Aakash | Business Upturn

Byju’s pays Blackstone $234 million related to Aakash deal: Report

Aryan Jakhar — Sat, 24 Sep 2022 06:27:47 +0000

According to a source intimately involved in the transaction, Byju’s paid Blackstone Inc. $234 million to settle its debts owed to the private equity firm as part of a $950 million deal to purchase Aakash Educational.

The payment made on Thursday was for a 38% or so stake in the learning centre network that Byju’s acquired in April 2021 that was controlled by Blackstone.

According to the source, Byju’s paid all of Aakash’s owners throughout the closing process with the exception of Blackstone because the PE company had agreed to deferred payment.

An inquiry for comment was not immediately answered by Blackstone.

The payment of debts coincides with the popular edu-tech firm in India, which was recently valued at $22 billion, suffering sharply increasing losses.

backed by Tiger Global For the fiscal year that ended in March 2021, Byju’s losses grew significantly to 45.64 billion rupees ($574.06 million), while its revenue decreased by 3%. View More

The pandemic-induced spike in demand for online education benefited the company greatly, and it attracted investments from some of the top venture capital funds and financiers, including Sequoia Capital and Mark Zuckerberg’s Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative, to finance its astronomical rate of expansion.

Byju’s, a company that came to represent the success of Indian startups, spent a total of $2.5 billion to acquire businesses including Aakash, Epic, a company based in the United States, Tynker, a platform for kids to learn how to code, Great Learning, and Toppr.

Byju’s $1 Billion deal to acquire Aakash Educational Services

Govindraj Muttepawar — Mon, 05 Apr 2021 12:29:26 +0000

BYJU’S, the world’s leading education-tech company has announced its strategic partnership with Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL). According to sources, the deal is worth close to USD 1 billion (about 7,300 crores) — making it the biggest acquisition by Byju’s to date.

India’s biggest online-education startup Byju’s on Monday said that it has acquired brick & mortar test prep leader Aakash Educational Services Ltd through a strategic merger. Bjyu’s added that it will make further investments to accelerate Aakash’s growth. Post-acquisition, Aakash Educational Services will continue to function independently under the leadership of Founder JC Chaudhry and Aakash Chaudhry.

Byju Raveendran said, “I am happy to have Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL), a market leader and the most trusted name in the test prep services, on board with us. Our complementary strengths will enable us to build capabilities, create engaging and personalized learning programs. 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.”

India’s second-most valuable startup is backed by the likes of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Tiger Global Management and Bond Capital, co-founded by Silicon Valley investor Mary Meeker.

Aakash Chaudhry, Managing Director and Co-promoter of Aakash Educational, said the two firms joining forces will offer “Very substantial and value-additive services to students.” The leadership at Aakash Educational will stay with the firm after the acquisition.

The acquisition will enable the two entities to build the largest omni-channel for students in India, he said. “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,” he said.

Byju’s to acquire Aakash Education Services Ltd for $1 billion

Sarthak Yadav — Tue, 12 Jan 2021 17:59:17 +0000

Byju’s which is tagged as India’s biggest online education startup is all set to acquire test prep leader Aakash Educational Services Ltd for $1 billion according to sources, as reported by Mint.

Mint reported that the deal will become the largest edtech acquisitions in the world and is said to close in the next two or three months, revealed the unidentified source.

Byju’s was founded by Byju Raveendran, a former teacher and the son of educators, who conceived the smartphone app in 2011. The Banglore based edtech giant is valued at $12 billion and has gained investors attention due to rise in demand of online lessons during the pandemic.

Byju’s is India’s second-most valuable startup is backed by the likes of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Tiger Global Management and Bond Capital, co-founded by Silicon Valley investor Mary Meeker.

Blackstone Group-backed Aakash Educational Services runs Aakash Institute, which has over 200 centers and tutors students to gain entry into the country’s elite engineering and medical schools.

Its student count is over 250,000, according to its website. While online learning startups have thrived, offline tutoring centers have been badly hit by the pandemic, which has closed schools and tutoring centers since March last year.

According to the terms of deal Aakash’s founders, the Chaudhry family, will exit completely, while Blackstone will swap a portion of its 37.5% equity in Aakash for Byju’s stake, as reported by Mint.

‘Aakash’ test prep institute appoints Byju’s International Head Abhishek Maheshwari as CEO

Shlok Arya — Wed, 25 Nov 2020 06:43:30 +0000

On Tuesday, Abhishek Maheshwari became the CEO (Chief Executive Officer) of Aakash Educational Service Limited (AESL). Earlier, he was the president of International Business for Byju’s. He was then responsible for driving the growth of the ed-tech firm.

He graduated from the Indian Institute of Technology (Delhi) and Columbia Business School, New York. He has worked in McKinsey, a consulting firm, and Kubera Partners, a private equity firm.

In 2019, private equity giant Blackstone bought a 37.5 percent stake in Aakash, and its values at $500 million.

In a statement, Aakash Education Service Ltd said, “Abhishek will be responsible for strategy formulating and management of core offerings, which include digital along with classroom, hybrid, and distance learning.”

Byju’s a 12-billion-dollar firm aiming to expand internationally, including the US market. Towards this aim, in 2019, Byju’s acquired US-based Osmo, which will offer learning solutions for kids from ages 3-8, for $120 million.

In 2019, Byju’s bought Whitehat Jr for $300 million is also targeting the US market for expansion.

Aakash launches India’s first hybrid courses, to give benefits of both online and classroom teaching

Lokesh Choudhary — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 10:33:15 +0000

To meet the changing needs and requirements of students in these unprecedented times, Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL), the national leader in the test preparation sector, has launched a first-of-its-kind pioneering Programme for students that offers a perfect blend of Classroom and Online Learning.

India’s first-ever Hybrid course portfolio for students of Classes VIII to XII and XII Pass provides them with a holistic learning experience. The program will offer curated modules to maintain seamless continuity of the learning process even when the lockdown is over.

Study under the guidance of local branch Faculty
Live classes on Zoom/ MS Teams – No need to travel daily
Regular Doubt clearing sessions – Online or at Branch as opted by the student
Access to recorded lectures through iTutor
Test performance analysis – identifying individual weak points
Progress monitoring by parents on a real-time basis through online PTM
No language barrier – discuss in your local language

The Hybrid courses are available for Medical and Engineering aspirants along with learners from Class VIII – X and those who want to prepare for NTSE and Olympiads. The programme provides online classes to students from the ease of their home and once the lockdown is over, the students can visit the centre for any clarification of doubts and test discussions for 1-2 days each week so that they get close proximity of teachers, get motivated, clear their doubts and attend classes physically in the classroom for tricky and important topics.

Commenting on the launch of the Hybrid Courses, Mr Aakash Chaudhry, Director and CEO, Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL), said, “AESL has always worked hard to understand the changing needs and expectations of students and parents and has launched several innovative products to meet these needs. Keeping the same pioneering spirit alive, I am proud to announce India’s first-ever Hybrid Coaching Program, a revolutionary and visionary solution for these unprecedented times, offering the best of Classroom & Online learning education. Online teaching has become the new normal but offline teaching has its own additional advantages. On one hand, we have the best of faculties trained in handling advanced teaching technologies to engage the learners in an effective way, on the other hand, we continue to nurture their offline teaching pedagogy. With the launch of hybrid modules, we will be giving equal importance to online learning and face-to-face teaching as one tends to retain the maximum during the physical presence.”

The Hybrid course will have the benefits of both online and classroom teaching as enumerated below:

Daily live online classes will be conducted on MS Teams/Zoom (Secure Mode) by highly qualified and well-trained expert Aakash faculty promoting greater personalized student-teacher interaction.
There will be no language barrier as the discussions will take place in the local language by the local branch faculty, where the child takes admission.
Students will have access to recorded lectures through the iTutor app.
Regular doubt clearing sessions will be organized enhancing the digital classroom experiences with individual attention.
Students can visit the local branches on the weekends for doubt clearing, discussion on important topics, attempting tests and assessments.
Once the situation normalizes, small batch size of students will be allowed over the weekends strengthening their learning in a physical classroom.
Regular Parent Teacher Meetings will be conducted by branch faculty to discuss the student’s performance.
The admissions process might vary from student to student basis for their selection of courses.

Aakash Educational Services Limited launches, “Padhai Hamari Jaari Hai” campaign

Anushka Sharma — Wed, 10 Jun 2020 15:03:07 +0000

Aakash Educational Services Ltd. (AESL), popular test preparation service, has launched a television campaign titled “Padhai Hamari Jaari Hai” highlighting Aakash Institute as a coach, an enabler and as a partner for students and parents.

The TVC will be aired on leading TV channels pan-India and online channels including YouTube and OTT platforms from today. It will be a 40 second one on TV Channels and a 90 second commercial on online channels.

With the launch of this campaign, AESL reiterates its mission to help mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 epidemic by ensuring continuous support to students. The campaign is aimed at informing students and parents about the initiatives taken by AESL to ensure that learning goes on.

The campaign focuses on bridging the gap between geographies and making students and parents aware of AESL’s online learning platforms. All regular classroom batches of AESL are running on schedule without any delay or disruption, with the faculties taking live online classes.

The ad campaign focuses on AESL’s Classroom Online Study Plan offered to maintain continuity in the student’s study schedule. The Online Study Plan includes features like Daily Video Lectures, Daily Live Classes, Daily Practice Tests, Live Doubt Sessions and Weekly and Monthly Tests.

Commenting on the launch of the campaign, Mr Aakash Chaudhry, Director and CEO of Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL) said, “The core objective of this campaign is to help parents and students understand and embrace the advantages of tech-enabled learning offered by AESL in these tough times. Students are invited to start their preparation online and when classroom branches open up, they can continue there then. The campaign will be aired on TV as well as on online channels, which will not only give it a mass outreach but will also help in engaging with students on the online platform.”

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, Aakash Digital, an online learning platform of Aakash Educational Services Limited (AESL), has seen four times increase in the number of daily active users in April 2020 as compared to the previous year.