancillary resource throughout their learning cycles.
The site contained more than 1,000 study materials specifically designed for the Indian MBA education system, including but not limited to majors like finance, marketing, information technology, etc., sourced from the best institutes all over the country.
Around the mid-2010s, Handa ka Funda, an online CAT coaching business set up by IIT-Kharagpur alumnus Ravi Handa, was expanding its operations. The firm required sound technical infrastructure to handle its growing course inventory and student base. Instead of designing a new platform from scratch, Handa ka Funda acquired MBApedia.
The value of the acquisition was not brand continuity but technical integration. Pankaj's codebase in the backend formed the basis for the website of Handa ka Funda. Architecture that drove MBApedia was retooled and scaled up to facilitate a far larger operation. Technical inheritance enabled Handa ka Funda to take its development cycle fast forward and channel resources into creating content and winning students instead of reconstructing infrastructure from scratch.
In the ten years that followed, Handa ka Funda became a known name in India's test prep for the MBA space. The platform received thousands of students every year and emerged as a trustworthy counterpart to institutional coaching centers. In March 2021, India's largest edtech firm, Unacademy, acquired Handa ka Funda for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition was part of Unacademy's plan to roll out test preparation services across various competitive exam streams.
The technological lineage between MBApedia and Handa ka Funda, and Unacademy demonstrates the less apparent side of startup ecosystems: the ways that early code and architecture choices build enduring value even if the original business no longer functions under its original brand. Pankaj's technology decisions in 2013 impacted the infrastructure serving thousands of students years later on a platform he no longer directly managed.
Edtech platforms have special technical challenges. They need to supply content in a reliable way to geographically distributed learners, handle different kinds of media, scale during high-traffic periods like exam times, and provide low latency in order to hold learners' attention. Platforms should also have adaptable content handling systems that enable non-technical instructors to add and structure materials without the need for engineering involvement.
MBApedia met these needs by making design choices that emphasized modularity and scalability. The backend's architecture enabled the next owners to extend additional features without having to rewrite fundamental systems. This technical longevity was more beneficial than short-term commercial success, as the codebase continued to create utility long after the original platform's run period was over.
India's edtech industry has expanded significantly since 2013, as firms raised billions in venture capital and educated tens of millions of learners. Much of this expansion is built on technical infrastructure trends set earlier by smaller platforms that addressed particular issues for particular user groups. MBApedia's impact is consistent with this trend: a specialized solution that became integrated into an umbrella system.
The path from MBApedia to Unacademy has lessons for technical founders and product managers in competitive markets. Product construction for acquisition differs in technical priority from construction for scale in the short term. Products constructed with clean separation of backend logic and frontend presentation are more appealing acquisition candidates because they are easier to integrate into existing systems.
Pankaj's experience also illustrates the ability of technical skills to be transferred across sectors. His payment and commerce platform expertise shaped architectural choices that were applicable to edtech, specifically around supporting simultaneous users and dealing with transactional information. Product managers who have business and technical requirements in mind can drive infrastructure decisions that build lasting value independent of their immediate tenure. Good code outlives startups. MBApedia’s architecture still supports thousands of students years after its acquisition.
India's edtech market keeps on consolidating as big platforms buy out niche players to build up course offerings and user bases. As this trend speeds up, the underlying technical infrastructure of these platforms will control how well they can integrate and scale. Entrepreneurs venturing into this space right now confront the same questions Pankaj did in 2013: how to architect systems that are useful as ownership and strategic priorities evolve.
MBApedia's history isn't one of meteoric expansion or unicorn valuations. It's an example of how early technical work has ripple effects across different organizations and time horizons. For the thousands of students who have used Handa ka Funda and subsequently its content through Unacademy, the beginnings of the platform went back to code developed years before to address a less complex problem: making MBA prep resources available online. "It's rewarding to see how the architectural choices made years ago for MBApedia continue to impact thousands of students through platforms like Handa ka Funda and Unacademy. It truly shows the enduring value of robust technical foundations in edtech." Pankaj explained.
In an industry obsessed with valuations and user metrics, MBApedia’s story is a quiet reminder that good code outlives hype. A decade later, its architecture still powers students chasing their MBA dreams, proof that in edtech, enduring value often begins with invisible code. Pankaj's codebase in the backend continued to serve students well after MBApedia stopped functioning independently, showing that with technology products, what you do can be just as important as how you do it.