Educomp picks majority stake in Gateforum

Educomp Solutions on Friday picked up a majority stake in test preparation company Gateforum Educational Services.

Gateforum provides preparatory tools for the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), an entrance test for admission to post-graduate courses in technical institutes such as the Indian Institutes of Technology and National Institutes of Technology.

“The alliance with Gateforum is another leap forward in Educomp’s vision to create a strong presence across the education value chain,” said CEO and MD Shantanu Prakash.

The companies did not disclose financial details of the deal. The test preparation segment is a $1.7 billion market.

Gateforum is present in more than 40 cities through a mix of own and franchisee centres, offers classroom programmes, computer-based tutorials, distance-learning programmes, an all-India test series and online test series.

For GATE 2011, Gateforum trained more than 15,500 students. This is its second acquisition in the engineering test prep segment.