Online education technology service provider Avagmah and online skill development course provider Acadgild are merging in an all-stock transaction, which values the latter at $10 million.
Avagmah and Acadgild are backed by GrowthStory, a venture building platform launched by serial entrepreneurs K Ganesh and Meena Ganesh.
Post the deal, both the entities will be merged under Aeon Learning Pvt. Ltd, the parent of Avagmah, but will continue to offer both education and skill development courses under their own brand names, a company spokesperson said.
However, the firm did not provide the valuation of Avagmah.
As part of the transaction, Vikalp Jain, co-founder of Acadgild, will join as president of AEON Learning.
“Acadgild’s leadership and strengths in delivering cutting-edge short-term IT skills complement Avagmah’s leadership in supporting universities in offering long-term courses using technology. This acquisition offers us an opportunity to shape the future of the global workforce to produce readily deployable skilled talent,” Karthik KS, founder and CEO of AEON Learning, said in a statement.
Acadgild was co-founded in 2014 by Vinod Dham, former vice president of Intel’s Pentium Processor Division along with Jain, who was formerly CTO of FlipClass.
The startup offers high-end tech skill development courses to mid-career IT professionals. It operates on a hybrid model that combines live classes and an online platform for learning. It works with various corporates offering over 35 skill development courses such as android programing, analytics, and big data.
The company had received initial investment from venture capital firm Jupiter Capital; Enki, a sister concern of Zodius Capital and K Ganesh of GrowthStory. It works with corporates like GE, Capgemini, Cognizant and Oracle.
“There are clear synergies in the business processes and target markets of both Avagmah and Acadgild and this acquisition puts us in a formidable position to address both education and reskilling needs of working professionals and will help us grow and scale faster than ever,” Jain said.
Avagmah was founded by Karthik, who had previously co-founded 24×7 Learning, an e-learning consulting, technology and implementation company.
Aeon Learning raised two rounds of funding—first from GrowthStory in 2014 and then from Infosys’ co-founder Kris Gopalakrishnan and Atul Nishar, founder of Hexaware and Aptech Computer Education and Sri Hari of Lion Rock Capital in 2016.
The company has raised a cumulative funding of $6.5 million so far and expects to reach a student base of over 100,000 in five years.
Currently, Aeon claims to reach to 22,000 students across 66 countries, with 20% business originating from the US.
