James Murdoch firm invests $600 million in India’s Allen Career Institute – TechCrunch

Bodhi Tree is taking a $600 million stake in Allen Career Institute as James Murdoch and former Disney executive Uday Shankar’s investment platform expands its bet on India’s growing edtech market, they said Sunday. The duo said their investment in the 33-year-old education brand, which operates 138 classroom centers in 46 cities in India and Middle East, is strategic in nature.

Allen, which helps prepare students looking to crack prestigious exams such as IIT JEE Mains & Advanced, NEET-UG, KVPY, and the Olympiads, said it will work with Bodhi Tree to further develop its test-prep offering and “deliver at-scale positive impact for millions of students in test-prep and K12 segments, using technology as the core driver of value.”

Allen runs one of the largest coaching institutes in India. The firm competes with Aakash, which Indian edtech giant Byju’s acquired last year for nearly $1 billion. Indian online platform Unacademy, last valued at $3.4 billion, explored acquiring Allen earlier, according to two people familiar with the matter.

“Education is a critical consumer need, driven by its deeply transformative impact on lives and livelihoods of consumers,” Murdoch and Shankar said in a joint statement.

“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. We are excited to work with the Maheshwari family to build an outcomes-focused digital education company that delivers on the aspirations of millions of learners and parents in India and beyond.”

The investment firm, unveiled in February this year, announced earlier this week that it had invested $1.78 billion in Mukesh Ambani-backed television network Viacom18.

This is a developing story. More to follow…