India’s executive education firm Eruditus has acquired Silicon Valley-based iD Tech for $200 million in an all-cash deal, the company has announced recently.
This is Eruditus’ first acquisition since its inception in 2010, and also happens to be the most expensive one by an Indian EdTech startup outside of BYJU’s deal-making spree. The acquisition also marks the Mumbai-based entity’s entry into K12 learning and STEM space, while most of its current courses are geared towards experienced professionals or at least graduates.
iD Tech was founded in 2000 by Pete Ingram-Cauchi and provides short-term courses in coding, game development, robotics, and design for children from 13 to 19 years old. The Silicon Valley-based company originally started as an offline summer camp, providing in-person courses in partnership with universities from across the world, but it recently moved all its offerings online because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier, speaking about the development, Ashwin Damera, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer of Eruditus, told Economic Times,
“The K12 segment is not something that Eruditus has a footprint in. So, it makes sense for us to acquire and enter through a partnership like this, a strategic one..... They have had partnerships with universities for in-person courses. Online partnerships are something that we will be helping them with.”
As per the deal, iD Tech will continue to operate independently, maintaining its team of instructors and employees, even after the acquisition closes. The deal will help iD Tech expand beyond the US, which accounts for 90% of its revenue so far. The company expects its revenue to grow by about $100-$120 million by the end of 2022.
Eruditus, which was founded by Ashwin Damera and Chaitanya Kalipatnapu in 2010, provides executive education programs in association with top-tier universities from across the world. It has partnered with more than 30 universities to date, including MIT, Columbia University, Harvard Business School, Cambridge, INSEAD, Wharton, UC Berkeley, INCAE, and NUS among others, offering more than 100 courses to students from over 80 countries.
The latest acquisition will help iD Tech expand its offerings to some of these universities, and these colleges in turn can get access to quality talent at an early age. Eruditus aims to make high-quality education accessible and affordable globally. It offers many of its courses in multiple languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, and Mandarin. The company seeks to make iD Tech’s courses accessible to consumers across Southeast Asia, China, and Latin America.
Eruditus closed its FY21 with $185 million in revenue. It expects to grow more than double in the next 12 months. According to its CEO, the company will go for a new funding round, about $200-$250 million, in the next few months to fund the latest acquisition and also to create a pool for organic as well as inorganic growth.
The company’s valuation was over $800 million when it last raised $113 million in its Series D funding round from Prosus Ventures, Leeds Illuminate, Chan Zuckerburg Initiative, Sequoia Capital India, and Ved Capital in September last year.
