Mumbai, January 13: Byju's, online education startup, is on its way to acquire Aakash Educational Servies Pvt for $1 billion, according to Bloomberg report. As per reports, the deal is expected to be one of the largest edtech acquisitions in the world and it will be closed in the next two to three months.
As part of the deal with Byju’s, Aakash’s founders, the Chaudhry family, will exit completely, while Blackstone will swap a portion of its 37.5 percent equity in Aakash for Byju’s stake. Byju's, Education Technology Firm, Acquires WhiteHat Jr for USD 300 Million.
There has been no official confirmation of the same from either Byju's or Aakash Educational Services. Aakash Educational Services runs Aakash Institute, the well-known chain of coaching centres that train students for engineering and medical entrance exams in India.
Last year in August, Byju's announced that it acquired WhiteHat Jr, another start-up in the ed-tech space that focussed on online coding classes for kids.
Bjyu's is now catering to over 70 million users over 1,700 cities across the country. The app creates educational content for students from kindergarten to Class 12 and has been adding over 5 million users a month.
The Bangalore headquartered Byju’s is valued at $12 billion and has been on a fundraising spree as the pandemic has sent the demand for its online lessons soaring.
(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jan 13, 2021 09:13 AM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).