CollegeDekho, a college admission and higher education services platform has acquired PrepBytes, a coding and placement preparation startup in an undisclosed cash-plus-equity deal.
With this deal, the company will use PrepBytes’ platform to further enhance CollegeDekho Learn, while PrepBytes will be able to capitalise on CollegeDekho’s huge reach whilst foraying into non-coding courses as well.
According to a press statement, CollegeDekho is expected to hit a 4x revenue run rate growth over its last year’s numbers and scale further to maximize its growth this year.
Post the acquisition, the PrepBytes founding team will join CollegeDekho’s senior leadership and continue to operate independently.
Co-founded by Ruchir Arora and Saurabh Jain in 2015, CollegeDekho connects prospective students with colleges using its proprietary technology and conversation bot, and offers services like profile building, test preparation, application assistance, university selection and visa assistance. The platform caters to around 50% of all college searches in India. It has facilitated over 300,000 college applications and ensured over 60,000 admissions since its inception.
Commenting on the acquisition, Co-founder and CEO of CollegeDekho, said,
“CollegeDekho is a one-stop solution for a student’s entire higher education journey, and we are always looking at avenues that help us cement that claim even further. PrepBytes adds the vocational element to our already rapidly growing Learn business. This will also mark our first foray in providing placements related services to our students.”
PrepBytes, started in 2019 by Aditya Bhushan Verma and Mamta Kumari, is a coding platform that has users from more than 1500 Tier 2 and Tier 3 colleges and it helps these users to learn coding in a personalized manner with the help of well-built courses and programs along with expert mentors to provide guidance. Its robust placement guarantee programs help the students get placed in IT/Software/Internet companies.
CollegeDekho Learn and PrepBytes cumulatively have more than 155,000 users who are using the platforms to attend more than 92,000 hours of sessions.
Speaking on the partnership with CollegeDekho, Co-founder and CEO of PrepBytes, Mamta Kumari, said,
“CollegeDekho and PrepBytes share a common vision of improving the quality of education and making students industry-ready. We see this collaboration as a match made in heaven. We are excited to take this journey ahead from here and help more and more students have a successful career through our learning segment.”
The Gurugram-based startup previously acquired GetMyUni, a Times Internet-backed education technology firm, for about INR 50 Crore in a mix of cash and equity deal.
CollegeDekho now runs multiple businesses across student enrollment, study abroad, online learning, education lending and is looking at more avenues for inorganic growth.
In September 2021, CollegeDekho announced that it had raised $26.5 million in a funding round led by Winter Capital Partners, ETS Strategic Capital, College and existing investors Man Capital and Rajeev Chaba. The company was then valued at $90 million.
