Byju’s Learning App, the country’s largest online education venture, is to acquire Akash Educational Service, the Delhi-based entrance training institute. This acquisition is supposedly for about 1 billion (7300 Cr approx), according to reports. Chaudhry Group, the owners of Aakash, sold 37.9% of its stake to US investment firm Blackstone in 2019. With the arrival of Byju’s, Chaudhry Group will completely withdraw itself from the company. ByjuRaveendran’s (CEO, Byju’s) contract with Akash Institution is expected to be completed in 2-3 months.
This is the largest acquisition in the country in the ed-tech sector. There are more than 200 companies under Aakash across India. Founded in 1988, the institute has over 2.5 lakh students. ByjuRaveendran founded Byju’s in 2011 for online tuition. Byju’s was experiencing unprecedented growth with the closure of offline tuition centers during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Aakash Educational Services users get test preparation services for medical and engineering entrance exams, school/board exams, and other exams via AakashCentres.
Earlier in August, Byju’s had acquired Mumbai-based White Hat Jr. for about Rs 2,000 crore. Bangalore – based Byju’s has assets worth the US $12 billion. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, US-based Tutorvista and Edurite, among others, have invested in Byju’s. Silver Lake, a global technology investment firm, raised Rs 3,689 crore in September in a funding round for the Byju’s. Current investors, Tiger Global, General Atlantic, and Owl Ventures also participated in the funding session, which raised the company’s value by $10.8 billion. Byju’s has so far received several international investments, including the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZDI), US-based Tutorvista, and Edurite online tuition brands. According to reports, India’s Edtech market will reach $ 3.5 billion by 2022, which was at $735 million in 2019. With the sudden hype towards online education, due to the global pandemic, there has been a reasonable increase in the market size and is expected to grow through the post covid period. “With more and more adoption towards Edtech and a different outlook for education in the post-Covid world, we can expect a bigger number than this,” said Nasscom in its recent report. Global pandemic also saw several Startups and their funding growth, even though the major portion is acquired by platforms like Byju’s and Unacademy in the Edtech sector.
