online education | Pixr8 News

Byju’s acquires Aakash Institute for $1 billion

5Apr By AdityaNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Byju’s acquires Aakash Institute for $1 billion

As reported earlier by Pixr8 News, Edtech platform Byju's acquires India's leading engineering preparation coaching Akash Institute in a $1 billion cash and stock deal. AESL Managing Director Aakash Chaudhry said, "the transaction with Byju's is 60-65 percent cash and the remaining 35 percent are Byju's equity deal. The overall deal value is close to about USD 1 billion. This will be the largest integration in the education space in India, especially in the startup space. COVID has really opened the gates to online education significantly and going forward, we believe that all kinds of models in education will exist in K-12, test prep, and even in higher education". Blackstone Group and Aakash Educational Services Ltd (AESL) founders will hold a minority stake in Byju's, which is v...

Elon Musk Foundation donates $5 million to Khan Academy

14Jan By AnkitaNo Comments

News

Elon Musk Foundation donates $5 million to Khan Academy

World's richest person and Tesla's co-founder Elon Musk donated $5 million to the American non-profit educational organisation Khan Academy through his Musk Foundation. Khan Academy founder Sal Khan announced this news in a video posted on Twitter. Sal khan said he wants to give a huge shout and thank you to Elon Musk and everyone at the Musk foundation. "Thank you @elonmusk and @MuskFoundation for an incredible $5m donation to @khanacademy," he said. Elon Musk, along with his brother Kimbal, founded this NGO in 2002 which donates and support in several areas, including education, renewable energy research, human space exploration research, pediatric research etc. Founded in 2008, Khan Academy has 120 million registered users and 20 to 30 million students are using the platfor...

29Sep By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Lebanon Edtech platform Synkers raises $1.8M in Funding

MENA, 29TH Sept 2020: Lebanon-based Synkers, an educational technology platform that connects learners to highly qualified private teachers, has successfully raised a $1.8M Pre-Series A funding round, led by Dr. Lama and Dalia Al Sulaiman. 500 Startups, Phoenician Funds, ISME Kafalat, Mulcan Investment, Seeders, Crescent Capital, and Dubai Angel Investors also invested in the round. Synkers provide personalised and accessible education by matching every learner with the right tutor or mentor and offer a wide variety of courses, from school subjects and university courses to prep tests and professional skills. All tutors are pre-screened, background-checked, trained, and certified. The platform currently has more than 60,000 learners and 1,000 tutors and mentors. Founded by...

How to Prepare for Online classes in Covid19

24Aug By AdityaNo Comments

BLOGS

How to Prepare for Online classes in Covid19

During Covid19, Online classes have become the most popular segment and all edtech platforms in the world looking to catch this booming space. But for parents and children, it has become more important to know how to navigate an online environment. Online courses allow students to learn whenever, wherever, and however works best for them. They can also present unique challenges. Pixr8 News put together some strategies for success to help ensure students get the most value out of their online classes. Set Goals Students need to have a passion and drive for their chosen area of study. Remind yourself why you chose this field of study. Passion can help maintain discipline with deadlines. Set realistic attainable goals both long and short term. Goals should be specific and measu...

17Jul By AdityaNo Comments

FUNDING

Vedantu raises $100 mn in funding from Coatue

New Delhi, 17th July 2020: Online live tutoring platform Vedantu raises $100 million (about ₹752 crores) in funding, led by US-based investment firm Coatue. The Series D round also saw participation from existing investors as well including Tiger Global Management, Accel Partners, Omidyar Network, TAL, and WestBridge Capital. Vedantu's total fundraising has crossed USD 200 million. The latest $100 million funding round pushed Vedantu's valuation to USD 600 million. Rahul Kishore, managing director of Coatue, will also join Vedantu's board, it added. Vedantu said the latest infusion has made it the 'second most valued company in the Indian edutech space after Byju's. Indian edu-tech firm Byju's have the highest valuation of USD 10.5 billion. Vedantu has always believ...

8Jul By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

TagHive raises $10 million in funding from South Korea based Joon Hyon

New Delhi, July 8, 2020: Samsung Ventures-backed Edtech startup TagHive raises $10 million in funding from Complement Capital Managing Partner Joon Hyon. While the company did not disclose the amount of funding raised in the pre-series A round, sources said the amount ranged between Rs 3-5 crore. "Our efforts to develop the product in South Korea have paid rich dividends to us as we now cater to over 400 schools there,” Pankaj Agarwal, founder, and CEO of TagHive, said. Class Saathi, as a platform, has already been proven to be effective in India in collaboration with the governments of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, he said, adding that the startup will deploy the funds to strengthen its presence in these two states. The funds will also be used to rapidly grow the presence...

26Apr By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

Edtech startup GUVI raises $786k in Pre-series A funding

GUVI, a startup incubated by IIT Madras and CIIE.CO-IIM Ahmedabad has raised $786k in its Pre-series A round of funding from Education Catalyst Fund, an education-focused venture capital fund managed by CBA Capital. CIIE.CO is a startup incubator established by IIM Ahmedabad. An integrated ed-tech platform providing course contents in vernacular languages as well, GUVI has presence in over 1,000 engineering colleges. "We will use the capital raised in this round to scale up operations, introduce newer courses in more vernacular languages and expand our geographical presence for our blended (offline+online) learning program ''Zen class''," S.P. Balamurugan, Chief Executive Officer, GUVI, said in a statement. "During the lockdown, we are experiencing a huge surge in number of pe...

Tencent-backed Yuanfudao near to close new Fundraising at $7.5 billion Valuation

20Mar By reutersNo Comments

FUNDING

Tencent-backed Yuanfudao near to close new Fundraising at $7.5 billion Valuation

BEIJING, 20/03/2020 -- Chinese online education platform Yuanfudao, which is backed by tech giant Tencent Holdings, is close to completing a financing round that would value it at around $7.5 billion, two people familiar with the matter said. The talks make Yuanfudao, which was founded in 2012 and offers online courses and homework plans to students, a rare bright spot of activity in the deal-making world, which has largely dried up as the coronavirus pandemic has suspended most travel and business meetings. Yuanfudao’s focus on online learning puts it in one of the few sectors that have seen a surge in investor interest as the coronavirus and school closures force students in China to attend classes via the internet. The round of financing is led by Tencent Holdings and private ...

11Sep By PriyankaNo Comments

FUNDING

EdTech Startup WhiteHat Jr. Raises 10 Million Funding

MUMBAI, Sept. 11, 2019-- EdTech startup WhiteHat Jr. raises $10 million funding in Series A from existing investors Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network India. Owl Ventures, a Silicon Valley-based EdTech focused venture capital fund, also participated in this round. Founded by Karan Bajaj, WhiteHat Jr. helps kids 6 to 14 build commercial-ready games, animations, and apps online using the fundamentals of coding. The company started in November 2018, had earlier raised $1.3 Mn in seed funding from Nexus Venture Partners and Omidyar Network India. WhiteHat Jr. has developed their own original coding curriculum, which is centered on product creation, and imparts their lessons via 1:1 live, interactive online classes. The new funds will be used to strengthen their technolo...

24Apr By NitishNo Comments

FUNDING

Online Education Platform Raises 3 Crore Funding

Leading online curated learning platform Career Anna has raised Rs 3 crore funding structured financing from a group of angel investors. The Funding will be used to launch a series of online learning programs like Artificial Intelligence, Data Science, Machine Learning, Deep Learning, DevOps and other new-technology fields where demand for talent far exceeds supply. Founded in 2014, Career Anna is on the mission to empower over 500 million students and professionals across India and emerging countries, with opportunities and skills in high growth careers of their choice. The efforts aim at providing an end to end solution to the opportunities, skill and employability problem as per industry needs. With a vision to transform over 1 million lives by 2020, Career Anna has already po...

Apple Plans to Launch a Low-Cost iPad For Students & Teacher

25Mar By Lavina TolaniNo Comments

Tech

Apple Plans to Launch a Low-Cost iPad For Students & Teacher

In an attempt to gauge back its student and teacher customer base from tech giants Microsoft and Google, Apple Incorporation is planning to launch a new low cost “iPad” in its education-focused event which is scheduled to be held in Chicago in the coming week. This move is likely to shift company’s focus back to education sector just like it did earlier in 2012 with its first-ever education dedicated event. As per the reports from Bloomberg, this device would be a lower cost version of its already launched 9.7 inch iPad. Apple is also parallelly working on developing a classroom software that could enhance the use of iPads in schools. It can be noted that how smartly Apple is using its iPad strategy to regain its reputation in the education market. While, as of now Apple has always...

Unacademy Looking to Raise $30-35 Million

26Feb By AnkitaNo Comments

FUNDING

Unacademy Looking to Raise $30-35 Million

Bengaluru based online education platform Unacademy is in talk with investors to raise $30-35 million. The funding will use to expand Unacademy base in international market. In September, Unacademy had raised $11.5 Million from Sequoia and SAIF partners. The valuation of education platform is around $40-50 million and after $35 million funding the valuation will be close to b/w $110-130 million. As per the Livemint report, Out of $35 Million, half the funding will infuse by the existing investors. Unacademy, which was founded by CEO Gaurav Munjal, Roman Saini, Hemesh Singh and Sachin Gupta has over 50 employees & freelancers. Unacademy didn’t respond to an email seeking comment. Apart of Unacademy, Byjus an education based start-up for 4th-12th class attracts the venture...