Veranda Learning Solutions Pvt. Ltd, the edtech venture of Chennai-based Kalpathi Group, has acquired test prep institute T.I.M.E. for Rs 287 crore.
T.I.M.E., operated by Advanced Educational Activities Pvt. Ltd will be acquired in a phased manner with 80% of the outstanding capital along with management control in phase 1 followed by the purchase of the remaining 20% over next two years. Before this deal, Veranda Learning acquired Chennai Race Coaching Institute Pvt. Ltd for Rs 100 crore in December 2020.
“The acquisition of T.I.M.E. allows Veranda to expand its national footprint with an asset that has known to have sent around 50% of all students enrolled with IIMs. T.I.M.E., which has been one of the pioneers of online testing methodology in India also gets to leverage Veranda’s core-engineering skills to make it the best in a hybrid offering which will now include best-in-class products for each of its programmes,” said, Kalpathi Suresh, chairman and executive director, Veranda.
Founded in 1992, T.I.M.E. is a test-prep institute with a presence operating through 188 centres including franchises spread across 98 cities in India and is headquartered in Hyderabad. It offers training programmes for national and state-level entrance exams like CAT, MAT, IIT Foundation, JEE Mains and Advanced, state-level admission exams and international exams like GMAT, GRE, IELTS and TOEFL including campus recruitment training.
T.I.M.E. also operates Amoha Education Private limited, which offers spoken English training in both the physical classroom mode and the distance education mode. The Company also has a chain of pre-schools under the T.I.M.E. Kids brand operating through 222 pre-schools in 56 cities.
Veranda Learning was floated by The Kalpathi Group which has interests in sectors such as software services and entertainment.
Its founders, Suresh Kalpathi, Kalpathi S Aghoram and Kalpathi S Ganesh had set up SSI Ltd in the 1990s, which later acquired Aptech.
The edtech market has witnessed frenetic funding and mergers and acquisitions (M&As) activity in India since the onset of the pandemic last year.
In 2021, Byju’s, the most valued startup in India, acquired 8 edtech players including online exam preparation platform Gradeup for an undisclosed sum, higher education platform Great Learning for $600 million, kids’ digital reading platform Epic for $500 million, and test preparation provider Aakash Educational Services for $1 billion in quick succession.
Last year in November, edtech unicorn, Unacademy acquired online tuition platform Swiflearn for an undisclosed amount.
Delhi-based edtech firm Mindler acquired virtual career internship startup, Immrse in the same month. In December, Ronnie Screwvala-led upGrad Education agreed to acquire online higher education business, Talentedge Education Ventures Pvt Ltd.
Recently, upskilling startup Scaler Academy acquired online learning platform AppliedRoots for $50 million (about Rs 378 crore).
