Byju acquired Akash Educational Services Ltd

India's major EdTech start-up company Byju had acquired blackstone group-backed Aakash Educational Services Ltd. In around U.S.D.700-million cash-and-stock deal. In its over 33 years of existence, Aakash Educational Services Ltd.  has helped millions of students prepare for medical and engineering entrance exams. It has a pan-India network of 215 centers (including franchisees), and a student count of more than 2.5 lakh.

In 2019, Blackstone picked up 37.5 percent stake in Aakash Educational Services, valuing it at around U.S.D. 500 million. The pandemic, however, hurt the company’s growth plans as revenue dropped from Rs 1,200 crore as on March 31, 2020, to Rs 1,000 crore in 2020-21.

After the transaction, Blackstone Group and Aakash Institute’s founders will hold a minority stake in Byju’s at an estimation of about U.S.D. 13 billion, founder Byju Raveendran stated. “We will integrate Aakash’s expertise in test preparation with our content and tech capabilities and will invest further capital into Aakash once the integration is done,” he added “We will continue to expand the offline footprint and Aakash will be the front end of all our test preparation initiatives,” and A major portion of that capital will be used to finance the Aakash buyout.