Entrepreneur and content creator Ankur Warikoo announced on May 15 that he is voluntarily shutting down his online courses business, which generated ₹100 crore in revenue and ₹25 crore in profit over five years — calling it a decision that “makes no sense to continue.”
Warikoo launched the venture in 2020. Over five years, it enrolled five lakh students across finance and career-related programmes. Despite being profitable, he said the business would be wound down completely. He is scheduled to explain the decision in detail, today, May 16 at 8:30 pm.
I am shutting down my 100 crores courses business.
We’ve grown beyond what I could have imagined, since we started in 2020.
5 lakh students.
100 crores in sales.
25 crores in profits.But it makes no sense to continue it.
I’ll be sharing more about my decision and what…
— Ankur Warikoo (@warikoo)
When a user on X asked if artificial intelligence had played a role in the shutdown, Warikoo replied with a single word: “huge.” He offered no further elaboration ahead of his planned video.
The announcement drew sharp reactions online. One user accused him of “cashing on the post-Covid boom” by selling courses to “gullible people” — a comment Warikoo appeared to validate, responding with “fr.” Another user speculated the timing suggested an attempt to exit ahead of a downturn, noting that “challenging times force people to think rationally.” Warikoo responded to that comment too, writing: “Samajhdaar ko ishaara…”
Questions were also raised about students who recently enrolled and have not completed their courses.
He has over seven million subscribers on YouTube and four million followers on Instagram and nearly seven lakh followers on.