Kalpathi AGS Group-owned Veranda acquires Edureka for Rs 245 crore

The Kalpathi AGS Group-owned Veranda Learning Solutions has acquired edtech Edureka, a live-instructor-led online solutions provider for the IT industry, for Rs 245 crore.

This 100 per cent acquisition marks Veranda Learning Solutions’ second buyout since December 2020. Veranda is planning an outlay of around $100 million for acquisitions over the next six months to seize the opportunities opening up in the edtech space.

Founded in 2011 by Lovleen Bhatia, Kapil Tyagi and Vineet Chaturvedi, Edureka is best known for pioneering live online classes based upskilling programmes for working professionals. Edureka partners with premier Indian institutes like IITs, NITs and prominent international universities like Purdue to offer training in cloud computing, devOps, AI-ML, data sience, web development, cybersecurity, and other emerging technologies in addition to its own library of training resources.

Kalpathi Group had forayed into the $1.96 billion ed-tech space by launching Veranda Learning Solutions. “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. For me personally, getting back into software education is exciting and sets the stage for us to again do our part in meeting the rising demand for high-end skills in the country,” said Kalpathi Suresh, executive chairman, Veranda Learning Solutions.

Edureka’s training content is immensely popular amongst online learners and is consumed more than 11 million times every month across its blog and YouTube channels. Of the total student base, around 44 per cent are international students spread across 85 countries. It currently has more than 100,000 subscribed learners who are trained by an over 500 strong instructor pool with a bouquet of around 300 course offerings.