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Signs of a New Age: Online startup Byju’s to acquire Aakash
Institute
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OPINION: Byju’s to take over Aakash? If and when the deal comes through,
it would be one of the biggest edtech acquisitions in the world.
These are signs of the dawn of a new era facilitated by science and technology,
busting the Indian ubiquitous rackets one by one like the massive politician-British
clerk-NCERT-printer-newsprint-fake author racket, which led to a mushroom growth
of tuition centres like Aakash, which, of course, has done a yeaoman service
to the hapless victims of our Macaulay schools.
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NEW DELHI, Jan 13: In one of the largest edtech deals in the world, India’s
biggest online education startup Byju’s is acquiring Aakash Educational Services
Ltd for $1 billion, according to unconfirmed reports.
The Aakash Institute has over 200 physical centres providing coaching to students
in the medical and engineering entrance examinations. There are currently over
2,50,000 enrolments.
The Bangalore-headquartered Byju’s has had the demand for its online learning
soaring since the lockdown and restrictions to check coronavirus pandemic came
into force. Schools and tuition centres remain closed since March last year.
A $12 billion worth startup, Byju’s is backed by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Tiger Global Management and Bond Capital.
Byju’s acquired Mumbai-based edtech start-up WhiteHat last year and earlier,
it also bought the US-based educational gaming company Osmo.
The Blackstone Group-backed New Delhi-based Aakash Educational Services' Chief
Executive Officer Aakash Chaudhry has not revealed the details. Blackstone has
37.5% equity in Aakash.
Aakash has over 30 years of experience in training students for the entrance
examinations for engineering and medical courses. It has an annual turnover
of about Rs 1,200 crore.
Byju’s was founded by Byju Raveendran, a teacher, in 2011. The app caters for
students from KG to Class XII. It has five million users a month.
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