Digital Vidya buys Digital Academy India

Company to raise up to $5 million for product development, global expansion in 2015

New Delhi-based digital marketing training company Digital Vidya today acquired Digital Academy India, which offers similar services.

When contacted, Pradeep Chopra, co-founder and chief executive officer of Digital Vidya, refused to divulge the size of the transaction.

Started by IIT-Delhi alumni and serial entrepreneurs Pradeep Chopra and Kapil Nakra in 2009, Digital Vidya has contributed to the growth of over 6,000 professionals across Asia through digital marketing training programmes.

"Self-funded so far, we are comfortable with funds right now. We, however, will go in for raising funds of up to $5 million by the end of this calendar year. The proposed funds will be utilised for product development as well as expanding our digit marketing training offerings to the US and European markets," Chopra told Business Standard.

Digital Vidya also offers customised in-house digital marketing training programmes for corporations and has served over 100 organisations such as Philips, Intuit, GE, Cisco, Times Internet, Citibank, Adobe, SAP, Sony, Wipro, EY, Pernod Ricard, Viacom18 and Reliance.

The company has also partnered Google and Microsoft in India to empower and enable their partners in leveraging digital marketing for their growth.

According to a recent report by GroupM, digital advertising will account for 9.51% of the overall ad spend of Rs 49,000 crore in India in 2015. Among various ad channels, digital will show the fastest growth of 37%.

On Digit Vidya's first acquisition so far, Chopra said: "Having Digital Academy India as a part of our family will further strengthen our leadership position in digital marketing training industry. This acquisition will help us expand our reach and further enhance the quality of our digital marketing certification programs."

Digital Academy India was founded in August 2012 by the husband-wife entrepreneur duo, Aditi Oberoi and Gaurav Oberoi. Anannya Roy Sen joined as senior partner later. The team has trained more than 5,000 professionals across the country. Post the acquisition, the management team of Digital Academy India will completely exit the venture.

"Oberoi and team have been instrumental in nurturing Digital Academy and creating strong brand equity. Both the brands will continue to co-exist as they offer uniquely different digital marketing training programmes," Chopra said.