Aakash Educational to acquire ed-tech firm Meritnation

Delhi-based edtech company Aakash Educational Services is buying a majority stake in ed-tech firm Meritnation. 

Aakash Educational is purchasing its entire stake of 66% in Meritnation for around Rs 50 crore (nearly $7 million), according to a BSE filing by Info Edge (India). 

The deal announcement comes months after Aakash Educational secured funding from private equity firm Blackstone in late October 2019.

The transaction is likely to be completed by the end of March 2020. 

Aakash Educational is a test preparation company, with a network of more than 200 centres across 130 cities that cater to more than 250,000 students. It uses classroom-based coaching as well as digital and distance learning methods. The company  prepares students from grades 8 to 12, for medical, engineering and other competitive examinations like Olympiads and NTSE. The institute was founded around three decades ago by LC Chaudhry.

Aakash Chaudhry, CEO of Aakash said that the acquisition will help the company to accelerate progress in the digital side of the business. He added that Meritnation will help Aakash in strengthening offline offerings of Aakash across the classroom centres. 

Info Edge, which owns job portal Naukri.com, has pumped in a total of almost Rs 150 crore in several tranches in Meritnation since 2008, according to VCCEdge, the data research arm of Mosaic Digital. It had last invested nearly Rs 38 crore in Meritnation in late 2017.

Meritnation, operated by Delhi-based Applect Learning Systems, was founded by IIM-Bangalore alumni Pavan Chauhan and Ritesh Hemrajani in 2008. The company develops and delivers study content for students of classes I to XII in mathematics, science and English across all boards. It also offers online and offline test preparation modules for various undergraduate entrance examinations, including engineering and medical.

In the edtech space, Meritnation competes with the likes of Byju’s, Funtoot, UpGrad among others. Recently, RIL-backed Embibe acquired a 90.5% stake in Funtoot, a learning platform for children. 

Mumbai-based Eduisfun raised $28.1 million from angel investors such as HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh, actor Amitabh Bachchan, Ogilvy Group chief creative officer Piyush Pandey and PricewaterhouseCoopers partner – assurance Russel Parera.