Blackstone, a popular investment firm, announced that it had recently purchased a majority position in Simplilearn, an educational technology company. Simplilearn is an online boot camp and certification training provider. It was started in Bengaluru in 2010 by Mr Krishna Kumar and now offers over 400 courses to help working professionals with adequate training and coaching.
Post the pandemic, edtech has taken a front seat and is increasingly becoming a suited choice for investors. Venture capitalists think that edtech may be the new backbone of the education sector since everything is digital now. However, the stats prove this hypothesis too. According to a report by the Indian Private Equity and Venture Capital Association, Indian edtechs received a cumulative investment of $ 2.22 Billion in 2020 as compared to $ 5.53 Million in 2019.
Blackstone has acquired a stake of more than 60% in the company. In this fresh round of funding, previous investors like Mayfield, Kalaari Capital, and Helion Ventures will exit with multifold returns. Previously, these 3 firms had more than half the stake in the company for $28 million. Incidentally, Blackstone was also a part of the partnership between Aakash Educational Services and Byju’s. According to Amit Dixit, head of Blackstone Asia, this is the first private equity investment in a consumer technology company in Asia from the firm.
Simplilearn has been a profitable company for the last 4 years. It is aggressively expanding and looking to acquire new customers. At present, it has around 2 million users and hopes to reach 5 million users by the end of 2023. They also aspire to build the largest digital skilling company in the world. With this funding, it is expected that the company will accelerate growth even more while creating premium content. Meanwhile, Blackstone can use its extensive network and expertise in Edtech to help the company and also help in developing the right partnerships with colleges and universities around the world. It is currently working with institutes such as MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, Caltech CTME, Isenberg School of Management, UMass Amherst and Purdue Online. It also works with companies such as IBM, Amazon, Facebook, KPMG, and Microsoft.
With this funding of nearly $ 250 million (₹1,870+ crore), Simplilearn can grow at a faster pace, with extensive networks, and collaborate with the right institutes.
Categories: Corporate M&A
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