After purchasing financial education platform Education10x earlier this year, India-based edtech company BrightChamps has purchased Vietnamese startup Schola for $15 million in cash and equity. This is the latter’s second acquisition.
However, this is the first transaction BrightChamps has made using the US$100 million war chest it set up to buy foreign businesses by the conclusion of the fiscal year that ends in March 2023. The edtech company claims that it is searching for acquisition targets that will enable it to expand its user base, enter a new market, or penetrate an area more deeply.
BrightChamps was established in 2020 by Ravi Bhushan and serves the K–12 edtech market. It is presently valued at US $650 million. Its curriculum covers subjects including artificial intelligence (AI), robots, and virtual reality and provides coding workshops for kids.
By the conclusion of this fiscal year, BrightChamps wants to increase Schola’s growth rate by 500%, according to Bhushan, who spoke to Tech in Asia.
Aditya Gupta and Tran Le Thanh Nhu, who formerly worked at Accenture, Facebook, and Sea Group, founded the Vietnamese company in 2017. With offices in Singapore and Vietnam, Schola provides one-on-one and group sessions that are taught using gamified STEM disciplines to assist kids to improve their English.
The company now provides training in life skills, effective communication, confidence-building, and leadership presentation in addition to English instruction.
Despite having students in 12, Thailand and Vietnam are Schola’s two biggest markets.
The start-up, which claims to have expanded three times in the last year without any financial investment and has continued to be profitable, serves both beginning and intermediate English language learners. While educating advanced students about more complex subjects like public speaking and presenting, it also assists novices in developing their listening and speaking abilities.
Schola provides courses that are flexible so that students can earn credits at their own speed. The cost of a course might be as little as $30 for six lessons and as high as $1,600 for 240.
Despite joining the BrightChamps group following the acquisition, the company will continue to operate independently. However, it’s probable that HR, financial, and legal tasks will be simplified, and the two firms will use tech stacks to their advantage.
