New Delhi: Indian EduTech giant Byju's confirmed on Monday that it will be acquiring education institution Aakash Educational Service Ltd (AESL) at almost $1 billion in a cash and stock deal.
In January this year, Bloomberg reported about the acquisitions, it is said to be one of the largest edtech acquisitions.
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Headquartered in New Delhi, Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL) is the biggest education organisation in India. Over the period of time, Aakash Educational Services Limited has become a renowned name when it comes to comprehensive test preparatory services for students preparing for medical and engineering entrance examinations.
In September 2020, Byju's had raised $500 million (approximately Rs 3,689 crore) in a new funding round led by global technology investment firm Silver Lake whereas other investors in the firm are Tiger Global, General Atlantic and Owl Ventures.
Byju's is currently valued at $13 billion according to a TechCrunch report.
Aakash Chaudhry, Managing Director and Co-promoter of Aakash Educational told TechCrunch that the acquisition is a way to enable the two companies to build the largest omni-channel for students in India. He was quoted as saying, “Students who have wanted to access physical classrooms have gotten that from us. And those who wanted to access content and learning online has been served by Byju’s. Together, we will leverage the physical location and technology and online learning and offer students that is unique”.
Byju's last year also acquired a Mumbai based coding platform, for $300 million. 20 million new students starting learning from its platform for free since the lockdown. The app currently has over 64 million registered students and 4.2 million annual paid subscriptions. Byju's had doubled its revenue from Rs 1,430 crore to Rs 2,800 crore in fiscal 2019-2020.