Aakash Educational eyes edtech startups for expansion in digital space

After buying majority stake in edtech firm Meritnation early this month, competitive examination preparation firm Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) is scouting for more startups in the sector to enhance its presence in the digital learning space.

The Blackstone backed firm has also built a team of around 80 people, mostly from the startup world, who would be joining hands with the Meritnation product team for research and development for a digital push.

“We are on the lookout for companies which are in line with our core strength of test preparations or our vision of enabling technology driven education,” said Aakash Chaudhry, Director and CEO, AESL.

Private equity firm Blackstone had picked up 37.5 per cent stake in the firm in October last year for Rs 1,350 crore valuing the Delhi-based institution at over Rs 3,500 crore. This investment, the company said, will enable its future purchases for physical and digital expansion. The company will be crossing the mark of 200 physical classrooms this year and add around 20 more classrooms in FY21.

AESL is looking at reaching around 1,00,000 students through its digital programme dubbed Aakash Digital in the next two years from the current 20,000 students. The segment is seeing a strong growth of around 50 per cent year on year as compared to the overall growth of 22 per cent for the company. It is also planning to vertically adding PG entrance to fortify its core strength of test preparations.