SAN FRANCISCO, July 19, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackstone
(NYSE: BX) announced today that private equity funds managed by
Blackstone ("Blackstone") have entered into a definitive agreement
to acquire a controlling stake in Simplilearn Solutions Pvt. Ltd.,
a leading online learning 'bootcamp' based in India offering digital skills training and
courses to working professionals all over the world.
Simplilearn was founded in 2010 by its Chief Executive Officer
Krishna Kumar. Profitable for the
fourth year in a row, the platform offers over 100 programs to help
early to mid-career professionals acquire new-age digital skills
across Cloud, DevOps, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence &
Machine Learning, Digital Marketing, Cyber Security and many more.
Simplilearn offers programs in partnership with top global &
Indian universities, and enterprises to enable learners to get the
best of academic and industry exposure. The company is currently
collaborating with renowned educational institutes such as Caltech
CTME, MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, UMass Amherst and the Isenberg School of
Management, Purdue Online,
Jagdish Sheth School of Management
and IIT Kanpur and companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Amazon,
Facebook and KPMG. These courses allow professionals to develop
digital skills and help businesses upskill their workforce to keep
up with the constantly changing demands driven by digitization.
More than two million professionals globally have used Simplilearn
to date.
Krishna Kumar, Founder & CEO,
Simplilearn, said: "The pandemic has only accelerated the need for
digital skills and the industry has demonstrated absolute readiness
for upskilling online. Hence, this is the most opportune time to
take the next big leap in our journey to build the world's largest
digital skilling company. We are excited to partner with
Blackstone, a globally recognized investor with a strong track
record in the ed-tech sector. We believe Blackstone can add
significant value to our company because of their scale, commitment
to building businesses, and global network, which will enable us to
develop partnerships with businesses and universities as
Simplilearn continues to expand around the world. We would also
like to thank our previous investors, Kalaari Capital, Helion
Venture Partners and Mayfield Fund for their undaunted support and
trust in our journey of becoming a market leader."
Amit Dixit, Head of Asia for Blackstone Private Equity, said:
"This is Blackstone's first private equity investment in
Asia in a consumer technology
company. Like many other sectors, technology is disrupting
education and education technology has been a high conviction theme
for Blackstone in India and
globally. Simplilearn is a differentiated player in the digital
skilling space with premium content created in partnership with
marquee university and industry partners. We are excited to partner
with Krishna Kumar and Simplilearn's
top-notch management team to accelerate growth and build the
world's pre-eminent digital learning company, and we expect this to
be the first of many such investments in Asia."
Mukesh Mehta, a Senior Managing
Director at Blackstone, said: "We have been impressed with
Simplilearn's synchronous model of pedagogy focused on delivering
superior outcomes for its learners. Simplilearn has demonstrated
strong, profitable growth and we want to turbocharge that growth
through focused investments in technology, leveraging Blackstone's
global network and expertise in education technology and bringing
to bear our relationships with global universities and
enterprises."
Blackstone brings global expertise in education technology,
including the partnership with Aakash Educational Services and
Byju's to build India's largest
digitally enabled, omnichannel education company; acquisition of
Ascend Learning, which provides technology-based educational
content and software tools for students, institutions, and
employers; and recent investments in Ellucian (a leading software
provider to universities) and Articulate (a SaaS training and
development platform for companies).
Avendus acted as the exclusive financial advisor
to Simplilearn and its shareholders on the transaction.
Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co
acted as legal advisor to Simplilearn. KPMG, EY_Parthenon, Khaitan
& Co. and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett acted as advisors to
Blackstone.
About Simplilearn
Simplilearn is the world's #1 online bootcamp for digital skills
training, focused on helping people acquire the skills they need to
thrive in the digital economy. Simplilearn provides outcome-based
online training across technologies and applications in Data
Science, AI and Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, Cyber Security,
Digital Marketing, DevOps, Project Management, and other critical
digital disciplines. Through individual courses, comprehensive
certification programs, and partnerships with world-renowned
universities, Simplilearn provides millions of professionals and
thousands of corporate training organizations with the work-ready
skills they need to excel in their careers. Based in San Francisco, CA, and Bangalore, India, Simplilearn has helped over
2,000,000 professionals and 2,000 companies across 150 countries to
get trained, acquire certifications, and reach their business and
career goals. With over 1,000 live classes each month, real-world
projects, and more, professionals learn by doing with Simplilearn.
Ongoing industry recognition for the company includes the 2020
Aegis Graham Bell Award for Innovation in EdTech, 2020 Stevie® Gold
Award for Customer Service Success, and recognition by the
prestigious Training Industry Inc. as one of the Top IT Training
Companies for 2020, 2021.
For more information, please
visit www.simplilearn.com
About Blackstone
Blackstone is one of the world's leading investment firms. We
seek to create positive economic impact and long-term value for our
investors, the companies we invest in, and the communities in which
we work. We do this by using extraordinary people and flexible
capital to help companies solve problems. Our $649 billion in assets under management include
investment vehicles focused on private equity, real estate, public
debt and equity, life sciences, growth equity, opportunistic,
non-investment grade credit, real assets and secondary funds, all
on a global basis. Further information is available at
www.blackstone.com. Follow Blackstone on Twitter @Blackstone.
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SOURCE Simplilearn Solutions Private Limited