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The Kalpathi AGS Group-owned edtech Veranda Learning Solutions on Thursday announced the acquisition of Edureka, a Bengaluru-based edtech platform for a consideration of ₹245 crore.
The acquisition accelerates the Kalpathi AGS Group’s recent foray into the edtech space besides expanding its portfolio offerings to include upskilling courses.
“Veranda is in active discussion with multiple targets for acquisition to create a multi-modal platform that spans test prep, upskilling and supplemental education. With the current acquisition we are poised to expand our footprint in Europe and the North American markets as well,” said Kalpathi Suresh, Executive Chairman, Veranda Learning Solutions.
Founded in 2011 by Lovleen Bhatia, Kapil Tyagi and Vineet Chaturvedi, Edureka is best known for live online classes based Upskilling programmes for working professionals in the IT industry. The company partners with premier Indian institutes such as IITs, NITs and prominent international universities to offer training in cloud computing, DevOps, AI-ML, data science, web development, cybersecurity, and other emerging technologies in addition to its own library of training resources.
“India used to be a consulting back-office destination for the world but today it is a destination for products as well as software as a service (SaaS) hub. While the demand for high end tech has grown multifold, the supply side (skills) is nowhere catching up. We see a big opportunity to do our bit in filling that skill gap,” Suresh told BusinessLine .
Noting that the skill gap is more prevalent in smaller towns, Suresh said the company plans to take the upskilling programmes beyond top cities and make them more affordable to people in Tier 2 & 3 towns.
In December 2020, The Kalpathi AGS Group forayed into the $1.96-billion edtech space by launching Veranda Learning Solutions. In less than a month, it acquired Chennai RACE coaching institute for a transaction valued at over ₹ 100 crore. Veranda is planning an outlay of around $100 million for acquisitions over the next 6 months to seize more opportunities in the highly competitive Indian edtech space.
“There are still gaps in what we do in this space, so we are talking to many targets, and we expect to make announcements in the next 4-6 months. Basically, it will be in the areas of test prep, other areas of upskilling and supplementary education in the K-12 space,” Suresh added.
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