Blackstone invests $250 mn in edtech firm Simplilearn, gets majority stake

Indian startup company offers more than 100 programmes to help early to mid-career professionals

Private equity company Blackstone will acquire a controlling stake in education technology startup Simplilearn Solutions for $250 million.

Simplilearn was founded in 2010 by its Krishna Kumar, the company’s chief executive office. The company has earned profits for the last four years and offers more than 100 programmes to help early to mid-career professionals acquire skills in cloud computing, data science, artificial intelligence, digital Marketing, and other fields.

“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," said Kumar.

Blackstone’s investment will enable Simplilearn to develop partnerships with businesses and universities, he said.  

The company collaborates with IIT Kanpur, Caltech CTME, MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, UMass Amherst and the Isenberg School of Management, Purdue Online, Jagdish Sheth School of Management. It also works with companies such as IBM, Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook and KPMG.

“This is Blackstone’s first private equity investment in Asia in a consumer technology company. Simplilearn is a differentiated player in the digital skilling space with premium content created in partnership with marquee university and industry partners,” said Amit Dixit, head of Asia for Blackstone Private Equity.