Bodhi Tree to invest Rs 4,500cr in ALLEN, build biggest Indian test-prep co

Deal likely to close in three months

After Reliance and Viacom18, Bodhi Tree Systems, a platform of James Murdoch's Lupa Systems and Uday Shankar, has announced a $600 million (over Rs 4,500 crore) investment in a strategic partnership with ALLEN Career Institute to build India's biggest test-prep company.

The transaction is expected to close within three months and is subject to closing conditions and requisite approvals.

A newly-formed platform between Lupa Systems Founder and CEO James Murdoch and Uday Shankar, the former president of The Walt Disney Company Asia Pacific and former Chairman of Star and Disney India, Bodhi Tree Systems is also backed by Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), the sovereign wealth fund of the State of Qatar, as an investor.

With a pan-India footprint and growing presence in the Middle East through 138 classrooms in 46 cities, ALLEN has become one of the names to reckon with in test-prep, with its presence in competitive college entrance examinations and Olympiads.

Now, as part of the strategic partnership with Bodhi Tree Systems, ALLEN is looking to build further on the test-prep offering and deliver at-scale positive impact for millions of students in test-prep and K12 segments, by leveraging digital technology to improve learning outcomes.

EY not only acted as the exclusive financial advisor but also provided due diligence services to Bodhi Tree. AZB & Partners were the legal advisors. On the other hand, Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas provided legal advisory and documentation support to ALLEN.

Commenting on the strategic partnership with ALLEN in a joint statement, both Murdoch and Shankar stated that the platform would look to build an outcome-focused digital education company that delivers on the aspirations of millions of learners and parents in India and beyond.

"Education is a critical consumer need, driven by its deeply transformative impact on lives and livelihoods of consumers. We believe that education is on the cusp of a technology led renaissance that will fundamentally alter how education is imparted and will increase its efficacy. ALLEN’s unrivaled success and scale provide the right foundation to build the digital education company of the future," said Murdoch and Shankar.

Founded by Rajesh Maheshwari in 1988, ALLEN has reached over 2.5 million young lives since its inception. As a test-prep brand, ALLEN has provided high-quality pedagogy to help aspirants for engineering and medical college entrance exams gain selections in prestigious exams such as IIT JEE Mains & Advanced, NEET-UG, KVPY, and the Olympiads. "Our partnership with Bodhi Tree is an essential ingredient in furthering our mission to significantly increase ALLEN’s reach and impact," said Maheshwari.

According to ALLEN's senior-most director Govind Maheshwari, the test-prep brand's strategic partnership with Bodhi Tree is founded on shared values, principles and an aligned vision of creating societal impact at scale through education globally.

The new board has seen Brajesh Maheshwari being designated as the chairman who stated that currently most of the edtech products & services in the market were not solving the needs of students. "With ALLEN’s time-tested pedagogy and Bodhi Tree’s track record in technology, the 2 T’s – ‘Teaching’ and ‘Technology’, will now come together to finally solve the problems of millions of students of outcome-driven learning in a tech-enabled environment."