Byju's acquires Aakash Educational Services for $1 billion over Zoom call

With over 215 centres and a student count of more than 250,000, Aakash provides test preparatory services to students preparing for a host of competitive exams

As managing director of Aakash Educational Services (AESL), Aakash Chaudhry’s role is to manage the overall operations of the brick-and-mortar test preparation (prep) leader. Now the country’s $180-billion education sector has gone online to adapt to the new reality. Chaudhry may not have imagined that one day he would also have to do an acquisition deal online. This is because edtech decacorn Byju’s has closed the deal to acquire AESL for nearly $1 billion.

Chaudhry and Byju’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer Byju Raveendran closed the deal over videoconferencing platform Zoom. The stock-and-cash deal is the biggest in the education