Byju’s to buy Blackstone-backed tutoring center Aakash for $1Billion

Indian online education startup Think and Learn Private Ltd., doing business as Byju’s, agreed to buy The Blackstone Group Inc.-backed offline tutoring company Aakash Educational Services Ltd. for $1 billion, Bloomberg News reported Jan. 12, citing a person with knowledge of the talks.

The Chaudhry family, Aakash’s founders, will exit the company completely, while Blackstone will swap a portion of its 37.5% equity in Aakash for Byju’s stake, the source told the newswire.

A Byju’s spokesperson declined Bloomberg’s request for comment, while Aakash did not respond.

Based in New Delhi, Aakash runs more than 200 brick and mortar tutoring centers, according to the report. It partnered with Blackstone in October 2019 to build India’s largest digital omnichannel education company.

The Blackstone Group Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. In 2019, Blackstone converted from being a publicly traded partnership into being a corporation.

Source: S&P Global