Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Byju’s to acquire Akash Educational Services in a deal worth $1 billion

Byju’s to acquire Akash Educational Services in a deal worth $1 billion

India’s biggest online-education startup Byju’s has signed a deal to acquire brick & mortar test prep leader Aakash Educational Services Ltd. for $1 billion, according to a person with knowledge of the talks.

The deal for what will be one of the largest edtech acquisitions in the world should close in the next two or three months, said the person, who didn’t want to be identified as the information is private. Bangalore-headquartered Byju’s is valued at $12 billion and has been on a fund-raising spree as the pandemic has sent demand for its online lessons soaring.

India’s second-most valuable startup is backed by the likes of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Tiger Global Management, and Bond Capital, co-founded by Silicon Valley investor Mary Meeker. A Byju’s spokeswoman declined to comment, while emails and calls to New Delhi-based Aakash Educational Services and it’s Chief Executive Officer Aakash Chaudhry did not elicit a response.

Blackstone Group-backed Aakash Educational Services runs Aakash Institute, which has over 200 brick and mortar centers and tutors students to gain entry into the country’s elite engineering and medical schools. Its student count is over 250,000, according to its website. While online learning startups have thrived, offline tutoring centers have been badly hit by the pandemic, which has closed schools and tutoring centers since March last year.

In the deal with Byju’s, Aakash’s founders, the Chaudhry family, will exit completely, while Blackstone will swap a portion of its 37.5% equity in Aakash for Byju’s stake, said the person.

Byju’s was founded by Byju Raveendran, a former teacher and the son of educators, who conceived the smartphone app in 2011. The app caters to students from kindergarten to the 12th grade and has been adding over 5 million users a month. India has about 250 million students in the K-12 grades. The app provides lessons in maths and science through video animations and games.

More than 70 million users logged in in from over 1,700 cities around the country, Byju’s said last September when it announced a fund raise. Of these, over 4.5 million are paid users. It’s targeting doubling its revenues to $1 billion in the current financial year ending in March 2021.

Editorial

Deloitte, PWC, EY, KPMG to Hire 1 Lakh People in India in FY25

According to estimates from top company officials and industry...

Higher EPS Pension Application Stuck: A Step-by-Step Guide to Fix

Nearly 97,640 Provident Fund (PF) members and pensioners under...

Working Hours in India: Key Laws Every Employee Must Know

Following the tragic death of EY employee Anna Perayil...

IT Industry: 5 Key Indicators of Revival in India’s Tech Sector

Based on the recent second-quarter Q2FY25 results released by...

Labour Laws Evolution in India: A Decade of Reform and Resilience

In response to the changes in India's economic landscape,...

Must Read

Suzlon Group elevates Kavita Dasan as SVP – TM & Mfg HR Head

In a strategic move, Suzlon Group has promoted Kavita...

Infosys is in touch with authorities on the non-compete clause issue

Infosys, a complaint by Nascent Information Technology Employees Senate (NITES) and...

Contractual workers protest got violent at power plant, 20 cops hurt

Some 20 police personnel were injured when a protest...

Pandemic propels workers closer to four-day week

British photographer Paul David Smith had long toyed with...

Wipro is rolling out salary hikes from September 1, 2021

There is good news for the employees of Bengaluru-based...

Cognizant to enhance cross-industry digital transformation

An American multinational information technology services and consulting company,...

Will Hybrid Workplaces Enhance Gender Equity?

The anticipated benefits of hybrid workplaces are still at...

Related Articles

SightsIn Plus
SightsIn Plushttps://sightsinplus.com/
SightsIn Plus is an India’s leading high-quality people-focused monthly HR Magazine and provides up-to-date HR News, Leadership Announcements, Best HR Practices and Insights by Global CHROs, CEOs, HR Advisors, Business Managers and HR Heads on topics of interest to HR professionals. To subscribe SightsIn Plus, HR Magazine please visit- https://sightsinplus.com/subscribe/