India’s biggest e-learning startup, Byju’s, is in talks to acquire rival Toppr Technologies Pvt. in a transaction valued at roughly $150 million.
Toppr provides online learning materials to students in grades 5 to 12 and its backers include SAIF Partners and Helion Ventures.
Founded in Bangalore in 2011, Byju’s has emerged as India’s leader in online learning. The company has been expanding aggressively in recent months to capture the surge in demand for online education triggered by the pandemic. In January, it agreed to a $1 billion deal to acquire brick-and-mortar test prep leader Aakash Educational Services Ltd.
Mumbai-based Toppr takes an app-based approach to education with video classes, mock tests, revision cards reminiscent of Instagram Stories and live support for students stuck on a question. It also started a code-tutoring unit called Codr last summer.
If the deal goes through, Byju’s will get access to the subscribers of Toppr’s and related user data. Anindya Mallick, partner at Deloitte said, “In the digital space, it is largely about economies of scale. A lot of the business model will depend on the analytics which comes from the data they have.”
He added, “The organisation which has access to data, can predict where the market will be going in the future and have products and services around that will be the ones that will be the clear winner.”
Source: The Indian Express
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