Why this Surat startup believes the future of learning isn’t just online courses, but better books

In an era where “learning” often means half-finished online courses and forgotten logins, Zebra Learn has picked a very unfashionable hero: the book.
But these are not the books you grew up with.

The Surat-based startup, founded by Anurag Sundarka and co-founder Radhika Sundarka, takes traditional texts and rebuilds them as high-engagement learning products – rich visuals, practical exercises, and real-world case studies, designed for professionals who want to actually apply what they learn, not just collect certificates.

The starting point wasn’t glamorous. Anurag grew up in Surat, far from elite metros, following the conventional high-achiever script: top marks, professional qualifications, solid finance roles.

On paper, it was a “safe” success story. Underneath, there was restlessness – a sense that writing research reports no one read wasn’t how he wanted to spend his life.

His first experiment was Zebra Pro in 2019, a software product for finance professionals. It gained niche traction but demanded long sales cycles and enterprise adoption – heavy lifts for a bootstrapped team.

Parallelly, he tried his hand at writing and publishing a book. Sales were negligible; readers barely finished it. But instead of closing that chapter, he treated it as a case study: why do people abandon learning halfway?

Those uncomfortable questions birthed Zebra Learn.

Over the next few years, the company built a portfolio of premium books that look and feel different from standard Rs 500 paperbacks. Production costs are significantly higher, but the output is more like a toolkit than a textbook – designed for readers who want to build skills in financial modelling, markets, and business, not just skim theory.

Zebra Learn then made a second, equally radical decision: go direct-to-consumer. No retail middlemen, no fighting for bookshelf space, no discount wars. Every copy is sold via its own website, app, and tightly managed marketplace listings. The economics are unforgiving, but the payoff is powerful – the company owns the customer relationship, understands completion patterns, and can iterate its products with surgical precision.

The outside world really noticed when Zebra Learn appeared on Shark Tank India. By the time the episode aired, the company was already clocking meaningful monthly revenue, with books contributing the vast majority and courses adding a smaller but growing layer.

The show didn’t “create” the business; it validated the foundation Anurag and Radhika had already laid.

Today, Zebra Learn is quietly building a different kind of edtech company – one that bets on depth over noise, and on finishing the book instead of just buying it.

What happens when this model pushes beyond finance into other disciplines? How does the company defend its moat if copycats flood the premium-book niche, or if the lure of offline retail returns?

The full deep-dive on Zebra Learn’s journey, economics, and defences is featured in The Indian Dream – 3rd Edition.