Byju’s, the world’s leading ed-tech startup and one of the biggest names to emerge from India’s startup culture, has been on an acquisition spree for the past year, as it witnesses increased traffic due to the pandemic and shift to remote learning. Thus, the company has been trying to expand its offerings by bringing in more companies into its fold and enrich its platform. Today, it has completed what might be it’s biggest acquisition till date, having bagged the JEE- NEET preparation institute Aakash Educational.
However, it’d be completely wrong to say that we did not see this coming. For one, the company has been raising humongous amounts of capital for the past few months, and many were counting on a big acquisition like this surfacing some time soon. Then, there was an actual report stating that Byju’s is in fact acquiring Aakash.
The acquisition, which costed the ed-tech giant “close to $1 billion”, will help the Byju Raveendran led company enter a new sub market of entrance exam preparation, which can help it rake in millions of dollars. Every year, more than a million students sit for the Joint Entrance Examination to secure their position in one of India’s premier engineering colleges. However, due to COVID and institutions being shut, these students find themselves struggling this year.
With Byju’s offering an online solution to this offline problem, the potential for scaling up is huge. Moreover, Aakash is one of the biggest names in the game, and having the expertise of a veteran like this will help validate Byju’s as a serious alternative to online coaching.
However, if you would rather attend sessions offline, you’d be happy to know that the physical institutions are not going anywhere.
“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,” said Aakash Chaudhry, Managing Director and Co-promoter of Aakash Educational.
This is not the only major acquisition that Byju’s has completed in the past one year. The company acquired WhiteHat Jr., an online platform that seeks to teach coding to children, for a massive $300 million.
