Blackstone is set to acquire a controlling stake in Simplilearn Solutions, an online learning platform in India offering digital skills training and courses to working professionals.
Financial details were not disclosed.
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 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.
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.”
Blackstone brings expertise in education technology, including the partnership with Aakash Educational Services and Byju’s; acquisition of Ascend Learning, which provides technology-based educational content and software tools; and recent investments in Ellucian (a software provider to universities) and Articulate (a SaaS training and development platform for companies).
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.
