Byju’s acquires Aakash Ed Services for USD 1 billion

NEW DELHI: Bengaluru-based Byju’s has acquired exam prep major Aakash Educational Services (AESL) for nearly $1 billion, making it one of the biggest deals in the education space. 

“Our complementary strengths will enable us to build capabilities, create engaging and personalised learning programmes. The future of learning is hybrid and this union will bring together the best of offline and online learning, as we combine our expertise to create impactful experiences for students,” said Byju Raveendran, Founder and CEO, Byju’s. 

This acquisition will help the ed-tech giant build a strong position in the brick and mortar segment. Backed by Blackstone, Aakash owns and operates over 200 tutoring centres across India and serves over 250,000 high-school students.AESL and Byju’s started exploring a deal about 6-7 months ago, reports say. After the integration, Byju’s will make further investments to accelerate growth, it said. 

AESL MD Aakash Chaudhry noted that they would continue to operate as a separate entity and further expand their presence.

“We are looking to transform student experiences by steering innovative and digitally-enabled learning solutions,” he said.In the past, Byju’s had acquired TutorVista and Edurite (from Pearson in 2017) and Osmo in 2019. Last year, the General Atlantic-backed company had bought coding training platform WhiteHat Jr for $300 million.

Post the takeover, Blackstone Group and AESL’s founders will hold a minority stake in Byju’s, which is valued at about $13 billion.Backed by marquee investors such as Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, Tencent, Sequoia Capital and Tiger Global, Byju’s is estimated to have raised over $2 billion in funding to date.